Hello all! I have recently released the very first episode of my podcast, Antonyms. Antonyms is about ghosts and people and cities and how all those things interact. It is my very first long-term creative writing project, and definitely the first bit of my own writing I have released to the public.
A big reason I decided to take this idea I had and actually make it is because I really like the idea of improving my writing skills, but I am also very talented at procrastinating. Commiting to a weekly schedule, and getting people who are not myself and who I can let down involved, basically forces me to write consistently.
Because of this idea of growth and improvement, I want to share some things I leaned while making this episode. I intend to do this for every episode. In fact, I will most likely be releasing a director's cut of each episode on the Patreon, if that interests you. So without further ado, what I've learned:
1. Writing long episodes is really hard.
When setting out to write this podcast, I was aiming for 20 minutes for each episode. This is actually a LOT more writing than I anticipated, hence the much more modest 8-minute run time of this first episode. I figured out my problem while listening to Malevolent, and I realize that they just do so much stuff. I was writing less "episodes" and more "scenes from episodes".
2. Editing is really hard.
Somewhere, hidden deep in the storage of my laptop, a fully-edited-by-me version of episode 1 waits to be unearthed in the distant future by creatures nothing like us. But as long as I am alive, it will never see the light of day because it is AWFUL. It is really hard to find café ambiance audio that doesn't have every single patron from this random café in England start sreaming for absolutely no reason. It is really hard to perfectly blend the rain and the vocals, so you can notice the rain, but not think there's a monsoon happening two feet from the microphone. And most of all, it's really hard to manage my time. If I had edited this podcast, I would have had three days to write, one day to record and do all business work, and three days to edit. I promise you, the podcast would be flaming shit if I had done this. Nico is a gift from the heavens, and I am convinced they are a magical creature.
3. People are cool, actually?
The thing I was MOST scared about with this podcast was finding people who would be willing to be in it. It has actually been one of the easiest parts for me. I'm surprised not only by the amount of people who said yes when I asked them, but even more by the amount of people who volunteered to be a part of this. Especially because I can't pay anyone right now (check out our patreon to help pay people). And everyone has been absolutely LOVELY to work with. It was so much fun to record with Lucas and Nora, they are both absolutely wonderful people. And Nico literally saved the podcast by being willing to edit, even though they barely knew me beforehand, and they always blows me away with their skill and creativity. Not only has everyone begrudgingly done the work I ask of them, everyone has gone above and beyond and done extra work. Nico does most of the promotion, and they know how to run a patreon way better than me, and Lucas and Nora did a pretty involved school project with me about the podcast. I am so grateful and amazed at how wonderful the people I chose to work with are.
That's all I have to say for now. Check out the podcast if you're interested, I will be back next week!
