Throwing a voiceover off a cliff

There is danger in going over a cliff, right?  The lump in your stomache tells you so as a genius biological warning to save you from danger.  Going over a cliff is an ABRUPT way to end life, wouldn’t you say?  It’s also an abrupt way to finish a sentence in a voiceover script.  Or any sentence in life, period.  When you throw a sentence off a cliff, it’s usually towards the end of the sentence that it happens.  Usually the last word.  This is a common practice for those new to the business and excited to be reading voiceover copy out loud.  They’re so anxious to keep going and doing more more more, that they do just that….they keep going and barely pause to let the thoughts register before moving on the next idea.  It’s not exactly coming off as a run-on sentence, but almost.  What throwing the last word off a cliff does is not only lessen the impact that the sentence had or has, but it also blurs the focus for the listener on the point of the next sentence that follows it.  You must BE inside each moment, each word of each sentence, so you sound connected to the point you are making.  If you don’t, you’re also in danger of sounding like you are just “reading”…..death to the voiceover artist right there.  This is not to be confused with needing to dot every i and cross every t as hard as you can; there’s a fine line to this craft.  There’s a line not to cross, a balance to be had.  This is referred to in this voiceover article on “throwing it away.”  The balance is am talking about here, and that was referred to in that article, are two sides of the same coin.  That side discussed the merits of not going over the top with your reads.  This one simply begs for you to not discount the importance of completing a thought and giving it weight.  There’s a way to have both of these techniques live in harmony.