f.r.e.d

It’s been a while.

Seems like i never have the energy to blog when i get home after a long day’s work. Really, when your corporate life revolves around writing, deadlines, one-story-a-day and two-story-ideas-a-week quotas, any ounce of free home time you have will be spent on anything EXCEPT writing.

LOL, ok maybe it’s just me.

The editorial folks had a voice workshop today, learning about how to pronounce tricky words and how proper breathing really is the secret to good voice/presentation.

[Coach]: There is no such thing as a bad voice…and i don’t mean singing.

Listen to the professionals. Read aloud. Record yourself if you have to.

Practice, practice, practice.

Suddenly i was transported back to five, maybe four, years ago. When i spent a regular last 10-15 minutes of my lunch break practising. Armed with some scripts printed out from channelnewsasia.com or any stories that caught my fancy, i would slip out the back door of my 10th-floor office, sit on the stairs, underline the words to emphasize, and then read aloud, over and over again.

You see, i wanted very much a career in broadcast journalism. Perhaps it was spurred by that ‘A’ in broadcast journ class (i was the news co-anchor in the final assignment!), or a particular friend always teasing me about reporting live from the front lines of war. Whatever it was, i told myself to work for it.

Talent, i didn’t quite have. I’m not someone whose command of spoken English is impeccable, i mispronounce a lot of words and quite often i stumble on my words. But there is quite a stark difference when i speak for the camera, and when i’m in casual conversations with friends.

Somewhere along the line (coupled with the lack of response to my applications), the practice dwindled, the passion withered.

Ahhh…the things you do when you’re young.

I’m cynical, i know, and i blame it on the emerging third decade.