---
title: "Finding a Conversational Voice in Video Tutorials"
date: 2008-11-14
description: "Voiceover techniques  1.1 → Finding a Conversational Voice in Video Tutorials  1.2 The Problem with Speaking Conversationally..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2008/11/14/finding-a-conversational-voice-in-video-tutorials/
---
# Finding a Conversational Voice in Video Tutorials
A few weeks ago [I tweeted about](https://twitter.com/tomjohnson/status/959448584) an interesting [voice over site](http://www.narrateit.co.uk/index-5.html), and my friend Kevin, who runs the [Short Cummings Audio podcast](http://www.shortcummingsaudio.com/), replied that a local voice-over guru in Salt Lake, Scott Shurian, gives [workshops on voice](http://voscott.com/).

I wanted to improve my voice-based video tutorials, podcasts, training, and presentations, so I thought I'd check it out. Scott is a nice guy and was willing to trade a blog install/design for the cost of the workshop (which lasts several weeks).

A voice over is a voice narration from a performer whom you can't see, who reads a script in an engaging way according to the context of the script. For example, many commercials employ voice overs from professionals.

The difference between voice-over performers and announcers, Scott says, is that voice-over performers get outside of themselves, whereas announcers merely read a script. 

To get outside of yourself, Scott said you must imagine who you are, who you're talking to, and where you are. When you can imagine this context, you read the script as a performance. It's the performance that engages listeners.

Hmmm, I thought, this no doubt applies to acting, but what about video tutorials, where I'm simply me talking to users? Scott encouraged me to imagine myself sitting in a café talking to a friend in a conversational way. He had me read a sample script imagining that I was having a natural conversation with someone I knew, in the context of a café.