Turn the radio on, turn the radio up -- Good stories for podficcing

[zvi]

What sort of characteristics make a story good for podficcing? Are there any specific writing techniques that make it easier to record? Or what about making it easier to listen to? Are there specific characters who, when listening to a story from their POV, make it easier to fall into the story? Are there any authors that you'd point a new reader toward because they're really achievable?

I'd love to hear about either specific techniques or, if you can't isolate the techniques but do have excellent examples, please trot those out.

Comments

[paraka]

I find that every fic I read these days I analyze to see how it would podfic.

In general, you have to keep an eye out for some of the special things author's have been putting into their fics. For example, Drastically Redefining Protocol, the reading of this fic was awesome, however the author had a lot of articles imbedded into the story, and quite a few at the end (I found that the podfic was missing an important part of the story since the reader didn't read all of them).

Such stories are a challenge to try to read. There are also quite a few fics with emails imbedded into them, which can make it awkward to read.

Also, something to consider is how similar the author's writing style is to your own. I'm doing a podfic right now (for help_haiti) where the word patterns are just so different from my own style that I find myself messing up every other sentence.

[zvi]

So, when you say, "Eureka! That's one to read later!" is it mostly because it sounds like something you wrote, or is there something else that makes it particularly good to read?

[paraka]

Hmm, for me, whether I do a podfic of it or not is mostly going to be based on how much I like the story.

I don't actually write much fic (or, you know, any at all), I said writing style above just because I mean more than speech patterns. What I really meant, is that there are some fics that I can read without any problem, however when I try to read them aloud it's super hard because I naturally want to put the words in a different order than the author put them. And maybe I do that in my head when I read the fic, however that doesn't work when you're doing a podfic, you can't just go and change everything so I'm left doing a lot of editing and rereading.

This type of thing doesn't really come into play for me during the first stage of picking a fic to podfic. As I said, the first stage is mostly if I like it or not. It's not something I likely even consciously notice when I'm reading, it's more once I try to read it aloud and find myself making more mistakes than usual. It's one of the reasons that I tend to finish a podfic before I ask an author for permission because it sucks to ask an author, get their hopes up and then discover that I can't do the fic justice in my podfic.

[luzula]

I find that every fic I read these days I analyze to see how it would podfic.

I find myself doing that sometimes, too! I do find it hard to analyze what makes a fic work for me to podfic, though. First, I have to like it. But that's not enough--there's fic that I love, but wouldn't be able to podfic well. I think it has to do with whether I'm able to identify with the characters. If I don't understand the character well, or if I'm intimidated by trying to read them, then I'll find it difficult.

I don't think it has to do with how similar the writing is to my own--I've recorded fic that's very different from mine, without it being difficult.

[paraka]

I find myself doing that sometimes, too! I do find it hard to analyze what makes a fic work for me to podfic, though.
For me, lately, I look for fics that I can do something different with. For podbang, I did was part of group slashpad where there were 3 of us reading a single fic. I keep my eyes out for other fics that would work well with multiple voices, since I know I can rope friends into helping me.

I'm also curious about trying out some of the special effects available. I'm one of those people that enjoys music in podfic, but have never tried to add any to my own. Sometimes I look at fics that would probably be hard to podfic and think of ways to make it understandable to the listener. the fic that I did with slashpad was done in multiple POVs and we had readers take on specific POVs rather than splitting the reading up more equally. This made it a lot easier for the listeners, since they knew exactly whose POV the story was being told from by who was reading at the time.

I don't think it has to do with how similar the writing is to my own--I've recorded fic that's very different from mine, without it being difficult.
Maybe that's something unique to me then. When I read, I tend to skim a lot. I read the main words but skip a lot of the smaller connecting words and my brain just fills those in on it's own (sometimes it fills them in wrong and things don't make sense and I get confused but for the most part it works for me). I try to pay closer attention when I'm podficing but sometimes I'll get on a role, get into the flow of things and I'll start translating the main words into my own style, making it quite different from what is actually written.

It doesn't throw me out too much to fix things if it's something close to my own style, but some writers are just really far away from my own style and I'm constantly being thrown out of the flow because that's just not the order my brain processes things in.

Does that make sense?

[luzula]

Does that make sense?

Yes, it does! I don't think it happens for me (I read fairly slowly, maybe that's why). But I think I get what you mean.

[lunate8]

Sometimes I look at fics that would probably be hard to podfic and think of ways to make it understandable to the listener.

I like doing that, too -- that's part of what drew me to podfic a story with people communicating in Morse code.

...sometimes I'll get on a role, get into the flow of things and I'll start translating the main words into my own style, making it quite different from what is actually written.

Once when I was editing a podfic, I was surprised at the handful of times I'd unconsciously substituted a word that had the same starting sound and meant almost the same thing (or at least still made sense) for one that the author had used. Like my brain was set on "find alliterative synonyms".

[aethel]

>podfic a story with people communicating in Morse code.

And the solution for making it understandable was GENIUS!

[zvi]

What was the fic? What was the solution?

[aethel]

Connection. The solution was to use text-reading software (??) on the Morse code bits, but if I remember correctly, each character had a different voice for their Morse coding style that illustrated their relative skill.

[sothcweden]

It was Connection by mad_maudlin. Her solution was so elegant that I recced it during Amplirecathon. I think she used text-to-speech software. The audiofic archive page is here

[lunate8]

Just confirming aethel's and sothcweden's answers. The text-to-speech was done using the "Speech" feature in TextEdit (Mac OS 10.5). The voices were included on my Mac, and I used "Fred" for Sheppard, "Bruce" sped up about 20% for McKay, "Alex" for Zelenka, and "Vicki" for Keller.

[lunate8]

Aw, thanks!

[paraka]

Yeah, I keep wanting to do something that can stand out. I adore podfics, I really do but when it came time to rec things for amplirecathon I was drawing a blank. There were a lot that I loved, but it was so wrapped up in the story that it felt odd to rec them. As I mentioned above the last podfic I posted had 3 readers and we switched off POVs and this seemed to work really well for people. I want to find more stories where I can approach them differently and see what happens. It may not work out, but it's fun trying :)

Once when I was editing a podfic, I was surprised at the handful of times I'd unconsciously substituted a word that had the same starting sound and meant almost the same thing (or at least still made sense) for one that the author had used. Like my brain was set on "find alliterative synonyms".
I think it's less of your brain saying "Find alliterative synonyms" as that's just what brains do.

Have you ever seen that email forward talking about a study that was done that discovered that so long as the first letter and last letter of a word were in the correct spot the rest of the letters can be all mixed up and people can still understand it. I was about halfway through the email before I noticed that through out the explanation they had, in fact, been moving all the internal letters so everything was spelled incorrectly.

One of my friends noticed on the second word that it was incorrectly spelled. My brain just processes things without my having to concentrate on them very much and I know it's not uncommon. When you read, you get what's going on, you have an idea where things are going so you are able to skim past the words in front of you without reading them completely. Which is where the alliterative synonyms come in :)

[lunate8]

I want to find more stories where I can approach them differently and see what happens. It may not work out, but it's fun trying :)

Agreed -- if you ever need an extra voice, let me know. :)

I've seen that e-mail forward, and I do know that I have a tendency to skim text. I think I've also read the factoid that people read out loud at about a quarter of the speed that they read silently. I guess I figured I'd always catch myself if I said the almost-but-not-quite word, since I was reading "slower".

[darkemeralds]

I love the challenge of non-linear narratives and embedded documents and stuff--at least, I love it conceptually, though I've never tried recording one. In fact, I disqualified one candidate for Podbang on that very basis.

But I want to mention an example from pro audiobooks that's been useful to my thinking: Simon Prebble's reading of the amazing Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

That novel tells a good one-quarter of its vast, subtextual story by means of footnotes, some of them digressions of considerable length. The reader does this simple, wonderful thing: he pauses at the point where the footnote is noted in the text, changes his voice to a very slightly more "scholarly" tone, and says, in deliberate, clear tones, "Footnote one." Then he gives the entire footnote.

At the end of the footnote, he pauses slightly, changes back to his narrative voice, and resumes reading, picking up in midsentence, etc.

It was extremely effective, and, I think, underscores the idea that sometimes quite a simple solution is available for what looks like a complicated podfic challenge.

(Sorry--I know my example isn't from podfic per se. Hope that's all right. If not, I will delete.)

[zvi]

I think an example from audiobooks is great! We have a lot to learn from other aural storytelling techniques.

[cofax7]

This is pretty much what Stephen Biggs does while reading Pratchett, as well. He notes the footnote, reads it, and then gives a short pause to mark the transition back to the rest of the narrative. It's quite impressive. And you know how many footnotes Pratchett uses.

(Good to hear about the audiobook for Jonathan Strange; I've been considering getting that from Audible.)

[darkemeralds]

If you like fantasy and the Regency period and wonderfully literary fiction, then I can't recommend it highly enough. There are reasons why it makes the lists of best novels of the Aughts, and the audiobook, which has also won awards, is absolutely superb. I've listened to all 48 hours of it three times.