These can be stressful times especially if you are trying to launch a voice over career. Creative Cow is an on-line community of media producers and Mike Cohen has written a very useful piece about managing stress.
Back in the day I did on-air for a radio station in Dallas that played really soft music and attracted large chunks of the 60 plus monied demographic. On the studio line I would take calls from women whose voices were colored and textured by decades of cigarettes and martinis.
Their voices were often lower and rougher than mine and I’m no tenor. Sunday I sounded like one of them. Yeah, the dreaded head cold.
So how does the voice actor take care of his instrument? Especially during cold and flu season? Two sources of good advice come to mind: The “Ask About Vocal Health” on the Voice-Overs.com forum. And Bettye Zollar has a series of podcasts on the subject over on Voice Over Xtra.
The doctor has me on some expensive meds and I’m already feeling much better and sounding more like myself again. No need to find a mink stole and a cigarette holder. I can even tell my hat from my glove.