snowflake challenge day 1

Snowflake challenge Day 1

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator.

I wanted to do a cute introductory paragraph here, but blanked, and so before I lose my nerve, I'm just going to start typing.

The Route to Advancement series is a set of six Merlin stories from the pov of an original character,  because they're laugh-out-loud funny. While I love the stories, that made them really hard to podfic: I had to do a lot of retakes, which was frustrating, and I had trouble holding onto the pov voice I wanted, so I actually ended up rerecording the whole thing at least twice. But I'm really quite proud of the final products (and the coverart continues to make me happy).

The Sons of Durin is a Hobbit modern AU set in Scotland, and it's another one that I just really really enjoyed making. It was a really easy story to record, I had a great deal of fun with it, and I'm very proud of how it came out :D (another one in which the coverart makes me super happy)

Your Kind Prison is a Supernatural story that haunted me for ages - I really love the story, and had a really specific idea of how I wanted the podfic to come out, so I had to do a lot of retakes (a LOT of retakes /o\) until I got it to come out the way I wanted. I'm really happy with the final result, though :D (also more happy-making coverart :DDD)

Snowflake Challenge Day 3

Day 3

In your own space, talk about your creative process - from what inspires you to what motivates you to how you manage to break through blocks. Does your process change depending on the type of creating you're doing?

In fandom I mostly contribute by making podfic, so I'll talk about that (at great length, and not very engagingly, because I've had a hell of a week. sorry)
When I'm thinking about podficcing something, I let the idea sit for a bit - anywhere from a day or so to a week or longer. Occasionally if a story is short and I'm very bored, I'll record the thing instantly, but I've found that my podfic (and most other things in my life) turn out better if I give it a bit of time to percolate. Before I worked this out I accumulated a lot of snippets that were hastily recorded in a burst of excitement, and pretty much universally I haven't liked them when I listen to them. Giving it a little time lets me calm down, think it through, decide if I really want to spend time with that story, bounce around a few ideas for characterization, and find a good time to podfic. Right now my podficcing space is a corner of an unheated storage room, and it gets quite cold at night, so ambient temperature is actually I thing I have to think about! I used to record a lot at night, but no more XD
Once I'm a little more settled down and have some time, I bundle up (some day I will take a picture of me recording - I'm usually wearing a knee-length fluffy blue coat, fuzzy boots and a hat, and huddle around my computer charger for warmth), make myself some tea (no milk, because it makes my voice weird), and venture out into the frozen wasteland that is my recording space. There I settle in, set up my mic, open audacity, and pull up the story on my phone. The mic goes on a box in front of me, the computer goes on some boxes a foot or so away with audacity already running, and I give the header a review and decide how I want to read it. A few takes later, I start recording the story. If it flows decently well, I'll record as long as my voice lets me. If it doesn't... a number of stories/authors don't click, for whatever reason, and if after five or ten minutes it's not working, I let myself get a little bit frustrated, try again, then put it aside. It's taken me awhile to see this as a mismatch of reader and story, rather than a reflection of my abilities as a podficcer, but I think I'm getting better at it. Then I go on to the next item I was thinking of recording. Since I usually entertain at least three podficcing possibilities at any given time, aside from whatever projects I'm in the middle of working on, I usually can find something to record when I'm in a recording mood :D
Once I've ascertained that my reading style meshes with the writing, I record until I've got the whole thing: I don't edit before the whole thing is recorded. Somewhere in there I ask for permission - usually before I've recorded too much, so as not to waste my time if I get a "no". I keep different takes in different files; they're named according to the title, then numbered. Re-takes get a letter too, so if I do a lot of retakes (or just redo the whole thing) when I start editing I have to go through a morass of "sons of durin1" "sons of durin1B" sons of durin 1C" and so on (note that the last has a space between the title and the number; i don't standardize this, which has led to much confusion). The take of the last piece gets an "x" at the end, so I know that I've finished recording the story (e.g. "sons of durin24Cx").
Once it's all recorded then I start editing. I use the click method (every time I flub or repeat the line, I make a clicking sound that makes a visible spike in the waveform), so sometimes I do a visual pass first, but sometimes I just start listening. I usually have to do at least two listening passes, because I miss a lot of stuff. Sometime during the second or third ones, if I want to make a cover, I'll open GIMP.


aaaaand that was an extremely long and overly detailed explanation of the process of making podfic. I didn't even get into posting. /o\