She Listened To The Podfic :D
Nov. 9th, 2022 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jajalalaAs I mentioned in a previous post, I recorded a large fic of my beloved roommate's fic INCLUDING a "first read" version--AKA me recording as I read it for the first time out loud and reacting/commenting along the way. I posted/revealed this a few weeks ago, but she only started listening yesterday. Apparently she got a notification of a nice comment on her fic on her phone, but she was at work and was like "Aww this makes me want to reread my fic, but I can't do that while working my hands are busy........ unless :O" and she decided to listen to the first read version at work (she had some straightforward hands-on tasks that she could listen to something to).
And so she started, and then I started getting a ton of texts of HER reacting to MY reactions of HER fic XD XD XD. A beautiful recursive loop of feedback.
TBH deep down I was worried that maybe she secretly hated it or would never be into it... she's much less fandom oriented than I am, so sometimes I worry she thinks I'm a little silly in my dedication with doing things like podfics (this is why I don't let her look at my writing AO3 account... she doesn't need to know about my over half a million words of projecting onto animated characters).
But in the past couple of months she's gotten into audiobooks, so I thought she'd enjoy having her own fics accessible in a similar way. But after I initially posted it, she didn't immediately listen so I was like "oh no does she secretly hate it?"
As it turns out tho once she was in the right situation to listen (wanting to relive her own work but having hands busy) she absolutely ZOOMED through it bc she didn't want to stop. The first read version is overall longer than the "formal" read, almost seven hours long! And she listened to ALMOST all of it yesterday, and finished listening to the last chapter today!!!!
It was a delight to get those texts while we were at work, reacting to my various sasses and mispronounciations. When she came home I was like "Aren't u tired of hearing my voice by now??" but she was like "No, this is the ideal way to hear ur feedback u should always do this for my writing" XD XD XD. Then she listened while at home too (with an occasional loud laugh and defensive comment towards me across the apartment)... although embarrassing when she got to the somewhat-spicy chapter (not technically porn but terribly erotic, and sometimes that's even more flustering!!) she literally came to my room to be like "Wow.... u liked that chapter huh. Why you acting all shy tho???" while I tried to hide my face. IDK I can tell her all the nitty gritty details of my sex life with no embarrassment, but the thought of her hearing my own reading and reactions to the steamy makeout scene she wrote had me wanting be like "u can listen to my voice but u CAN'T imagine my face saying those words while u do!!!"
She also gave some constructive feedback as well, which is helpful to hear from her. She mentioned liking the voices (which surprised me, esp with the firstread version when I was trying to figure out voices on the spot), but there was one character she found hard to notice when it was his dialogue... which makes sense, bc I didn't really DO a unique voice for him. It was Phoenix Wright (of Ace Attorney) who is like, very unique but also has kind of generic/normal main character vibes if that makes sense?? So I used my "generic" voice which is just... my voice XD XD XD. I received a similar comment from my first podfic (where I asked for concrit) where a commenter had a bit of trouble with narration vs. voice, which I suspect is bc one of the main voices was of the main character of a videogame who has generic vibes, and once again I went for my 'generic' voice which is... the same as narration XD.
Long story short, next time I have a 'generic/normal main character' I need to still find a unique voice for them that is not too close to my normal narration voice. When I started podficcing I was really worried that doing voices would be cringe or distracting, but it sounds like having distinctive voice really helps differentiating so I'm going to commit to it more.
She also shared that the levels were low for her, AKA on her phone if she switched from my fic to spotify or something the fic sounded a lot softer. It was something she could easily turn up and hear just fine, but I think I'll turn up my levels so that people don't have to switch volume significantly between apps.
Overall I'm very glad I put in the effort to try out this first read thing, especially for such a close friend. I am planning to do it again in the future in general (altho it'd be very hard to replicate for her, since NORMALLY I jump to read whatever she writes, she just wrote that fic when I was in a busy zone), but it'll be a bit tricky since it's hard to predict whether I'll like something before I read it... but it's worth a try XD.
It was also just really nice to connect with her and her writing in a unique way, and to get her reaction as well <3 Good fun vibes
And so she started, and then I started getting a ton of texts of HER reacting to MY reactions of HER fic XD XD XD. A beautiful recursive loop of feedback.
TBH deep down I was worried that maybe she secretly hated it or would never be into it... she's much less fandom oriented than I am, so sometimes I worry she thinks I'm a little silly in my dedication with doing things like podfics (this is why I don't let her look at my writing AO3 account... she doesn't need to know about my over half a million words of projecting onto animated characters).
But in the past couple of months she's gotten into audiobooks, so I thought she'd enjoy having her own fics accessible in a similar way. But after I initially posted it, she didn't immediately listen so I was like "oh no does she secretly hate it?"
As it turns out tho once she was in the right situation to listen (wanting to relive her own work but having hands busy) she absolutely ZOOMED through it bc she didn't want to stop. The first read version is overall longer than the "formal" read, almost seven hours long! And she listened to ALMOST all of it yesterday, and finished listening to the last chapter today!!!!
It was a delight to get those texts while we were at work, reacting to my various sasses and mispronounciations. When she came home I was like "Aren't u tired of hearing my voice by now??" but she was like "No, this is the ideal way to hear ur feedback u should always do this for my writing" XD XD XD. Then she listened while at home too (with an occasional loud laugh and defensive comment towards me across the apartment)... although embarrassing when she got to the somewhat-spicy chapter (not technically porn but terribly erotic, and sometimes that's even more flustering!!) she literally came to my room to be like "Wow.... u liked that chapter huh. Why you acting all shy tho???" while I tried to hide my face. IDK I can tell her all the nitty gritty details of my sex life with no embarrassment, but the thought of her hearing my own reading and reactions to the steamy makeout scene she wrote had me wanting be like "u can listen to my voice but u CAN'T imagine my face saying those words while u do!!!"
She also gave some constructive feedback as well, which is helpful to hear from her. She mentioned liking the voices (which surprised me, esp with the firstread version when I was trying to figure out voices on the spot), but there was one character she found hard to notice when it was his dialogue... which makes sense, bc I didn't really DO a unique voice for him. It was Phoenix Wright (of Ace Attorney) who is like, very unique but also has kind of generic/normal main character vibes if that makes sense?? So I used my "generic" voice which is just... my voice XD XD XD. I received a similar comment from my first podfic (where I asked for concrit) where a commenter had a bit of trouble with narration vs. voice, which I suspect is bc one of the main voices was of the main character of a videogame who has generic vibes, and once again I went for my 'generic' voice which is... the same as narration XD.
Long story short, next time I have a 'generic/normal main character' I need to still find a unique voice for them that is not too close to my normal narration voice. When I started podficcing I was really worried that doing voices would be cringe or distracting, but it sounds like having distinctive voice really helps differentiating so I'm going to commit to it more.
She also shared that the levels were low for her, AKA on her phone if she switched from my fic to spotify or something the fic sounded a lot softer. It was something she could easily turn up and hear just fine, but I think I'll turn up my levels so that people don't have to switch volume significantly between apps.
Overall I'm very glad I put in the effort to try out this first read thing, especially for such a close friend. I am planning to do it again in the future in general (altho it'd be very hard to replicate for her, since NORMALLY I jump to read whatever she writes, she just wrote that fic when I was in a busy zone), but it'll be a bit tricky since it's hard to predict whether I'll like something before I read it... but it's worth a try XD.
It was also just really nice to connect with her and her writing in a unique way, and to get her reaction as well <3 Good fun vibes
no subject
Date: 2022-11-10 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-12 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-10 05:24 pm (UTC)it'll be a bit tricky since it's hard to predict whether I'll like something before I read it...
Oh, no, I can see the dilemma 😂😱 Better not make any promises beforehand XD
no subject
Date: 2022-11-12 02:39 pm (UTC)