Day 4: Snowflake Challenge, Creative Processes
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?
Oooohhh this is an interesting topic. I'm going to be talking about the different kinds of fannish things I've created.
First, rec lists. I take reccing very seriously, and before I started podficcing and writing, it was my main way of contributing to fandom. I was a pretty prolific reccer at het_reccers for a while, before podficcing got me sidetracked from it (I've recently gotten back into it). I've made recs just because I felt like it, or in response to specific pairing requests on the comm, or in response to community challenges. Generally, I subscribe to the "more is better" school of reccing. If someone asks me for recs, I will give them FIFTEEN recs. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but generally as much as possible. Over the years, I've created 5 rec-list manifestos ( Darcy Lewis/Steve Rogers ship manifesto, Darcy Lewis/Bruce Banner ship manifesto, Tina Cohen-Chang/Mike Chang ship manifesto, Keladry of Mindelan character manifesto, and Rule 63 Hockey RPF fandom manifesto), not to mention several multipairing rec posts, and some rec posts over at tumblr, scattered in my recs tag. I think the most I've ever recced in one post is something like 24 stories?
There's A LOT of effort that goes into making these rec posts, whether or not they're manifestos. First there's finding stories, which usually means trawling through the requisite AO3 tag, or in the case of rarepairs or small fandoms, scouring several archives for enough recs. (For my Keladry of Mindelan manifesto, I went through 5 different web archives to find all my recs.) And then the process sort of plateaus for a while because I get caught up in re-reading--which is necessary because I usually need to remind myself of what happened in the story and the things I enjoyed about it so that I can include that information in my write up (and also b/c it's hard to resist re-reading your favorite stories). Then I usually consider the best ways to group and order my recs so that there's some organization and cohesion while you're reading it. For the Kel manifesto I organized it by pairings, but for a rec post I made about Natasha Romanoff/Steve Rogers, I grouped my recs into epic-length stories, PWPs/smutty fics, and miscellaneous recs. For the manifestos, you have to write a blurb about why you enjoy a pairing/character/fandom, and that takes time to think about and then put into words. And of course, you have to write a little bit about every single story you rec in order to sell your reader on why they should read this story. Phew! I usually start off with really in-depth explanations on why I love a story and think you should read it, and then it starts getting really obvious as you go down the list that I'm getting tired and words are beginning to fail me, because my blurbs get smaller and smaller, lololol. So yeah! It's a lot more effort than you'd expect.
For writing, I...don't really have much of a creative process...? Usually I get inspired by some sort of prompt, whether it's something I saw on tumblr, a video I saw, an ask box prompt, someone else's fic universe, etc. And then if I'm lucky, I manage to bang something out while I'm inspired. But I have so many WIPs that I started writing or started outlining, and then they've just sort of...languished in my Google docs folder. Sometimes I manage to get back to them after I've been inspired again and finish them, but not always. Uuuuusually they get done if it's a gift for someone.
For podfic, what usually inspires me to record something usually depends on how much I enjoy the story. If it's got excellent character voices and if it's funny, it's usually a safe bet that I'll want to record it. Humor is my wheelhouse--I want to have fun while podficcing something. And if a story was especially moving to me, that's another factor that may motivate me to want to podfic something. I've also specifically searched for and recorded stories to fill out prompts for
trope_bingo. Oh! And I've also messaged my author friends to be like, "B/c I love you and/or I see you are currently having an awful time of it right now, I'm going to make you a podfic, okay?" And because they're my friends and they love me, they're always like, "Yes, do the thing!"
I don't usually look for blanket permission/transformative work policies. I just got used to getting in contact with authors to ask for permission to podfic that it's just sort of instinct to do that first. There's been a couple of times I've asked for permission and then had the author reply, "Yes, absolutely! I have a blanket permission statement on my profile," and I'm like, "....oh, I did not think to check." I've never had anyone turn down my requests, although there've been a few instances where authors didn't get back to me for like months (there's one who hasn't gotten back to me in over a year, and she hasn't updated her tumblr at all, and I'm honestly worried about whether she's still even alive...?) And if an author does have blanket permission, I usually end up mentioning in my feedback to them that I'm planning on podficcing their story, just so they know.
With the very first podfic I ever recorded, which was Culture and Other Balls of Twine, I'd read that story over and over for months before recording it. But most of the time, I just mentally read a story through 3-4 times and go right into recording. I've learned to break recordings up into several files because that makes editing a little easier, but I just keep reading, and I'll read a line over and over again if necessary until I'm satisfied with the way I've said it and/or I've finally managed to make my uncooperative mouth form the words correctly. Other podficcers do a lot of prep work with like, color coded scripts and annotations and stuff, but I just don't have the patience for that haha.
Editing is the worsssssst. Because I do so many retakes, a lot of the times, like more than half of my raw recording gets cut out in the editing process. I've currently got 4 big projects languishing in WIP purgatory because the thought of editing all that footage is so daunting. But yea, there's all the stitching together of usable footage, recording retakes if I can't salvage anything from the original recording, noise removal, amplification, and then editing for pacing. I'm a little anal about the amount of silence I leave between section breaks (~5 seconds).
Sometimes I add in music and sound effects if the story calls for it, and then I convert it into an mp3, upload the file, and start coding cross posting entries for AO3, tumblr, and LJ. I have no graphics making ability so unless I'm doing a collab with someone who's artistically minded, I don't bother with making a podfic cover. Although reena_jenkins occasionally drops into my comments and leaves me cover art after the fact, which I love her for. ♥
And that's about it!
Oooohhh this is an interesting topic. I'm going to be talking about the different kinds of fannish things I've created.
First, rec lists. I take reccing very seriously, and before I started podficcing and writing, it was my main way of contributing to fandom. I was a pretty prolific reccer at het_reccers for a while, before podficcing got me sidetracked from it (I've recently gotten back into it). I've made recs just because I felt like it, or in response to specific pairing requests on the comm, or in response to community challenges. Generally, I subscribe to the "more is better" school of reccing. If someone asks me for recs, I will give them FIFTEEN recs. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but generally as much as possible. Over the years, I've created 5 rec-list manifestos ( Darcy Lewis/Steve Rogers ship manifesto, Darcy Lewis/Bruce Banner ship manifesto, Tina Cohen-Chang/Mike Chang ship manifesto, Keladry of Mindelan character manifesto, and Rule 63 Hockey RPF fandom manifesto), not to mention several multipairing rec posts, and some rec posts over at tumblr, scattered in my recs tag. I think the most I've ever recced in one post is something like 24 stories?
There's A LOT of effort that goes into making these rec posts, whether or not they're manifestos. First there's finding stories, which usually means trawling through the requisite AO3 tag, or in the case of rarepairs or small fandoms, scouring several archives for enough recs. (For my Keladry of Mindelan manifesto, I went through 5 different web archives to find all my recs.) And then the process sort of plateaus for a while because I get caught up in re-reading--which is necessary because I usually need to remind myself of what happened in the story and the things I enjoyed about it so that I can include that information in my write up (and also b/c it's hard to resist re-reading your favorite stories). Then I usually consider the best ways to group and order my recs so that there's some organization and cohesion while you're reading it. For the Kel manifesto I organized it by pairings, but for a rec post I made about Natasha Romanoff/Steve Rogers, I grouped my recs into epic-length stories, PWPs/smutty fics, and miscellaneous recs. For the manifestos, you have to write a blurb about why you enjoy a pairing/character/fandom, and that takes time to think about and then put into words. And of course, you have to write a little bit about every single story you rec in order to sell your reader on why they should read this story. Phew! I usually start off with really in-depth explanations on why I love a story and think you should read it, and then it starts getting really obvious as you go down the list that I'm getting tired and words are beginning to fail me, because my blurbs get smaller and smaller, lololol. So yeah! It's a lot more effort than you'd expect.
For writing, I...don't really have much of a creative process...? Usually I get inspired by some sort of prompt, whether it's something I saw on tumblr, a video I saw, an ask box prompt, someone else's fic universe, etc. And then if I'm lucky, I manage to bang something out while I'm inspired. But I have so many WIPs that I started writing or started outlining, and then they've just sort of...languished in my Google docs folder. Sometimes I manage to get back to them after I've been inspired again and finish them, but not always. Uuuuusually they get done if it's a gift for someone.
For podfic, what usually inspires me to record something usually depends on how much I enjoy the story. If it's got excellent character voices and if it's funny, it's usually a safe bet that I'll want to record it. Humor is my wheelhouse--I want to have fun while podficcing something. And if a story was especially moving to me, that's another factor that may motivate me to want to podfic something. I've also specifically searched for and recorded stories to fill out prompts for
trope_bingo. Oh! And I've also messaged my author friends to be like, "B/c I love you and/or I see you are currently having an awful time of it right now, I'm going to make you a podfic, okay?" And because they're my friends and they love me, they're always like, "Yes, do the thing!"
I don't usually look for blanket permission/transformative work policies. I just got used to getting in contact with authors to ask for permission to podfic that it's just sort of instinct to do that first. There's been a couple of times I've asked for permission and then had the author reply, "Yes, absolutely! I have a blanket permission statement on my profile," and I'm like, "....oh, I did not think to check." I've never had anyone turn down my requests, although there've been a few instances where authors didn't get back to me for like months (there's one who hasn't gotten back to me in over a year, and she hasn't updated her tumblr at all, and I'm honestly worried about whether she's still even alive...?) And if an author does have blanket permission, I usually end up mentioning in my feedback to them that I'm planning on podficcing their story, just so they know.
With the very first podfic I ever recorded, which was Culture and Other Balls of Twine, I'd read that story over and over for months before recording it. But most of the time, I just mentally read a story through 3-4 times and go right into recording. I've learned to break recordings up into several files because that makes editing a little easier, but I just keep reading, and I'll read a line over and over again if necessary until I'm satisfied with the way I've said it and/or I've finally managed to make my uncooperative mouth form the words correctly. Other podficcers do a lot of prep work with like, color coded scripts and annotations and stuff, but I just don't have the patience for that haha.
Editing is the worsssssst. Because I do so many retakes, a lot of the times, like more than half of my raw recording gets cut out in the editing process. I've currently got 4 big projects languishing in WIP purgatory because the thought of editing all that footage is so daunting. But yea, there's all the stitching together of usable footage, recording retakes if I can't salvage anything from the original recording, noise removal, amplification, and then editing for pacing. I'm a little anal about the amount of silence I leave between section breaks (~5 seconds).
Sometimes I add in music and sound effects if the story calls for it, and then I convert it into an mp3, upload the file, and start coding cross posting entries for AO3, tumblr, and LJ. I have no graphics making ability so unless I'm doing a collab with someone who's artistically minded, I don't bother with making a podfic cover. Although reena_jenkins occasionally drops into my comments and leaves me cover art after the fact, which I love her for. ♥
And that's about it!