As a kid, when I wasn’t reading my favorite books into my tape recorder to make my own audiobooks, I was recording radio dramas off the air to turn them into my own stories.

Radio dramas like Adventures in Odyssey, Seeing Ear Theater, even NPR’s Star Wars.

I went after family members to record their voices. I added my own to the mix. I recorded speeches and lectures. With my portable tape recorder, the world was my soundstage. I took it everywhere, recording thunder and parades and trains passing and robins singing in the rain. I scrounged yard sales for many different machines and rigged up my own multi-track mixing and mastering desk.

And then I took all those bits and pieces, those odds and ends, and spliced together my own world: dramas complete with new story lines, music, sound effects.

I would play them at breakfast for my family and feel this exhilaration as they laughed and cheered for my stories.

Years before I could even dream of having professional studio audio equipment, I worked tirelessly to make the most exciting drama with perfect sound. I inserted my own self into those stories – literally – practicing my acting chops and storytelling abilities.

I, like you, lived on story.

What does all this have to do with narration?

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