How audiobook narrators prepare pronunciation notes
The Pronunciation Notes I Keep Beside the Script
Before I record a name, I write it twice: once as it appears on the page, and once in the roughest pronunciation guide I can make for myself.
The second version is not meant for anyone else. It might contain a stressed syllable in capitals, a long vowel marked with a line, or a reminder to keep the final consonant light. It is a small piece of private scaffolding. Without it, I can know a word intellectually and still say it inconsistently after several hours in the booth.
A name is not a speed bump Pronunciation research is often treated as a problem to solve before recording begins. In practice, it stays active during the session. A sentence can make a familiar name feel heavier, faster, more formal, or more intimate than it did in isolation.
I read the full line aloud, then the line before it. That usually tells me more than repeating the name by itself. The surrounding vowels affect the mouth. The punctuation affects the breath. A comma can make a name sound considered; a short sentence can make the same name land too sharply.
What repetition changes The difficult part is not usually the first ten attempts. It is the twenty-first, when the mouth starts trying to save effort. Vowels shorten. Endings disappear. A pronunciation that was careful at the start becomes merely familiar.
For that reason, I sometimes record a clean take, stop, and return to the names after a short reset. I listen for consistency rather than perfection. If a character says the same name in three different emotional circumstances, the pronunciation should still feel like it belongs to the same person speaking.
My notes are becoming less elaborate over time, but not less necessary. The best one may be a single mark beside a word: slow here, keep this vowel, do not swallow the ending.
That is enough to bring the sentence back into the mouth before the microphone does.