Writers and Voice Actors Are Dance Partners
It started with a LinkedIn post.
My colleague Brandon Violette — animation screenwriter behind CoComelon Lane on Netflix, Pupstruction and RoboGobo at Disney Television Animation, Dew Drop Diaries at DreamWorks, and host of The Story Series Podcast — shared something deceptively simple.
A graphic. Two words. One arrow.
STRUCTURE → FEELING
His point? The most important word in storytelling is feeling. And what produces that feeling — good or bad — is structure.
He was talking about screenwriting. About the Hero's Journey. About the craft of building stories that WORK.
But I'm a voice actor and coach... and I read it and went:
"YES. EXACTLY. THAT."
The Equation Doesn't Stop at the Page
Here's the thing about STRUCTURE → FEELING.
It doesn't live only in the writer's room. It doesn't stay on the page once the script is printed and handed to a voice actor.
It TRAVELS.
The writer builds the structure. The voice actor's job is to feel what that structure was designed to produce... and then let THAT feeling breathe through every line.
That's not interpretation. That's not "adding something." That's LISTENING. That's craft.
And that's exactly what I mean when I tell my students: "Voice acting is NOT about your voice."
Your voice is the instrument. But the MUSIC is the story. And you can't play music you haven't heard yet.
We're Dance Partners
Here's the image I keep coming back to.
Writers and voice actors are dance partners.
The writer leads. They set the tempo, the structure, the emotional arc. They've done the hard work of building something that, if it's working, produces a FEELING.
The voice actor follows. We step into that structure, we feel its shape, we let it move through us. We find the rhythm the writer built and we inhabit it.
But then...
Something happens.
The voice actor finds something the writer didn't know was there. A pause in a place that opens up something unexpected. An emphasis that reframes the whole line. A moment of vulnerability — or joy, or menace, or wonder — that makes the writer go:
"Wait. YES. That's what I meant. I didn't know that's what I meant... but that's EXACTLY what I meant."
And now it's the writer's turn to follow.
Back and forth. In tandem. A seemingly effortless dance where nobody's quite sure who's leading anymore.
THAT'S the magic.
THAT'S what great collaboration between a writer and a voice actor looks like.
What This Means in the Booth
I teach this to every student I coach.
When you pick up a script, your FIRST job isn't to perform it. Your first job is to UNDERSTAND it.
What is this story doing? What feeling is it built to produce? What structural choices has this writer made... and WHY?
Because once you understand the structure — once you feel the architecture of it — the performance almost takes care of itself.
You're not pushing. You're not manufacturing emotion. You're not "acting."
You're DANCING.
You're letting the structure lead you to the feeling... and then you're delivering that feeling with everything you've got.
That's the difference between a voice actor who books and one who wonders why they don't.
One is performing AT the script.
The other is dancing WITH it.
Go Find Brandon
If you're not already following Brandon Violette, fix that immediately.
His podcast — The Story Series — is "for writers who break the rules," and it is exactly that. He interviews writers, showrunners, filmmakers, authors, and creators about story structure, character development, pitching, and the creative mindset.
Sound familiar? It should.
Because everything Brandon teaches writers... applies to us too.
Structure. Feeling. Story. Craft.
We're in different lanes, Brandon and I. But we are absolutely dancing to the same music.
Find The Story Series Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You won't regret it.
Ready to Start Dancing?
If you're a voice actor who wants to stop performing AT scripts and start dancing WITH them... that's exactly what we work on in coaching.
Script analysis. Story structure. Finding the feeling the writer built and letting it move through you.
It's not about your voice. It was never about your voice.
It's about the dance.
Let's get you where you're trying to go.
Nate Begle is a voice actor, audio producer, voice director, and coach with 25+ years of industry experience. His credits include national campaigns for Taco Bell, Verizon, Xbox, and Mazda; animation work with Disney, Nickelodeon, Sesame Street, and The Jim Henson Company; 30+ audiobooks; and MST3K Season 13. He coaches voice actors at every level through Begle Booth Studios. Life in Every Line. Stories that Stick.
