podficmeta | Entries tagged with topic: story selection

I want to know, is there anything specifically people look for when choosing fics to podfic (other than rare pairings/fandoms right now since

amplificathon is currently running :P). I mean, obviously people go for fics they like but are there elements of the writing style that will draw you in or have you backing away?

If an author wanted to write something specifically with podfic in mind, how could they go about that?

( Here are some of mine )

Huh, I was able to come up with more than I expected on my own. What do you guys think?

zvi

bjewelled has an interesting perspective on podfic.

If you don't wish to interact with the OP, feel free to discuss the entry here.

blueyeti

I keep getting the urge to create anthologies. Collect a few ficlets and such which would each be <20 minutes, and make an anthology. Preferably something which otherwise feels a little silly/indulgent, like John Sheppard/Blowjobs = OTP, with three or four fics of John giving blowjobs. Or fics which are so odd and so short that if I were downloading them I would spend more time trying to figure out where to save them than listening. But mostly I'd feel pretty ridiculous posting multiple blowjob ficlets, and a multi-author anthology seems more downloadable.

I did one anthology before, with 30 minutes of Sam Storyteller's Lord Peter Wimsey ficlets. But that's a single author, in a single fandom; it's just convenient. Would you download (or hey, create) an anthology of multiple authors with a single theme? For me, it's a (theoretical) personal preference. I rarely download anything which is under 15 minutes or so unless I already love the author, or am completely enamoured of the reader, because that way they'll have company on my ipod. Little ficlets which aren't a useful amount of time get lost and I either stumble across them too often, or never.

But I've downloaded anthologies which I've disliked. Sometimes they feel jarring, because although there was a theme from the reader's pov, there wasn't a theme for me as a listener, because I listen to the text with a different emotional or intellectual inflection than the reader does. But I've listened to The Portable Minim Calibre probably five or six times, because I get a few moments of fandoms and pairings I don't usually read, even though the progression of stories isn't really *logical* to me.

But the type of anthology I keep planning is what usually annoys me. I'm thematically linking things, but that creates/colours part of the experience. I haven't listened to Three Desperate Acts yet because it's thematically linked. I haven't felt in the mood for desperate acts, because I've been warned that is what I'm getting. (Read by Deltacephei, but not archived under that anthology name. Archived as Mercy, by Astolat; Assent, by Kylie Lee; In Decision, by Torch. But I downloaded it from the LJ post as an anthology. Weird. But it sort of implies something about how people download or don't if it's an anthology.) And, honestly, if I titled mine John Sheppard/Blowjobs = OTP it would be pretty misleading, as for all that I've been reading pwps, I'm interested in them because of the non-flippant military/DADT contexts.

zvi

Roga would like to talk about re-editing and re-writing works for podficcing.

Would readers be interested in editing works for podficcing, whether for content (e.g. sex scenes), length, adding dialogue tags, etc.? Does "permission to record" cover a blanket "permission to adapt"?

How would authors feel about re-writing stories so they are easier to be read or to be understood orally? For instance, if your alien language just isn't pronounceable by human beings, or if you've written something in an experimental, visual structure.

And, Roga didn't ask this, but I would like to know, how would we, as listeners, react to getting a story that was changed from the text? How extensive would the changes have to be for you to want a heads up before you downloaded? Would you want the changes indicated in the metadata or also during the story reading?

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.

zvi

I really, really, really love

kyizi's recording of Retrograde by Martha Wilson. She has a lovely, soft voice with a beautiful Scottish accent, but nevertheless, she does these uncannily spot on renderings of Jack O'Neill, John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, Rodney McKay, Cameron Mitchell, and a bunch of other Stargate characters. Her prosody is very gentle and calming, (this reading is one of my favorites to fall asleep to) but, at the same time, the compelling urgency of the story being told is never lost, the anxieties and conflicts and distrust and anger of all of the characters comes through crystal clear; the pacing is terrific!

There is exactly one thing that makes me sad about this reading.

It is the only podfic Kyizi has recorded to date (and for a very long, far too long time, it was the only long fic by Martha Wilson which had been recorded. [Thank you, podbang!])

So, is there any podfic which has some unique quality that makes you sad because the world would be a better place if there were more like that? Tell us about the author who needs more fic podficced. Tell us about the character who has great mannerisms which ought to be mimicked by a thousand fans but languishes with one bare recording. Tell us about other readers like kyizi, who made one fabulous reading and have gone back to less throat-shredding fannish pursuits. Explain to us the fantastic podfic experiment that, in a just world, would have become a common podfic practice.

zvi

What makes a story podficcable? What makes a story not podficcable?

Two kinds of stories that I have noticed have a high difficulty level for podficcing

1) Anything with multiple pov characters. It seems quite difficult for single readers to make the speaking choices they make for dialogue match the speaking choices they make for internal narration or close third person omniscient. And what happens as a listener is that I can sometimes lose track of who the narrator is, which is, usually, pretty important to the story in a story with multiple pov.

2) Stories with words from or derived from Earth-based non-English languages. The worst, for me, is when someone who does not know French is mangling French, but I assume that people who know Latin, Chinese, or Spanish have also been faced with a lot (a lot) of cringing. For me, it isn't so awful when the accent is terrible, but when the word is simply pronounced wrong, that gets to me. (French is really bad for this, as the pronunciation rules for French loan words in American English are not the same at all as the pronunciation rules for French.)

I have noticed that light-hearted stories leave me less demanding as a listener. (I don't know if they're actually any easier to record, maybe they're really hard because you keep cracking yourself up.) But if a story is humor, or a straightforward, light-hearted first time, or adorable kidfic, my whole approach to listening is much more accepting of mistakes or lack of nuance from a reader.

What about you? As a reader, what makes a podfic easy or more difficult for you to read? As a listener, what sorts of stories have you learned to be wary of in the mouth of a new reader?

Podfic Meta

What We Talk About When We Talk About Podfic

What makes a fic podficcable or unpodficcable?

Meta posted by an author

Anthologies: Yay or Nay?

From Roga

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

One Song Glory: That one fabulous thing you wish there were more of

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