Static Whisper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
static_whisper) wrote2022-05-13 05:00 pm
static_whisper) wrote2022-05-13 05:00 pm
Entry tags:
Voiceteam 2022: Walkthrough
For Voiceteam 2022 Round 2 - Walkthrough Challenge: Create some kind of documentation of your podfic process. This might include photos, screenshots, text, video, a podcast interview, etc. You might include your recording setup and equipment, what steps you go through and why, and any tips or advice you have learned. You might also talk about how your process has changed over time and why!
Disclaimer: This absolutely is not intended to be a 'here is what everyone must do' guide, and I cannot guarantee that it will be of much help to anyone new to podfic. (The Podfic: A Resource Index website is helpful to check for getting started, in my opinion.) When I first opened up Audacity to mess around with practice editing, I read the long-term nuclear waste warning message off its Wikipedia page, and I tried to find 'set it and forget it' settings.
Step 1: Find a fanwork.
I don't record tumblr reblog chains or tweet threads, and I don't really go looking around on sites other than Archive Of Our Own (AO3). As a writer, I had already made the migration to AO3 before I looked into podficcing, and I find it easier to search for fic across multiple fandoms on this site. For some challenges like Out Of The Auditary, I specifically go looking for meta, nonfiction, and other works, but overall, I mostly browse AO3 for fanfic.
There's this whole thing with having permission from the author to podfic their work, which will affect what fanwork I choose. Depending on the fandom, some people are really good at tagging "Podfic Welcome" on their works, and some authors use that method instead of issuing a blanket yes to all podfic. There are also some fests that maintain lists of works from priors years of the fest that authors have agreed can be podficced. Some fandoms do not have a large list of authors with blanket permission to podfic (or BP), so it's inevitable that I have to leave a comment at some point and ask for permission, especially if I'm browsing specific tags or relationships for a challenge or fest. I came up with scripts that I can personalize as necessary for anonymous creators and requests for a fest. (Now, you might not be able to tell at this step that I use the 'Inspired By' function when posting to AO3, but personally, I find it annoying when an author tells me that I only have permission to podfic if I do something that I already do. So, that is prominently included in the script.)
For an anonymous creator:
For an event specific request:
[Note: Some people may not like the "no response equals go ahead" part. From one comment to another, I've rephrased that to 'no response meaning not going ahead' as well. Sometimes it depends on how long ago the fic was posted, if the author still seems to respond to comments, if they have any means of reaching out to them listed in their profile at all, and how far into the future I've set the deadline for a response compared to how long it would take me to record the podfic. I used to pick anywhere from four to eight weeks, depending on what other events I needed to focus on, so I've been lucky in that - so far - I've never had someone get beyond the deadline before responding.]
Some people want to stick with BP authors, and it can depend on what type of fandom event I'm trying to find a fic for as to how successful that goal is. For example, the turn around on recording and posting podfic during Voiceteam is fast enough that I tend to stick to BP authors. I use the Tampermonkey browser extension [in Firefox] to run the Blanket Permission Highlighter script, which turns usernames of BP authors green (instead of the usual red) and adds a check mark box to the search function in order to only show those usernames in search results. The filtering happens page by page of the search results, so sometimes, I just directly check out the Fandom Permission Statements List site, search for a fandom, and go down the list of authors to check their individual listings. (It's not really a separate resource, since the highlighting script pulls from the FPS List, but I find it to be faster for some fandoms with a lot of results and very few BP authors.)
A minor heads up for people who have to look at the profiles of authors in order to look for a transformative works statement: You will probably run into a lot of profiles without one. In some fandoms, you may run into a lot of entirely blank profiles. I have only once run into a creed about how the author didn't think podfic was a "real" transformative fanwork, thought that podficcing a work was "stealing" the real fannish content (that is, fanfiction), and they would never allow permission to podfic. That's not a majority opinion across all fandoms, but clearly, I can't guarantee that you will not find people that like at some point. If you use a workskin to filter out the usernames of creators that you want to avoid, you may want to filter out any such users that you run into.
Step 1-and-a-half. Decide on whether to read the fanwork ahead of time or cold read.
I have had variable success and personal enjoyment out of cold reading. Sometimes, I decide in chapter five of a multi-chapter work that I want to podfic this story, so I cold read the last bit. When I first started podficcing a WIP fic, I was essentially cold reading later chapters and future updates. For last year's Podfic Bingo, I specifically kept a fic from a BP author that I didn't even open in another tab bookmarked for the 'Cold Read A Fic' square. The degree to which a randomly selected podficcer might enjoy this may depend on the fandom, the tags, if the author throws a plot twist, if triggering content is likely based on the trope/ship/fandom, the length of the fic, and/or how the podficcer handles finding words they don't know how to pronounce during recording.
[Note: I often search for fanworks at night when it's not ideal to record, so it makes sense to do this next step after I find a fic - probably still at night - but before recording the next day. Sometimes, I search during the day and do this step after recording but before editing. If I pick a fanfic that's short enough (like, 100 words or close to a drabble), I might do this while the audio files are being uploaded to a site that hosts audio. I'm more likely to do this AO3 draft prep before recording for unfamiliar fandoms, long oneshots, any fic that I've read where I know I need to do pronunciation research, multi-chapter works, and certain fest works where I'm working ahead of time.]
Step 2. Prepare the Google Doc with the AO3 draft information.
As someone who started out in fannish spaces as a writer, I'm used to having a template Google Doc that I copy and then I fill in the copied document's lines for title, archive warning, and all that other stuff that AO3 asks for when posting. Since there's a whole bunch of lines that are the same between fiction and podfic posting, I used a combination of my pre-existing template and Shmaylor's Podfic Posting Guide to create my podfic specific template. (My process of filling in my template involves having every Rating, Archive Warning, and Category listed out, so I can delete what isn't needed for the specific draft. I trust that anyone reading this will appreciate not going point by point when so much of that section copies from the fic's information.) This is the podfic specific section:
Additional Tags: Podfic, Podfic Length: [Choose from options], Audio Format: [Choose from options]
Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, 10-20 Minutes, 20-30 Minutes, 30-45 Minutes, 45-60 Minutes, 1-1.5 Hours, 1.5-2 Hours, 2-2.5 Hours, 2.5-3 Hours, 3-3.5 Hours, 3.5-4 Hours, 4-4.5 Hours, 4.5-5 Hours, 5-6 Hours, 6-7 Hours, 7-10 Hours, 10-15 Hours, 15-20 Hours, Over 20 Hours.
Audio Format: MP3, Streaming (might also tag "Embedded Audio"), M4A, M4B (might also tag "Audio Book"). Optional: Multiple Versions Available, Download Available. [Truthfully, I only use "Audio Format: MP3" and "Audio Format: Streaming" these days. I've fallen away from creating M4B files, but I might create them again in the future.]
Tags not to use:
Work Title: [Podfic] Original Title
Summary: <p>[Author]’s original summary: [Copy]. [This has a wide amount of variation on a fic-by-fic basis. In the case of altering the author's summary or needing to create my own, I may remove "original" from that line, or I put the new summary and list the author below it. On my longest podfic where the range in the tag was quite large, I also put the exact time below the summary. I have also indicated that I've podficced the work for a particular fest in the very last line of the summary before.]</p>
Author/Top Notes: <p>Original word count: #### words. [I indicate this for people who have their own sense of 'how long will this take me' based on word count.]</p><p>For those who listen to podfic without earbuds or headphones: There are # instances of swearing - list. [If Archive Warning or Rating indicates explicit content, I’ll probably skip that due to it being unlikely the listener will listen without headphones or earbuds. Depending on the fic, I also might put a "Heads up" line for potential squicks, triggers, or 'you just might want a clue first' content. In other fics, I have instead indicated that I've podficced the work for a particular fest or event in the last line of the top notes instead of in the summary.]</p>
End Notes: <a href="LINK" rel="nofollow">Text</a> [I never remember how to HTML a link off the top of my head, so I keep this as a placeholder. Sometimes, I point to links that the author included (especially in meta), or I've included a transcript of an intro I did for a 6+ hour podfic with spoiled warnings for torture scenes and such.]
Comment on original fic: A link to the podfic: <a href="LINK" rel="nofollow">[Podfic] Title</a>. [I used to do this as a backup for notifying an author, but I've fallen away from that as of now. As far as I know, if I preview the draft while using the 'Inspired By' function, it should send out the notification email to the author without me needing to do anything else.]
Associations: Post to Collection/Challenge: [Example: Pioneer_Podfic].
→ Check “This is a podfic” box. Copy and paste link to original fic: LINK.
The work text section is where my template has a lot of options, since I need to account for the extremely rare cover art image being included, have a oneshot option, and a section for formatting multi-chapter works. I went through several how-to posts, I've watched people customize workskins in the Podfichat Discord server, and I just don't care to fiddle around with all that. (I do not make my own cover art. Currently, I have only included it once when someone already had it with their fic. I am the last person to ask if you want to know anything about that.)
For oneshots:
<h5>Streaming</h5>
<p>Time: 00:00:00.</p>
<p>{On archive.org, you can find the exact code to copy+paste in this space to provide a streaming button if you go to the page for the file, click “Share this item”, and use the top box of code. Use 500 (width) and 50 (height).}</p>
<h5>Download</h5>
{Upload the 96 kbps MP3 file with the WAV file. Right-click on VBR MP3 to get the direct URL on archive.org. Copy+paste that into the following tag.}
<p>Archive.org: <a href="VRB MP3_LINK" rel="nofollow">Right click for MP3</a>, or choose another file on <a href="PAGE LINK" rel="nofollow">the main page</a>. File size: [Fill in] KB/MB/GB.</p>
<h5>Backup</h5>
{Only host on GDrive for 1) fests, challenges, etc., or 2) files longer than 20 minutes in length (until it’s necessary to delete). Right-click on the file >> Share >> “Anyone with the link can view”.}
<p>Stream or download from <a href="LINK" rel="nofollow">Google Drive</a>. File size: [Fill in] KB/MB/GB.</p>
Updates that I don't actually reflect in my template: Knock on wood, but I stopped doing the extra steps for hosting backup files on Google Drive ages ago. Copying the code for streaming while in the Firefox browser gets "30" as the height, so I manually use that if copying in Chrome. I can't remember when I changed the compression rate, but these days, I mostly compress the WAV files to 64 kbps instead of 96. [See the exporting notes.]
For multi-chapter works:
{Upload individual chapters to Archive.org as separate listings (WAV files and MP3 files). Only have the MP3 files on GDrive long enough to create an M4B file via Windows laptop. Create an ‘Entire Work’ file and listing on Archive.org; upload the M4B file there. For a Series: Upload each Part as its own work (no ‘Entire Series’ file). Create a series on my end in order to link all of the Parts together.}
<h4>Entire Work</h4>
<h5>Streaming: Entire Work</h5>
<p>Time: 00:00:00.</p>
<p>{On archive.org, you can find the exact code to copy+paste in this space to provide a streaming button if you go to the page for the file, click “Share this item”, and use the top box of code.}</p>
<h5>Download: Entire Work</h5>
{Right-click on VBR MP3 to get the direct URL on archive.org. Copy+paste that into the following tag.}
<p>MP3: <a href="VRB MP3_LINK" rel="nofollow">Right click for MP3</a>, or choose another file on <a href="PAGE LINK" rel="nofollow">the Archive.org page</a>. File size: [Fill in] MB/GB.</p>
<p>M4B: <a href="Archive.org_M4B_LINK" rel="nofollow">Right click for M4B</a> from Archive.org. File size: [Fill in] MB/GB.</p>
<h4>Chapter by Chapter</h4>
<h5>Streaming: Chapter #. Title</h5>
<p>Time: 00:00:00.</p>
<p>{On archive.org, you can find the exact code to copy+paste in this space to provide a streaming button if you go to the page for the file, click “Share this item”, and use the top box of code. Use 500 (width) and 50 (height).}</p>
<h5>Download: Chapter #. Title</h5>
{Upload the 96 kbps MP3 file with the WAV file. Right-click on VBR MP3 to get the direct URL on archive.org. Copy+paste that into the following tag.}
<p>Archive.org: <a href="VRB MP3_LINK" rel="nofollow">Right click for MP3</a>, or choose another file on <a href="PAGE LINK" rel="nofollow">the main page</a>. File size: [Fill in] MB.</p>
This is a lot to look at all in one place, but the good thing about drafting is that it's mostly deleting sections I don't need for the particular fic. Unless I'm doing a cold read and don't fill in tags or top notes until after editing, I can get most of it done ahead of time, which means I only need the links from Archive.org before I have exactly what I need to copy and paste into the text box while posting to AO3.
Optional: Step 2-and-a-half. Reformatting the text for ease of recording.
Depending on if I'm doing a cold read or if the fic even needs this, I may skip this step. Pronunciation research is also included here. As an example, one fic focused on a character doing ballet moves in his studio apartment, and I knew I would not remember how to pronounce multiple French words and phrases during the recording. I have a fic that has a few memes that I need to write image descriptions for. If I'm doing a cold read, I may need to stop recording and consult DuckDuckGo, especially if it turns out that the word is getting used a lot once it's introduced.
Step 3. Get everything set up in order to record.
Not to be too glib, but I just get the laptop out with Audacity on it, lay on my bed, pull up the text on another laptop, and start reading.
For reasons that I do not know, my 'newer' laptop with Windows 10 on it does not talk nicely to Audacity, so I use it to read the text and - once upon a time - create M4B files via AudioBookConverter. My retired laptop with Linux on it is perfectly happy to talk to Audacity, so it's retirement is holding audio files right now. I talk into the laptop's built-in microphone; I don't have a literal microphone to set up, I don't have a pop filter, and I don't really record with any attempt at soundproofing (such as reading under a blanket).
[New readers: I have acquired subglottic stenosis due to being intubated in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). Due to everything being so small and close together at that age, I have a certain amount of damage to my vocal cords and a resulting permanent hoarseness and/or raspiness to my voice. Leaving at least one fan on in my bedroom while recording will "clean" up my voice in the final podfic, so pretty much no one hears my actual voice. A nice side effect of this is that I am rarely uncomfortable while recording in the summer.
Maybe it's just me being self-conscious, but I feel like I always disclaimer this tidbit about myself because the standard beginner advice is - sort of - the opposite of this. Most people are advised to turn off fans and anything that they can turn off to reduce background noise.]
Step 4. Record.
I allow for three to four seconds of background noise, in order to remove that later in editing. Then I talk.
[A small aside for The Great Thanksgiving Household Sickness of 2021: I was unlucky enough to lose my voice for almost a week, and I definitely didn't have a great voice for well into December, which if you know what my unedited voice sounds like, is not an auspicious sign. I could not comfortably record anything until December was almost over, and ever since, I have not been able to record for nearly as long as I used to.
As long as I split each individual recording session into 30 to 40 minute chunks, I used to be able to plan on an hour of total recording time in one day that was comfortable, and if I needed it, I could maybe add in up to an extra hour every other day. So, definitely one but occasionally two possible hours of recording in one day. However, when I went to record for Letters From Along A Wandering Wind, I had more than one moment where I was struggling to read one letter in one session, and that was pretty much it for the day.
Putting that into perspective in terms of word count: My slowest words per minute (WPM) is 120 WPM, and my fastest is 150 WPM. This means that I would roughly estimate between 7,200 words and 9,000 words in one hour, and I could probably count on finishing anything 9K and below in one day. Instead of taking one or maybe two days to read the excerpt of all of those letters, I had to read one letter in a recording session, rest vocally while editing that letter, and then continue on like that for the short ones. I was too close to the deadline that I was submitting the excerpt for to really allow myself to stretch out the multiple days I needed to read comfortably, but in hindsight, I probably should have stopped at around 1K each day.
In terms of planning out how long it will take me to record something, going from 7K to 1K in one day is a bit of an adjustment. This clearly isn't an impossible transition, and I can't guarantee that I'll stay around 1K being comfortable every day for the foreseeable future. *silently ignoring the After Camlann Big Bang deadline for writers submitting artist summaries, which is coming up*]
Step 4. Editing with Audacity.
How did I pick Audacity? I used it for a few assignments in uni, and our Sound Design instructor heavily recommended it because we were 1. broke college students, and 2. overwhelmingly, not pursuing Sound Design as our area of focus. We never touched the Spectrogram mode or settings (there's, like, pink vertical stuff happening in that one), so I don't edit in that mode. I edit in Waveform mode, or the blue on grey stuff.
The process of editing looks like:
1. Select the entire track - Normalizaton. (I set [-3.00 dB] way back when.)
2. Noise Reduction with the first three to four seconds of background noise. (I'm pretty sure I set 12 dB and 6 sensitivity based on "How To Podfic: A Highly Biased and Incomplete Tutorial" and haven't touched the settings again.)
2-and-a-half. Depending on the time of year, I do a second pass using the new first three or four seconds. (In the winter, I only have one fan on, so I usually only need one pass with Noise Reduction. If I do two passes with the original clip of background noise, my voice can sound metallic and wonky.)
2-and-three-quarters. It's highly variable on the recording in question, but I might need to select the entire track and Amplify it. If the suggested amount is higher than 2, I try adjusting the Gain a tick line or two first. That can sometimes make it easier to Amplify specific phrases that are still too quiet later. (I have not always needed to do this, but it's been happening more since The Great Thanksgiving Household Sickness of 2021. I may need to readjust my angle and distance for speaking into the laptop's microphone.)
3. I listen to the audio file as is. This can be variably painful if I'm having a bad vocal dysphoria day, but if I do too much additional editing before listening, I find that it's harder to match any re-recordings of phrases. If I'm editing late at night, I make notes about where to re-record the next day, but if I'm editing during alright recording time, I'll pause and immediately re-record. I cut out most breaths, since my subglottic stenosis means that I can have some very loud, wheezy breathing. I cut out any retakes done while recording, and I usually cut down my pauses - around breathing, while scrolling, around retakes, in between everything if I've had to pause a lot in order to breathe a little extra for vocal support.
[How much silence for pauses and such? While I'm quite certain that there's a general rule for this, I mostly guess based on whether it seems too long or too squished together while I'm listening to it. I cut down to the title starting at about one second in. I usually take most pauses down to no more than half a second max - unless something specific is happening with dialogue. New paragraphs usually get half a second. A scene break where someone's put tildes or something will usually get around one and a half to two seconds. I usually aim for that when cutting down the silence between the last word and "End of Work". The silence at the end varies from one file to another, but it's usually no more than half a second max. When combining individual chapters into the "Entire Work" file, I leave one and a half to two seconds of silence between "End of Chapter Whatever" and "Chapter Such-and-such".]
The final product at the end of number three is my raw audio, and I am back to exporting a WAV file to the 'Delete Later' folder with "Title by Author (Raw)" as the name. So far, I have only once needed to use the raw file in order to fix a mistake in editing, but I'm willing to take the extra step again after needing to use it (and being lucky that I had saved that particular raw file). This step allows me to fill in my metadata before I export any of the final product files. I probably don't fill in enough metadata from one podfic to another, to be honest, but I definitely try to do "[Title] by [Author]" as the Track Title and my username as the Artist Name, at least.
4. I select the entire track, and then I run Equalization, specifically the Bass Boost setting at the automatic preset levels.
5. According to my editing tag, I used to run a Low Pass Filter, but I stopped doing that for Voiceteam 2022. Ever since The Great Thanksgiving Household Sickness of 2021, it seems like this step is a bit off and might need a little tweaking to figure out a new setting, if I try to even add it back in.
6. Finally, I use Change Pitch. Over time, I've used different amounts, but I had settled on [-0.50] in the top field for entering a change when I also ran a Low Pass Filter for most of 2021. I have yet to readjust this setting. (According to my past notes, I started out at [-2.00], but I also did not do any Equalization, Low Pass Filter, or anything other than Amplify at that point.)
Step 5. Exporting the files.
I export as a WAV file, and then I export as an MP3 file. One of the definite 'set it and forget it' bits is selecting "Constant Bit Rate", checking "Forced export to mono", and usually the compression rate. If I remember correctly, Archive.org will automatically compress WAV files to 128 kbps if you don't upload an MP3 file at the same time as the WAV, but most people do not want to deal with the resulting size of the MP3 files once you start recording anything with length to it. I think I set 96 kbps when I was working on a podfic with music and sound effects and just left it there - hence it being included in my template - until I needed to deal with my nearly 7 hour podfic.
I saved a note in my initial [private] Podfic Resources doc, but I didn't date it or explain why I was saving the note. I can only presume that this is why I readjusted to 64 kbps and have left it there:
Step 6. Upload the audio files to a site that hosts audio.
There's more than one option that works with AO3's audio tag (see this tutorial), but I went with Archive.org. For me and my internet, this step can take forever with WAV files, so I prioritize uploading the MP3 first. Honestly, I mostly still bother with a WAV file because I initially let Archive.org compress it into an MP3 for me, and I just built it up as a habit. I only skip it for "Entire Work" files, but I could probably get away with skipping it more, if I wanted to cut down on time uploading files to Archive.org.
Assuming that I have my draft ready, I copy and paste the links needed for the template. (Depending on how far ahead I've uploaded compared to when I can start submitting entries to a fest, I may need to wait a few hours to a few days before I can post to AO3.)
[Why did I go with Archive.org? Honestly, I was in the midst of creating several new accounts just to podfic, and I did not want to make an account somewhere to host audio where I would quickly run out of free space and need to make another account relatively soon. I didn't know how quickly I might go through Google Drive's free storage, I didn't already have an account with one of the other options, and when I got started with podficcing in February 2021, the Audio Archive was not accepting new podfic. There was also a nice posting guide that was already linked for Archive.org, so I didn't feel like I was stumbling around with figuring out the new site.]
Step 7. Post to AO3.
If I've been nice to future me, I have already gotten the draft done before this step [if you remember Step 2]. It's a simple matter of going line by line, copy and pasting, on down while I go between the tab with the Google Doc and the tab with AO3 open. If I got the links from Archive.org in the template already, I can just copy and paste the whole section for the text section over. I hit preview so the notification for a 'Inspired By' work will get sent out, and then I post. (If someone has a specific note about needing to comment in their profile or that they don't trust the email notification to be sent, I'll still comment, but I slowly stopped doing in the summer or fall of 2021 when it seemed like a redundant step.)
~ Continue "It’s Saturday; Remind Me I’m Alive".
~ I don’t have any works pre-selected for Voiceteam.
Voiceteam 2022
~ Round 1 (Amnesty): Anthology Challenge → Aro and/or Ace Characters: A Scorpion In Molt.
~ Round 2: TBD.
Due August 2022
~ 6th: ACBB → [Will claim work on 4 June.]
~ 15th: HD Drizzle Fest → [Redacted "Title" by Author] - 1,253 words (~10 min, 30 sec).
~ 30th: Kill Your Darlings → TBD.
In contrast, the Discord server that ACBB shares with another Merlin fest has a channel to voluntarily share one's work, and I figured that no one would remember a podficcer had signed for ACBB as an artist if I didn't put something in that channel at least once. (The artist sign-ups opened in January and close the 23rd of May; that seemed like a long time to expect most of the writers to remember that a podficcer would be in their midst.)
Disclaimer: This absolutely is not intended to be a 'here is what everyone must do' guide, and I cannot guarantee that it will be of much help to anyone new to podfic. (The Podfic: A Resource Index website is helpful to check for getting started, in my opinion.) When I first opened up Audacity to mess around with practice editing, I read the long-term nuclear waste warning message off its Wikipedia page, and I tried to find 'set it and forget it' settings.
Step 1: Find a fanwork.
I don't record tumblr reblog chains or tweet threads, and I don't really go looking around on sites other than Archive Of Our Own (AO3). As a writer, I had already made the migration to AO3 before I looked into podficcing, and I find it easier to search for fic across multiple fandoms on this site. For some challenges like Out Of The Auditary, I specifically go looking for meta, nonfiction, and other works, but overall, I mostly browse AO3 for fanfic.
There's this whole thing with having permission from the author to podfic their work, which will affect what fanwork I choose. Depending on the fandom, some people are really good at tagging "Podfic Welcome" on their works, and some authors use that method instead of issuing a blanket yes to all podfic. There are also some fests that maintain lists of works from priors years of the fest that authors have agreed can be podficced. Some fandoms do not have a large list of authors with blanket permission to podfic (or BP), so it's inevitable that I have to leave a comment at some point and ask for permission, especially if I'm browsing specific tags or relationships for a challenge or fest. I came up with scripts that I can personalize as necessary for anonymous creators and requests for a fest. (Now, you might not be able to tell at this step that I use the 'Inspired By' function when posting to AO3, but personally, I find it annoying when an author tells me that I only have permission to podfic if I do something that I already do. So, that is prominently included in the script.)
For an anonymous creator:
<p>Hello, Anonymous Creator. I would like to create a podfic of this work. I use the 'inspired by' box to link the original work to the podfic, and I start my podfics with "[Title] by [username] . . . Read by . . ." to make it clear that it is not my own work being read.</p><p>If you do not want me to make a podfic of this work, please reply to this comment within the next # weeks. If you’re alright with a podfic being made, I’d still appreciate a reply, but I will treat a non-response by [## Month 2022] as permission to go ahead.</p>
For an event specific request:
<p>Hello. I would like to create a podfic of this work for a fest / for <a href="LINK" rel="nofollow">[Fest Name]</a>. (Depending on the fest rules: According to fest rules, I’m not supposed to publicly say what work I’m doing. If you would like to know the name of the fest and get a link to basic info about it, you can reach me via email (listed in bio).)</p><p>I use the 'inspired by' box to link the original work to the podfic, and I start my podfics with "[Title] by [username] . . . Read by . . ." to make it clear that it is not my own work being read.</p><p>If you do not want me to make a podfic of this work, please reply to this comment within the next # weeks. I will treat a non-response by [## Month 2022] as having permission to go ahead.</p>
[Note: Some people may not like the "no response equals go ahead" part. From one comment to another, I've rephrased that to 'no response meaning not going ahead' as well. Sometimes it depends on how long ago the fic was posted, if the author still seems to respond to comments, if they have any means of reaching out to them listed in their profile at all, and how far into the future I've set the deadline for a response compared to how long it would take me to record the podfic. I used to pick anywhere from four to eight weeks, depending on what other events I needed to focus on, so I've been lucky in that - so far - I've never had someone get beyond the deadline before responding.]
Some people want to stick with BP authors, and it can depend on what type of fandom event I'm trying to find a fic for as to how successful that goal is. For example, the turn around on recording and posting podfic during Voiceteam is fast enough that I tend to stick to BP authors. I use the Tampermonkey browser extension [in Firefox] to run the Blanket Permission Highlighter script, which turns usernames of BP authors green (instead of the usual red) and adds a check mark box to the search function in order to only show those usernames in search results. The filtering happens page by page of the search results, so sometimes, I just directly check out the Fandom Permission Statements List site, search for a fandom, and go down the list of authors to check their individual listings. (It's not really a separate resource, since the highlighting script pulls from the FPS List, but I find it to be faster for some fandoms with a lot of results and very few BP authors.)
A minor heads up for people who have to look at the profiles of authors in order to look for a transformative works statement: You will probably run into a lot of profiles without one. In some fandoms, you may run into a lot of entirely blank profiles. I have only once run into a creed about how the author didn't think podfic was a "real" transformative fanwork, thought that podficcing a work was "stealing" the real fannish content (that is, fanfiction), and they would never allow permission to podfic. That's not a majority opinion across all fandoms, but clearly, I can't guarantee that you will not find people that like at some point. If you use a workskin to filter out the usernames of creators that you want to avoid, you may want to filter out any such users that you run into.
Step 1-and-a-half. Decide on whether to read the fanwork ahead of time or cold read.
I have had variable success and personal enjoyment out of cold reading. Sometimes, I decide in chapter five of a multi-chapter work that I want to podfic this story, so I cold read the last bit. When I first started podficcing a WIP fic, I was essentially cold reading later chapters and future updates. For last year's Podfic Bingo, I specifically kept a fic from a BP author that I didn't even open in another tab bookmarked for the 'Cold Read A Fic' square. The degree to which a randomly selected podficcer might enjoy this may depend on the fandom, the tags, if the author throws a plot twist, if triggering content is likely based on the trope/ship/fandom, the length of the fic, and/or how the podficcer handles finding words they don't know how to pronounce during recording.
[Note: I often search for fanworks at night when it's not ideal to record, so it makes sense to do this next step after I find a fic - probably still at night - but before recording the next day. Sometimes, I search during the day and do this step after recording but before editing. If I pick a fanfic that's short enough (like, 100 words or close to a drabble), I might do this while the audio files are being uploaded to a site that hosts audio. I'm more likely to do this AO3 draft prep before recording for unfamiliar fandoms, long oneshots, any fic that I've read where I know I need to do pronunciation research, multi-chapter works, and certain fest works where I'm working ahead of time.]
Step 2. Prepare the Google Doc with the AO3 draft information.
As someone who started out in fannish spaces as a writer, I'm used to having a template Google Doc that I copy and then I fill in the copied document's lines for title, archive warning, and all that other stuff that AO3 asks for when posting. Since there's a whole bunch of lines that are the same between fiction and podfic posting, I used a combination of my pre-existing template and Shmaylor's Podfic Posting Guide to create my podfic specific template. (My process of filling in my template involves having every Rating, Archive Warning, and Category listed out, so I can delete what isn't needed for the specific draft. I trust that anyone reading this will appreciate not going point by point when so much of that section copies from the fic's information.) This is the podfic specific section:
Additional Tags: Podfic, Podfic Length: [Choose from options], Audio Format: [Choose from options]
Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, 10-20 Minutes, 20-30 Minutes, 30-45 Minutes, 45-60 Minutes, 1-1.5 Hours, 1.5-2 Hours, 2-2.5 Hours, 2.5-3 Hours, 3-3.5 Hours, 3.5-4 Hours, 4-4.5 Hours, 4.5-5 Hours, 5-6 Hours, 6-7 Hours, 7-10 Hours, 10-15 Hours, 15-20 Hours, Over 20 Hours.
Audio Format: MP3, Streaming (might also tag "Embedded Audio"), M4A, M4B (might also tag "Audio Book"). Optional: Multiple Versions Available, Download Available. [Truthfully, I only use "Audio Format: MP3" and "Audio Format: Streaming" these days. I've fallen away from creating M4B files, but I might create them again in the future.]
Tags not to use:
- "Podfic Available" This tag is used on text works to indicate that there is a podfic version of that text. It doesn't belong on the podfic itself.
- "Podfic & Podficced Works" This is a parent tag for all podfic related tags. Just use "Podfic".
Work Title: [Podfic] Original Title
Summary: <p>[Author]’s original summary: [Copy]. [This has a wide amount of variation on a fic-by-fic basis. In the case of altering the author's summary or needing to create my own, I may remove "original" from that line, or I put the new summary and list the author below it. On my longest podfic where the range in the tag was quite large, I also put the exact time below the summary. I have also indicated that I've podficced the work for a particular fest in the very last line of the summary before.]</p>
Author/Top Notes: <p>Original word count: #### words. [I indicate this for people who have their own sense of 'how long will this take me' based on word count.]</p><p>For those who listen to podfic without earbuds or headphones: There are # instances of swearing - list. [If Archive Warning or Rating indicates explicit content, I’ll probably skip that due to it being unlikely the listener will listen without headphones or earbuds. Depending on the fic, I also might put a "Heads up" line for potential squicks, triggers, or 'you just might want a clue first' content. In other fics, I have instead indicated that I've podficced the work for a particular fest or event in the last line of the top notes instead of in the summary.]</p>
End Notes: <a href="LINK" rel="nofollow">Text</a> [I never remember how to HTML a link off the top of my head, so I keep this as a placeholder. Sometimes, I point to links that the author included (especially in meta), or I've included a transcript of an intro I did for a 6+ hour podfic with spoiled warnings for torture scenes and such.]
Comment on original fic: A link to the podfic: <a href="LINK" rel="nofollow">[Podfic] Title</a>. [I used to do this as a backup for notifying an author, but I've fallen away from that as of now. As far as I know, if I preview the draft while using the 'Inspired By' function, it should send out the notification email to the author without me needing to do anything else.]
Associations: Post to Collection/Challenge: [Example: Pioneer_Podfic].
→ Check “This is a podfic” box. Copy and paste link to original fic: LINK.
The work text section is where my template has a lot of options, since I need to account for the extremely rare cover art image being included, have a oneshot option, and a section for formatting multi-chapter works. I went through several how-to posts, I've watched people customize workskins in the Podfichat Discord server, and I just don't care to fiddle around with all that. (I do not make my own cover art. Currently, I have only included it once when someone already had it with their fic. I am the last person to ask if you want to know anything about that.)
For oneshots:
<h5>Streaming</h5>
<p>Time: 00:00:00.</p>
<p>{On archive.org, you can find the exact code to copy+paste in this space to provide a streaming button if you go to the page for the file, click “Share this item”, and use the top box of code. Use 500 (width) and 50 (height).}</p>
<h5>Download</h5>
{Upload the 96 kbps MP3 file with the WAV file. Right-click on VBR MP3 to get the direct URL on archive.org. Copy+paste that into the following tag.}
<p>Archive.org: <a href="VRB MP3_LINK" rel="nofollow">Right click for MP3</a>, or choose another file on <a href="PAGE LINK" rel="nofollow">the main page</a>. File size: [Fill in] KB/MB/GB.</p>
<h5>Backup</h5>
{Only host on GDrive for 1) fests, challenges, etc., or 2) files longer than 20 minutes in length (until it’s necessary to delete). Right-click on the file >> Share >> “Anyone with the link can view”.}
<p>Stream or download from <a href="LINK" rel="nofollow">Google Drive</a>. File size: [Fill in] KB/MB/GB.</p>
Updates that I don't actually reflect in my template: Knock on wood, but I stopped doing the extra steps for hosting backup files on Google Drive ages ago. Copying the code for streaming while in the Firefox browser gets "30" as the height, so I manually use that if copying in Chrome. I can't remember when I changed the compression rate, but these days, I mostly compress the WAV files to 64 kbps instead of 96. [See the exporting notes.]
For multi-chapter works:
{Upload individual chapters to Archive.org as separate listings (WAV files and MP3 files). Only have the MP3 files on GDrive long enough to create an M4B file via Windows laptop. Create an ‘Entire Work’ file and listing on Archive.org; upload the M4B file there. For a Series: Upload each Part as its own work (no ‘Entire Series’ file). Create a series on my end in order to link all of the Parts together.}
<h4>Entire Work</h4>
<h5>Streaming: Entire Work</h5>
<p>Time: 00:00:00.</p>
<p>{On archive.org, you can find the exact code to copy+paste in this space to provide a streaming button if you go to the page for the file, click “Share this item”, and use the top box of code.}</p>
<h5>Download: Entire Work</h5>
{Right-click on VBR MP3 to get the direct URL on archive.org. Copy+paste that into the following tag.}
<p>MP3: <a href="VRB MP3_LINK" rel="nofollow">Right click for MP3</a>, or choose another file on <a href="PAGE LINK" rel="nofollow">the Archive.org page</a>. File size: [Fill in] MB/GB.</p>
<p>M4B: <a href="Archive.org_M4B_LINK" rel="nofollow">Right click for M4B</a> from Archive.org. File size: [Fill in] MB/GB.</p>
<h4>Chapter by Chapter</h4>
<h5>Streaming: Chapter #. Title</h5>
<p>Time: 00:00:00.</p>
<p>{On archive.org, you can find the exact code to copy+paste in this space to provide a streaming button if you go to the page for the file, click “Share this item”, and use the top box of code. Use 500 (width) and 50 (height).}</p>
<h5>Download: Chapter #. Title</h5>
{Upload the 96 kbps MP3 file with the WAV file. Right-click on VBR MP3 to get the direct URL on archive.org. Copy+paste that into the following tag.}
<p>Archive.org: <a href="VRB MP3_LINK" rel="nofollow">Right click for MP3</a>, or choose another file on <a href="PAGE LINK" rel="nofollow">the main page</a>. File size: [Fill in] MB.</p>
{Copy+paste the above format for each chapter. I’m currently leaning towards not creating new chapters within the work for each chapter.}
Updates that I don't reflect in my template: Copying the code for streaming while in the Firefox browser gets "30" as the height, so I manually use that if copying in Chrome. I can't remember when I changed the compression rate, but these days, I mostly compress the WAV files to 64 kbps instead of 96. [See the exporting notes.]
This is a lot to look at all in one place, but the good thing about drafting is that it's mostly deleting sections I don't need for the particular fic. Unless I'm doing a cold read and don't fill in tags or top notes until after editing, I can get most of it done ahead of time, which means I only need the links from Archive.org before I have exactly what I need to copy and paste into the text box while posting to AO3.
Optional: Step 2-and-a-half. Reformatting the text for ease of recording.
Depending on if I'm doing a cold read or if the fic even needs this, I may skip this step. Pronunciation research is also included here. As an example, one fic focused on a character doing ballet moves in his studio apartment, and I knew I would not remember how to pronounce multiple French words and phrases during the recording. I have a fic that has a few memes that I need to write image descriptions for. If I'm doing a cold read, I may need to stop recording and consult DuckDuckGo, especially if it turns out that the word is getting used a lot once it's introduced.
Step 3. Get everything set up in order to record.
Not to be too glib, but I just get the laptop out with Audacity on it, lay on my bed, pull up the text on another laptop, and start reading.
For reasons that I do not know, my 'newer' laptop with Windows 10 on it does not talk nicely to Audacity, so I use it to read the text and - once upon a time - create M4B files via AudioBookConverter. My retired laptop with Linux on it is perfectly happy to talk to Audacity, so it's retirement is holding audio files right now. I talk into the laptop's built-in microphone; I don't have a literal microphone to set up, I don't have a pop filter, and I don't really record with any attempt at soundproofing (such as reading under a blanket).
[New readers: I have acquired subglottic stenosis due to being intubated in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). Due to everything being so small and close together at that age, I have a certain amount of damage to my vocal cords and a resulting permanent hoarseness and/or raspiness to my voice. Leaving at least one fan on in my bedroom while recording will "clean" up my voice in the final podfic, so pretty much no one hears my actual voice. A nice side effect of this is that I am rarely uncomfortable while recording in the summer.
Maybe it's just me being self-conscious, but I feel like I always disclaimer this tidbit about myself because the standard beginner advice is - sort of - the opposite of this. Most people are advised to turn off fans and anything that they can turn off to reduce background noise.]
Step 4. Record.
I allow for three to four seconds of background noise, in order to remove that later in editing. Then I talk.
[A small aside for The Great Thanksgiving Household Sickness of 2021: I was unlucky enough to lose my voice for almost a week, and I definitely didn't have a great voice for well into December, which if you know what my unedited voice sounds like, is not an auspicious sign. I could not comfortably record anything until December was almost over, and ever since, I have not been able to record for nearly as long as I used to.
As long as I split each individual recording session into 30 to 40 minute chunks, I used to be able to plan on an hour of total recording time in one day that was comfortable, and if I needed it, I could maybe add in up to an extra hour every other day. So, definitely one but occasionally two possible hours of recording in one day. However, when I went to record for Letters From Along A Wandering Wind, I had more than one moment where I was struggling to read one letter in one session, and that was pretty much it for the day.
Putting that into perspective in terms of word count: My slowest words per minute (WPM) is 120 WPM, and my fastest is 150 WPM. This means that I would roughly estimate between 7,200 words and 9,000 words in one hour, and I could probably count on finishing anything 9K and below in one day. Instead of taking one or maybe two days to read the excerpt of all of those letters, I had to read one letter in a recording session, rest vocally while editing that letter, and then continue on like that for the short ones. I was too close to the deadline that I was submitting the excerpt for to really allow myself to stretch out the multiple days I needed to read comfortably, but in hindsight, I probably should have stopped at around 1K each day.
In terms of planning out how long it will take me to record something, going from 7K to 1K in one day is a bit of an adjustment. This clearly isn't an impossible transition, and I can't guarantee that I'll stay around 1K being comfortable every day for the foreseeable future. *silently ignoring the After Camlann Big Bang deadline for writers submitting artist summaries, which is coming up*]
Step 4. Editing with Audacity.
How did I pick Audacity? I used it for a few assignments in uni, and our Sound Design instructor heavily recommended it because we were 1. broke college students, and 2. overwhelmingly, not pursuing Sound Design as our area of focus. We never touched the Spectrogram mode or settings (there's, like, pink vertical stuff happening in that one), so I don't edit in that mode. I edit in Waveform mode, or the blue on grey stuff.
The process of editing looks like:
1. Select the entire track - Normalizaton. (I set [-3.00 dB] way back when.)
2. Noise Reduction with the first three to four seconds of background noise. (I'm pretty sure I set 12 dB and 6 sensitivity based on "How To Podfic: A Highly Biased and Incomplete Tutorial" and haven't touched the settings again.)
2-and-a-half. Depending on the time of year, I do a second pass using the new first three or four seconds. (In the winter, I only have one fan on, so I usually only need one pass with Noise Reduction. If I do two passes with the original clip of background noise, my voice can sound metallic and wonky.)
2-and-three-quarters. It's highly variable on the recording in question, but I might need to select the entire track and Amplify it. If the suggested amount is higher than 2, I try adjusting the Gain a tick line or two first. That can sometimes make it easier to Amplify specific phrases that are still too quiet later. (I have not always needed to do this, but it's been happening more since The Great Thanksgiving Household Sickness of 2021. I may need to readjust my angle and distance for speaking into the laptop's microphone.)
3. I listen to the audio file as is. This can be variably painful if I'm having a bad vocal dysphoria day, but if I do too much additional editing before listening, I find that it's harder to match any re-recordings of phrases. If I'm editing late at night, I make notes about where to re-record the next day, but if I'm editing during alright recording time, I'll pause and immediately re-record. I cut out most breaths, since my subglottic stenosis means that I can have some very loud, wheezy breathing. I cut out any retakes done while recording, and I usually cut down my pauses - around breathing, while scrolling, around retakes, in between everything if I've had to pause a lot in order to breathe a little extra for vocal support.
[How much silence for pauses and such? While I'm quite certain that there's a general rule for this, I mostly guess based on whether it seems too long or too squished together while I'm listening to it. I cut down to the title starting at about one second in. I usually take most pauses down to no more than half a second max - unless something specific is happening with dialogue. New paragraphs usually get half a second. A scene break where someone's put tildes or something will usually get around one and a half to two seconds. I usually aim for that when cutting down the silence between the last word and "End of Work". The silence at the end varies from one file to another, but it's usually no more than half a second max. When combining individual chapters into the "Entire Work" file, I leave one and a half to two seconds of silence between "End of Chapter Whatever" and "Chapter Such-and-such".]
The final product at the end of number three is my raw audio, and I am back to exporting a WAV file to the 'Delete Later' folder with "Title by Author (Raw)" as the name. So far, I have only once needed to use the raw file in order to fix a mistake in editing, but I'm willing to take the extra step again after needing to use it (and being lucky that I had saved that particular raw file). This step allows me to fill in my metadata before I export any of the final product files. I probably don't fill in enough metadata from one podfic to another, to be honest, but I definitely try to do "[Title] by [Author]" as the Track Title and my username as the Artist Name, at least.
4. I select the entire track, and then I run Equalization, specifically the Bass Boost setting at the automatic preset levels.
5. According to my editing tag, I used to run a Low Pass Filter, but I stopped doing that for Voiceteam 2022. Ever since The Great Thanksgiving Household Sickness of 2021, it seems like this step is a bit off and might need a little tweaking to figure out a new setting, if I try to even add it back in.
6. Finally, I use Change Pitch. Over time, I've used different amounts, but I had settled on [-0.50] in the top field for entering a change when I also ran a Low Pass Filter for most of 2021. I have yet to readjust this setting. (According to my past notes, I started out at [-2.00], but I also did not do any Equalization, Low Pass Filter, or anything other than Amplify at that point.)
Step 5. Exporting the files.
I export as a WAV file, and then I export as an MP3 file. One of the definite 'set it and forget it' bits is selecting "Constant Bit Rate", checking "Forced export to mono", and usually the compression rate. If I remember correctly, Archive.org will automatically compress WAV files to 128 kbps if you don't upload an MP3 file at the same time as the WAV, but most people do not want to deal with the resulting size of the MP3 files once you start recording anything with length to it. I think I set 96 kbps when I was working on a podfic with music and sound effects and just left it there - hence it being included in my template - until I needed to deal with my nearly 7 hour podfic.
I saved a note in my initial [private] Podfic Resources doc, but I didn't date it or explain why I was saving the note. I can only presume that this is why I readjusted to 64 kbps and have left it there:
Some opinions on kbps numbers will vary based on including sound effects; 32 kbps for just reading, 64 kbps for music and "non-integral" SFX (some also use 96 kbps here), or 128 kbps for "extensive and integral" SFX (some also use 96 kbps here).
Step 6. Upload the audio files to a site that hosts audio.
There's more than one option that works with AO3's audio tag (see this tutorial), but I went with Archive.org. For me and my internet, this step can take forever with WAV files, so I prioritize uploading the MP3 first. Honestly, I mostly still bother with a WAV file because I initially let Archive.org compress it into an MP3 for me, and I just built it up as a habit. I only skip it for "Entire Work" files, but I could probably get away with skipping it more, if I wanted to cut down on time uploading files to Archive.org.
Assuming that I have my draft ready, I copy and paste the links needed for the template. (Depending on how far ahead I've uploaded compared to when I can start submitting entries to a fest, I may need to wait a few hours to a few days before I can post to AO3.)
[Why did I go with Archive.org? Honestly, I was in the midst of creating several new accounts just to podfic, and I did not want to make an account somewhere to host audio where I would quickly run out of free space and need to make another account relatively soon. I didn't know how quickly I might go through Google Drive's free storage, I didn't already have an account with one of the other options, and when I got started with podficcing in February 2021, the Audio Archive was not accepting new podfic. There was also a nice posting guide that was already linked for Archive.org, so I didn't feel like I was stumbling around with figuring out the new site.]
Step 7. Post to AO3.
If I've been nice to future me, I have already gotten the draft done before this step [if you remember Step 2]. It's a simple matter of going line by line, copy and pasting, on down while I go between the tab with the Google Doc and the tab with AO3 open. If I got the links from Archive.org in the template already, I can just copy and paste the whole section for the text section over. I hit preview so the notification for a 'Inspired By' work will get sent out, and then I post. (If someone has a specific note about needing to comment in their profile or that they don't trust the email notification to be sent, I'll still comment, but I slowly stopped doing in the summer or fall of 2021 when it seemed like a redundant step.)
Step 8. Cross-post to my tumblr sideblog and to this Dreamwidth.
For tumblr: Make a Link post, copy the link to my podfic there, and then copy and paste most of what's in my Google Doc draft in the text section below. I move the title up to the top, instead of leaving it halfway down where the AO3 field asks for it. I don't include the summary, don't add top or end notes, and I remove links from any "I've podficced this work for such-and-such fest" notes. Instead, I add in a line with adjustments made as necessary:
Language: [Fill in.] | Posted: ## Month Year. | Time: ## minutes, and ## seconds.
Works that need hours indicated will get that. I've also indicated reveal dates for fests. I've recently been trying out private posts with pre-reveal links and noting when the link should work by, so I don't have to edit the original post other than making it public. I tag: podfic, [fandom], [fill in] rating, archive warning: [fill in], (as necessary) either "forward slash ship" or "ampersand ship", (as needed) specify "family ampersand" or "friendship ampersand", tag for the category indicated, tag for length, add any necessary fest tags, and then tag any ships - [Name] x [Name], [Name] & [Name], and if I remember it, the smush name.
For Dreamwidth: I can usually copy and paste the text of the tumblr post into a post here. I add a link to the podfic on the title, I might delete the 'language, posted date, exact time' line or I might not, I add back in a summary that's usually in a blockquote, and I had back in links to "I podficced this work for that fest" notes. I tag: podfic, fandom: [fill in], rating: [fill in], archive warning: [fill in], category: [fill in], either "forward slash ship" or "ampersand ship" as needed, length: [fill in], any necessary fest tags, and then tag any ships with the format of [Name] forward slash [Name] or [Name] ampersand [Name]. (I don't use the 'x' like my tumblr tagging, and I don't include the smush name.) Most works will have "No Age Restriction" selected, but for works rated Explicit, which have currently only been rated such for sexual content, I select 'Viewer Discretion Advised' and write in the reason text box - "Explicit Rating on fic, which contains Explicit Sexual Content."
Step 9. I open up my "Year in Review: [Year]" Google Doc and add in the title name and final time. (Sometimes I have to also add in a fandom section for a new fandom.)
I've encountered a running gag that podficcers love Excel and spreadsheets. Personally, I don't really use them. I use Heading 3 for each fandom, I use Heading 4 for fic and meta, and I can alphabetize the titles as I go. I usually try to keep on top of adding up the times for each fandom as I go, but as long as I put a couple question marks in the fandom's total time to indicate that I need to update it, I also might just let the tallying go until I do an end of the year post. [The end of the year post for 2021 is here, and it includes a link to my "Year in Review: 2021" Google Doc if anyone's curious as to how I live without using spreadsheets. Maybe if I ever do a lot of podfic on one year, I'll consider a spreadsheet....]
Step 10. I update my "To Podfic" Google Doc.
When I first started podficcing, I would put out monthly to-do lists for myself (here's a horrifically ambitious example), and I'd keep track of them, any fic I hadn't gotten to, and what I needed to do for fests in the Google Doc. I keep my asking for permission to podfic scripts in there, and I also have a section at the bottom for keeping track of my Podfic Bingo board (this was the space I was screenshotting for tumblr updates and the AO3 subcollection). Since I shifted to podficcing more for fandom events than just working down a randomly curated list, I mostly keep track of when I need to submit works by.
~ Continue "It’s Saturday; Remind Me I’m Alive".
~ I don’t have any works pre-selected for Voiceteam.
Voiceteam 2022
~ Round 1 (Amnesty): Anthology Challenge → Aro and/or Ace Characters: A Scorpion In Molt.
~ Round 2: TBD.
Due August 2022
~ 6th: ACBB → [Will claim work on 4 June.]
~ 15th: HD Drizzle Fest → [Redacted "Title" by Author] - 1,253 words (~10 min, 30 sec).
~ 30th: Kill Your Darlings → TBD.
Optional: Step 11. Share a link my AO3 posting in a Discord server channel.
I hardly ever remember to do this in Podfichat or Voiceteam channels. It's sort of a new and not always applicable step that I have not done for most of my time podficcing, so I just don't remember to do it most of the time.
In contrast, the Discord server that ACBB shares with another Merlin fest has a channel to voluntarily share one's work, and I figured that no one would remember a podficcer had signed for ACBB as an artist if I didn't put something in that channel at least once. (The artist sign-ups opened in January and close the 23rd of May; that seemed like a long time to expect most of the writers to remember that a podficcer would be in their midst.)