I Can’t Sing - But That’s Never Stopped Me

This might come as a surprise.....
But I can’t sing.
No, really. I sound like a frog who’s just stubbed his toe and is trying to croak out a sad ballad about it.
And yet… I love to sing. I love music. I grew up with it. My grandma was an actual, real-life, honest-to-Pavarotti coloratura soprano. She hit high notes like most of us hit snooze buttons—effortlessly and often. She sang in opera houses. People clapped. She wore fabulous dresses. She was a diva in the best sense of the word.
And then there’s me.
Genetics skipped a beat. I didn’t get a drop of that vocal magic. But I did inherit the passion. So, like any slightly embarrassed, secretly hopeful person, I sang quietly in the car. In the shower. Alone in the house. Sometimes into my dog’s ears (she forgave me).
But here’s the kicker—I became a writer. And then I did the unthinkable: I started recording my own audiobooks.
Why? Because I’m either very brave or very foolish. Possibly both.
Now, recording audiobooks isn’t just reading out loud with feeling. Oh no. It’s voice acting. It's stamina. It’s figuring out what to do with your face so your nose doesn’t whistle into the mic. There’s breath control, pacing, tone... and most terrifying of all: vocal warmups.
They tell you to do tongue twisters. (Hard pass. Peter Piper can go pick something else.)
They suggest lip trills. (Okay, but I sound like a baby trying to blow bubbles in applesauce.)
They say to hum. Or sing.
Sing? Um. Excuse me, we’ve been over this. I don’t sing.
But then came a breakthrough.
I realized… no one has to listen. No one’s grading my warmups. There’s no American Idol judge in my closet. Just me, my microphone, and my Papillon giving me side-eye.
So I put on my giant DJ headphones—you know, the ones that make you look like you're about to drop a club beat—and I sang. Badly. Loudly. Joyfully. My dog left the room. I kept going.
And here’s the thing: It worked.
My voice warmed up. My narration improved. And something else happened too—I felt happy. Like, dopamine-rush, sing-like-no-one’s-listening, maybe-I-am-a-star happy.
That tiny reframe—“No one’s listening, this is just for me”—made all the difference.
Now I look forward to warmups. I have to set a timer or I’ll end up belting through the whole Hamilton soundtrack before I remember I’m supposed to be reading a murder mystery.
So here’s my question for you, friend:
What’s something you’ve been avoiding because you think you’re bad at it?
What if you reframed it—not as a test or performance—but as joy?
Because sometimes the best parts of life sound like a frog’s last aria. And that’s still worth singing.

Comments

The Absolute Madness of Naming Characters

Let’s talk about one of the most ridiculous struggles of writing a book. No, I’m not talking about the part where you stare at the blinking cursor like it personally insulted your ancestors. I’m talking about naming characters. It should be easy, right? Just slap a name on them and move on? Oh, my sweet summer child. If only. See, naming a character is like naming your kid—except worse, because nobody is going to complain if your kid and their cousin both end up being named Liam. But if your main villain is named Liam and you accidentally give the quirky coffee shop owner in book three the same name? Cue the existential crisis. Let’s walk through the madness. The Overthinking Spiral of Doom You start writing, and there’s that moment: your brand-new character walks onto the page, full of potential. All they need is a name. A simple name. Something strong, something fitting, something— Oh no. Nothing sounds right. This one is too complicated. That one is too simple. ...

DIY Audiobook. A bit of equipment, good advice and lots of patience

I want to create an Audiobook - should I? Ever since the release of book one in the "Cannabis Preacher" series of thrillers, that question has been on my mind. The "Cannabis Preacher" books were quite long. To produce an audiobook from each of the four, including voice actors and audio production with a turn key service, I was looking at around $15,000 per book. Financially, that was a non-starter for me at the time. That amount represented a LOT of books and audiobooks to sell to recover the investment, and I shelved my plan again. With the popularity of the "Magical Papillon" cozy mystery series, I found myself coming back to the growing popularity of audiobooks. I knew that audiobooks could reach a wider audience and catered to busy readers who prefer listening while multitasking. The idea of bringing my characters to life through narration excited me, as it offered a new dimension to my storytelling. The cozy mysteries were only 60-65,000...

The Battle-Scarred ThinkPad and the Mountain of Notebooks: A Love Story

Let’s talk about favorite writing tools. Now, I know some authors might name drop fancy apps, sleek white minimalist keyboards, or those delicate fountain pens with gold nibs that require ceremonial ink rituals … But me? My tools are a little less... romantic. A little more indestructible . And, dare I say, a little more clunky with character . Once upon a time—cue flashback shimmer—I wrote all my stories by hand . Not just a page or two, either. I mean boxes and boxes of handwritten notebooks , full of scribbles, side notes, doodles in the margins, entire character backstories I forgot existed until ten years later. My early stories were a workout for my wrist. I had pens running dry faster than a coffee pot in a newsroom. It was chaotic. It was glorious. Typing those books up? A mission. A translation project. A cryptic decoding effort worthy of Indiana Jones. There were arrows. Stars. Entire paragraphs stuffed sideways in the margins like they were trying to escape the story. So...

Thinkingdog Publishing

Search This Blog