Podfic: First Read
Oct. 24th, 2022 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jajalalaOkay so I finally posted that giant podfic for the Ace Attorney fic my dear roommate wrote!
I did something unusual for this particular podfic: A "First Read" version where I read the fic for the first time while reading it, so I interspersed reactions and commentary (and unfortunately had to maintain my awful pronunciation gaffes XD French words are my enemy)
It was super fun to do! It was really interesting to go at it not knowing what was going to be the next line, and it came with some authentic reactions, like I was gasping and speculating out loud
And I am very easily affected by the media I consume, AKA if something is meant to make me cry........... I cry. There was at least one particular chapter where I was reading it out loud, and I didn't expect it to go there, and next thing you know I'm struggling to continue the narration through tears streaming down my cheeks.... I don't know if that's too intimate to hear as a listener but since tears were my first reaction that's what they get. Next time I need to prepare with a box of tissues, bc I had to wait until the very end of the chapter to actually go out and grab them bc I wanted to get the scene finished in one sitting.
Personally I am what I would consider a like, "reaction" reader... like when I beta read, my focus is generally on communicating the reader experience, so I'm the type that wants to like, take notes on each section that made me laugh, cry, gasp, etc. In the beta realm I consider that useful for an author to read and check if the reader is having the reactions they intended, but it's also generally how I like to comment. When I read a multichapter, if I have the energy/space I tend to comment on every single chapter. So freestyle comment/reaction as I read is something that I found very fun to do, I loved also going on a couple of tangents; with this author I might have gone into too many tangents of like "Oh bestie this reminds me of this thing we did last year-"... but that's part of the fun of reading the work of someone who you've known for over a decade.
Plus, I generally don't listen to my own podfic again after editing, but I find myself actually listening to my first read version again willingly??? Idk I just am enjoying the re-living of that first read.
AKA it was super fun, and vibes with how I like to do feedback, and now I'm wondering if I should do it again. The one big caveat is that it is very much doubling the effort, bc I also want to do a 'formal read' for ppl who just want to hear the story start to finish as written. It means double the recording time, double editing (altho the first read I deliberately was much lighter on spot editing and music etc), double uploading etc etc.... ACK doing a 13 chapter fic meant 26 recording sessions. And fortunately for this fic I know the author very well and knew ahead of time I was going to love everything in it, but I think it would be a gamble with someone else as to whether I would have such enthusiastic reactions.
But then again, this was a 49k multichapter. If I go for a oneshot, that would just be one extra recording session, and probably less than an hour. Most things I have bookmarked to podfic I've already read, but I think there's one that's technically on my reading list and I could do a 'first read' for... And I think it would be a very fun movement to continue podfic-wise. IDK if other people have done this sort of thing before or if there's an established tag, I went with "Podfic: First Read" as a tag for now, but I'm finding it fun! Idk if there's much actual market for that, but for some fics I would be kind of curious how ppl reacted to it in the moment, and there's something particularly intimate about voice compared to comments. Like one time someone sent me a tiktok of another person like, very briefly reviewing one of my fics on tiktok and ??????? idk why but seeing a real human's face and hearing a real human's voice like, even just say the fic title and my fandom name out loud sent me blushing and flustering like a storm. Like a real human read that!!!! Eek but also in a good way!!!! So idk about fellow readers and whether they'd want to re-live that first read experience in audio, but I would like to imagine at the very least an author might have fun hearing someone react live to their words.
So idk may try it again, but need to take care of some other podfics in the backlog first now that I've finally completed this giant. Yahoo!
I did something unusual for this particular podfic: A "First Read" version where I read the fic for the first time while reading it, so I interspersed reactions and commentary (and unfortunately had to maintain my awful pronunciation gaffes XD French words are my enemy)
It was super fun to do! It was really interesting to go at it not knowing what was going to be the next line, and it came with some authentic reactions, like I was gasping and speculating out loud
And I am very easily affected by the media I consume, AKA if something is meant to make me cry........... I cry. There was at least one particular chapter where I was reading it out loud, and I didn't expect it to go there, and next thing you know I'm struggling to continue the narration through tears streaming down my cheeks.... I don't know if that's too intimate to hear as a listener but since tears were my first reaction that's what they get. Next time I need to prepare with a box of tissues, bc I had to wait until the very end of the chapter to actually go out and grab them bc I wanted to get the scene finished in one sitting.
Personally I am what I would consider a like, "reaction" reader... like when I beta read, my focus is generally on communicating the reader experience, so I'm the type that wants to like, take notes on each section that made me laugh, cry, gasp, etc. In the beta realm I consider that useful for an author to read and check if the reader is having the reactions they intended, but it's also generally how I like to comment. When I read a multichapter, if I have the energy/space I tend to comment on every single chapter. So freestyle comment/reaction as I read is something that I found very fun to do, I loved also going on a couple of tangents; with this author I might have gone into too many tangents of like "Oh bestie this reminds me of this thing we did last year-"... but that's part of the fun of reading the work of someone who you've known for over a decade.
Plus, I generally don't listen to my own podfic again after editing, but I find myself actually listening to my first read version again willingly??? Idk I just am enjoying the re-living of that first read.
AKA it was super fun, and vibes with how I like to do feedback, and now I'm wondering if I should do it again. The one big caveat is that it is very much doubling the effort, bc I also want to do a 'formal read' for ppl who just want to hear the story start to finish as written. It means double the recording time, double editing (altho the first read I deliberately was much lighter on spot editing and music etc), double uploading etc etc.... ACK doing a 13 chapter fic meant 26 recording sessions. And fortunately for this fic I know the author very well and knew ahead of time I was going to love everything in it, but I think it would be a gamble with someone else as to whether I would have such enthusiastic reactions.
But then again, this was a 49k multichapter. If I go for a oneshot, that would just be one extra recording session, and probably less than an hour. Most things I have bookmarked to podfic I've already read, but I think there's one that's technically on my reading list and I could do a 'first read' for... And I think it would be a very fun movement to continue podfic-wise. IDK if other people have done this sort of thing before or if there's an established tag, I went with "Podfic: First Read" as a tag for now, but I'm finding it fun! Idk if there's much actual market for that, but for some fics I would be kind of curious how ppl reacted to it in the moment, and there's something particularly intimate about voice compared to comments. Like one time someone sent me a tiktok of another person like, very briefly reviewing one of my fics on tiktok and ??????? idk why but seeing a real human's face and hearing a real human's voice like, even just say the fic title and my fandom name out loud sent me blushing and flustering like a storm. Like a real human read that!!!! Eek but also in a good way!!!! So idk about fellow readers and whether they'd want to re-live that first read experience in audio, but I would like to imagine at the very least an author might have fun hearing someone react live to their words.
So idk may try it again, but need to take care of some other podfics in the backlog first now that I've finally completed this giant. Yahoo!
no subject
Date: 2022-10-25 07:13 am (UTC)Once again, congratulations on finishing not one but TWO massive projects here :D And managing to do this while hiding from the person you live with!! 🎉🎉 Did they scream at you for that, yet? ;)
no subject
Date: 2022-10-25 12:16 pm (UTC)She was very #shooketh that I found the time to do all this recording while she lives with me, but she also did razz me a bit for being so secretive XD. She was pretty happy, I think especially bc she's been struggling with a new story rn and really likes feedback. She has not had a chance to listen to them yet, idk if she will bc she's not a big podfic person (that's why I did comments as well, so she could enjoy my feedback without having to set aside five hours to listen to my voice) but I hope she listens to the first read at least bc I am delighted in the recordings
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 11:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-25 10:22 am (UTC)I can see it being especially validating for a writer because they'd be able to hear you laugh, or the smile in your voice, real time. There have definitely been times where I found myself beaming, laughing or gasping during a fic, and I try to remember and make sure I put it in the comment (crying 100% goes in the comment). I've definitely been reading something and thought 'I wish the author could see my reaction!' which happened yesterday, because I finished a book from one of my favourite authors who I know (through twitter) is having a bad mental health time.
I never thought about it before but I'm sure there are listeners who'd enjoy it, too. People watch reaction videos all the time, why not a podfic? I can imagine there are also some comically mispronounced French words/various bloopers that would be funny to hear.
I imagine popular authors get fan mail about what made them cry. But to actually *hear* your reader burst into tears?? That must be something else. What a mind-blowingly excellent gift, your roommate must be so happy!
no subject
Date: 2022-10-25 12:24 pm (UTC)Ngl I finally finished editing this stuff bc my friend has also had a recent breakdown about her own writing and was flagging in confidence. It was technically struggles about OC writing, not fanfic, so I'm not sure how much it'll help, but I hope she takes away that her writing is fantastic no matter what. I hope u can find a way to send some love to that author too
That's my thought too about the reaction videos!!! Like when I really like/dislike a film or something I can get sucked into a reaction video about it. And as someone who loves fanfic it's sad to see that there's not quite as much of a genre (aside from My Immortal readings, but that's pretty specifically a react-to-bad-fanfic genre). I'm also a huge fan of 'liveblogs' on tumblr where ppl screenshot and react in test to a show/webcomic/manga in real time... but with fanfic I feel like it could get very text-heavy to copy each section you're reacting to, and hard to get the context from those snippets..... so an audio with a read-aloud portion feels like the right balance to me.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 11:15 am (UTC)I have a file open when I read on the computer, and a "notes" app open when reading on the tablet, so I can keep switching between the story and notes as I read :D Not too painful to set up and it's quick enough to switch, and handy to copy sentences I particularly liked and other reactions :D
no subject
Date: 2022-10-25 11:08 am (UTC)The whole "first read" reaction sounds super interesting! I definitely think that there'd be a niche for it amongst people who listen to podfic. It's like those people who do reaction videos for movie trailers and stuff.
My beta style tends to be very "formal" and mostly made up of feedback on structure, rewriting stuff for clarity, etc. (Now that I think about it, when I first started writing fic, most of the people who beta read for me also had that style, so I probably unconsciously adapted it as the "right" way to do things lol.)
When I first had a beta that also squeed in their comments and didn't just focus on the technical, I was very much, "??? this is a pleasant but v surprising turn."
no subject
Date: 2022-10-25 12:29 pm (UTC)There's so many forms of beta! My roommate actually has a slight 'posse' of beta readers for her original work who fulfill different roles. I'm the reactive/emotional reader who is a good check for "am I eliciting the emotional reaction intended here? is the joke funny? etc", but she also has a grammar-intensive beta reader who mostly just marks up the rare grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, and another beta who gives feedback on more her writing style and imagery and such. I think all the styles are useful!! Expecting the formal beta read and getting a reactor does sound surprising tho XD