Part 1 of I missed pod-aware :(

[lunchy_munchy]

I completely and totally missed the actual pod_aware event, and this made me really down when I realised, becasue I am endlessly amazed at depth of insightful meta that podfic generates. I am not nearly as articulate as revolutionaryjo or podklb, in fact I am pretty much terrible at stringing two words together when I have to come up with them myself, but I still thought that I

Comments

[paraka]

Your comments on repodding make me happy. :D I'm so happy the multipodicity helped you with those experiences too. ♥

I have a lot of thoughts on you Author/Podficcer Relationship podcast.

First of all, I get what you mean about being uncomfortable/intimidated around authors. Outside of fandom, the people who create things to entertain us are celebrities. Society raises these people up and it's hard to imagine just hanging out with them. So it's emotionally logical, if not realistically logical, that we treat the authors and other creators in fandom like celebrities. These are the people that create our entertainment! They're talented and awesome and cool and it feels pretty awkward to just start talking to them and expecting them to like us!

Sure the reality of these situations are completely different, but emotionally sometimes showing someone a podfic I made of their fic feels a bit like sending Adam Lambert (or celebrity of your choice) a cover I did of one of his songs or something.

As for working with the author... I know we danced around some of your points when we were doing the official pod_aware podcast for that day (a lot of it got edited out because we wanted the podcast to be positive). Everyone on that podcast had taken part in pod_together and had had fun. But even having had a positive experience collaborating with an author, the podficcers on the panel were still pretty wary about the idea. I think it came down to that power balances. Like, once you invite the author in, you're handing over some of the power over your creation, and what if there's a bad dynamic? Or it doesn't work? We talked a lot (I don't remember how much of it made the final cut though) about carefully setting up boundaries and making it clear where the author's power ends and the podficcer's begins. But that can be hard to enforce if someone pushes those boundaries and the other isn't very good at pushing back.

When I did pod_together my author ended up dropping out and then I did a pinch hit for a podficcer who dropped out and just podded like normal due to the time crunch. So I've never really gotten a collaborative experience. I'm hoping one day to have a good one but listening to you talk about your experience I worry a bit about it. I think if I were in a similar situation as you described, I'd probably have your same reactions. And it is hard to have people try to influence your art. I know how I work best, what my strengths and weaknesses are and having someone come in without that knowledge and trying to push me in weird directions is scary. But I think I still want to try it because I think that can also be a good way to push your boundaries and try new things. I don't know, I think it's a balance and something you should be careful about and maybe only do with someone you trust.

Anyway, it was lots of fun listening to your thoughts!

[lunchy_munchy]

multipodicity taught me that it was okay to re-do things, and the sheer amount of participants was so heartening, as were the discussions that the repods generated between the two readers. Thank you so much for a well executed idea!

Regarding your thoughts on being around authors/celebrities, absolutely. People you look up to are so hard to approach. It also has to do with the reason for which you have to approach them - not only do I look up to them, I also have to ask them to do me a favour! Anyway, the whole process is a lot easier for me if they know I'm doing it out of love...

I'm not surprised you guys covered some of the same territory, and also think it was better that you guys were all positive - it's a podcast that has to jump start more discussion after all! I don't wish others to have my experience, yet at the same time if you don't experience it you won't know exactly how much you're willing to take. It's the burden of knowledge! And yes, I think doing it with someone you trust removes a lot of reservations you would normally have with an author who you don't know and only idolise. It all winds down to communicating better, I think.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I'm glad you enjoyed listening :)