On podfic as a legitimate form of fanwork
There's this idea floating around that podfic doesn't qualify as "real" fanwork. This idea is wrong. I could hem and haw and sugarcoat it and say that everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I don't feel like it, and that's not really in my personality, anyway. If you think podfic is nothing but copying someone else's fanwork into another format, you're wrong.
Just so you know where I'm coming from, I'm not a podficcer. I've recorded podfics, but I'm not great at it and I don't think of myself as a podficcer, I think of myself as a writer. I've been in various and sundry fandoms since the late 90s, and my fannish participation has been about 99% as a writer. Also, I love fandom. I love fanfic and I love fanart and I love mixes and I love vids. I love picspams and meta and I love how there's room in fandom for everyone. I love how my talent doesn't have to be your talent, love the community we've created, love that there are people who are better at what I do than I am and people who are great at things I can't do to save my life. Basically, I'm the one in Mean Girls who just wishes she could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy.
I'm also a little cranky right now because there's some wank happening that I think is ridiculous. I haven't gotten involved in it since I don't do drama, but I think the gist of it is that some people think podfic, even the best podfic done by the most talented people, shouldn't count. This is wrong.
But podficcers don't create their characters and worlds the way a fanfic writer does! I mean, fic writers spent hours creating the magic of Hogwarts and the personality of Sherlock Holmes and backstory of William the Bloody!
Oh, wait, no, they didn't. We don't, guys. When we write fanfic, we're playing in somebody else's pond. Somebody else created the idea of Hogwarts. Somebody else decided that Billy Idol stole Spike's signature look from him. Somebody else gave Sherlock the desperate need to always have a case to work on. We didn't do any of that, and there are some very compelling arguments that because we're working with ideas and settings and characters that we didn't create ourselves, fanfiction itself isn't a legitimate form of creative work. I won't go into those arguments right now, but rest assured that they are also wrong.
But writing takes hours! And it takes talent! Anybody with a microphone can record a podfic without having to do any work!
Okay, sure. And anyone with internet access and a keyboard can write a really shitty seven paragraph story and post it on Tumblr. What's your point? We're not talking about lazy people who put out shitty fanwork right now. There's shitty fanwork of all kinds out there. There's shitty podfic and shitty fanart and thousands upon thousands of really shitty fanfics.
Let's ignore the bottom of the barrel right now, okay? Let's talk about average and above-average writers and podficcers. How long does it take someone to write a story? How much work do they put into it? That depends on so much, and I can only speak for myself. Sometimes writing a story takes years and sometimes I can knock out twenty thousand words in three days. Sometimes every word is like pulling teeth and sometimes I think, "Holy shit, that story just wrote itself!"
How long does it take to record a podfic? How much work does the podficcer put into it? That also varies. I'm a mediocre podficcer. I think it's fun and I love the format, but I'm not great at it. And I can tell you that for me, for every hour of finished podfic, I put about two hours of work into it. And I'm lazy! I edit as I go and don't really concern myself with sound levels or the occasional mispronunciation and I don't bother sending it out for beta. People who are good at it? They record multiple takes and spend hours and hours editing the best parts together so well that when you listen, it sounds like they just sat down and started talking. When they're good, you have no idea that they recorded the first five minutes sitting in their living room three days ago and the second five minutes in their bedroom two months ago. Really great podfic seems effortless, which leads people to assume that it is effortless. It's not.
But there's no true artistry involved!
Are you high? Just like a great fanfic writer can take someone else's characters and create something breathtaking and amazing with them, a great podficcer can take a story someone else wrote and make it even better, just by the way they read it. Their inflections and pacing can create something startlingly new, can make you look at a story or a scene in a completely different way than you did when you read it. I know this because I've listened to podfics of stories I've written and been struck dumb more than once by how the podficcer took a line or a scene I wasn't completely crazy about and turned it into something I really loved. I'll say that again. There have been times when podficcers have made me think differently about the stories I'd written, when they have brought themselves and their voices and their own interpretations to something I created and made it better. I think that's pretty fucking artistic.
But I don't like podfic and I don't want anybody making podfic of my stories!
Okay. Nobody's going to force you to listen to it and nobody's going to force you to give permission for people to record it. That's something podficcers do that we fanfic writers don't, by the way. They ask permission before they create something based off someone else's work. Could you imagine if we had to do that?
But Sarah, you're a bitch!
I prefer to think of myself as forthright, but bitch works, too.
This entry was originally posted at http://janesays.dreamwidth.org/20052.html. Comment wherever you'd like.
Just so you know where I'm coming from, I'm not a podficcer. I've recorded podfics, but I'm not great at it and I don't think of myself as a podficcer, I think of myself as a writer. I've been in various and sundry fandoms since the late 90s, and my fannish participation has been about 99% as a writer. Also, I love fandom. I love fanfic and I love fanart and I love mixes and I love vids. I love picspams and meta and I love how there's room in fandom for everyone. I love how my talent doesn't have to be your talent, love the community we've created, love that there are people who are better at what I do than I am and people who are great at things I can't do to save my life. Basically, I'm the one in Mean Girls who just wishes she could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy.
I'm also a little cranky right now because there's some wank happening that I think is ridiculous. I haven't gotten involved in it since I don't do drama, but I think the gist of it is that some people think podfic, even the best podfic done by the most talented people, shouldn't count. This is wrong.
But podficcers don't create their characters and worlds the way a fanfic writer does! I mean, fic writers spent hours creating the magic of Hogwarts and the personality of Sherlock Holmes and backstory of William the Bloody!
Oh, wait, no, they didn't. We don't, guys. When we write fanfic, we're playing in somebody else's pond. Somebody else created the idea of Hogwarts. Somebody else decided that Billy Idol stole Spike's signature look from him. Somebody else gave Sherlock the desperate need to always have a case to work on. We didn't do any of that, and there are some very compelling arguments that because we're working with ideas and settings and characters that we didn't create ourselves, fanfiction itself isn't a legitimate form of creative work. I won't go into those arguments right now, but rest assured that they are also wrong.
But writing takes hours! And it takes talent! Anybody with a microphone can record a podfic without having to do any work!
Okay, sure. And anyone with internet access and a keyboard can write a really shitty seven paragraph story and post it on Tumblr. What's your point? We're not talking about lazy people who put out shitty fanwork right now. There's shitty fanwork of all kinds out there. There's shitty podfic and shitty fanart and thousands upon thousands of really shitty fanfics.
Let's ignore the bottom of the barrel right now, okay? Let's talk about average and above-average writers and podficcers. How long does it take someone to write a story? How much work do they put into it? That depends on so much, and I can only speak for myself. Sometimes writing a story takes years and sometimes I can knock out twenty thousand words in three days. Sometimes every word is like pulling teeth and sometimes I think, "Holy shit, that story just wrote itself!"
How long does it take to record a podfic? How much work does the podficcer put into it? That also varies. I'm a mediocre podficcer. I think it's fun and I love the format, but I'm not great at it. And I can tell you that for me, for every hour of finished podfic, I put about two hours of work into it. And I'm lazy! I edit as I go and don't really concern myself with sound levels or the occasional mispronunciation and I don't bother sending it out for beta. People who are good at it? They record multiple takes and spend hours and hours editing the best parts together so well that when you listen, it sounds like they just sat down and started talking. When they're good, you have no idea that they recorded the first five minutes sitting in their living room three days ago and the second five minutes in their bedroom two months ago. Really great podfic seems effortless, which leads people to assume that it is effortless. It's not.
But there's no true artistry involved!
Are you high? Just like a great fanfic writer can take someone else's characters and create something breathtaking and amazing with them, a great podficcer can take a story someone else wrote and make it even better, just by the way they read it. Their inflections and pacing can create something startlingly new, can make you look at a story or a scene in a completely different way than you did when you read it. I know this because I've listened to podfics of stories I've written and been struck dumb more than once by how the podficcer took a line or a scene I wasn't completely crazy about and turned it into something I really loved. I'll say that again. There have been times when podficcers have made me think differently about the stories I'd written, when they have brought themselves and their voices and their own interpretations to something I created and made it better. I think that's pretty fucking artistic.
But I don't like podfic and I don't want anybody making podfic of my stories!
Okay. Nobody's going to force you to listen to it and nobody's going to force you to give permission for people to record it. That's something podficcers do that we fanfic writers don't, by the way. They ask permission before they create something based off someone else's work. Could you imagine if we had to do that?
But Sarah, you're a bitch!
I prefer to think of myself as forthright, but bitch works, too.
This entry was originally posted at http://janesays.dreamwidth.org/20052.html. Comment wherever you'd like.