Mostly podfic-related links (of awesome)

[sophinisba]

I was looking at my journal last night and thinking how boring I must have become for people who aren't interested in podfic or Merlin. Well...that problem will not be solved by this post. :/

This has not been an awesome week for me offline (the previous week was though so that's okay) but it has been awesome here in fandom!

The most exciting thing is that meri made a podfic of Believe This Is Real, the Freya/Merlin ficlet I wrote for summerpornathon. Meri is one of the people I was thinking of when I wrote (in terms of wanting to see people like us and our friends in fanfic) that so it is especially lovely for me to hear it in her voice.

Since she posted I've been getting a few extra kudos on the fic and meanwhile she hasn't been getting comments, so that's a little bit weird. But then, feedback on podfic is always weird. And talking about feedback is always weird. Anyway, it is a really nice recording of less than five minutes and she's got a streaming link on her journal, so if that interests you at all go check it out and comment! Also she posted it with a cover that is totally adorable.

I am not very graphically inclined and usually when I finish a podfic I am impatient to post, so I post without a cover, even though I know that a lot of people like to have covers. Some listeners care enough about having covers for all their podfics that they made their own.

Well! On Wednesday I got a comment from manifesty, whom I'd never interacted with before, saying they'd made a cover for Late Night Games, an Avatar podfic I'd made last July! So that was awesome and I went and added it to the mp3 file and re-uploaded, so now that podfic is no longer naked.

And then the very next day I was posting that Gwaine/Merlin podfic and said on Twitter that I was too lazy to make a cover, so leish volunteered to make one for me, and she did and it is just right.

And if everything goes according to plan, this weekend someone else will make a cover for a longer podfic that I haven't posted yet, and another person will record one of my fics as their first podfic!! And I will get my Remix to the 1000-word minimum at least. I feel like everybody else is getting theirs done early and I am a bit anxious about being behind, but mostly I feel good. My remixee and I are well matched and I'm excited about the plan I have for the remix I want to write.

I really love this feeling of interacting with each other's work, being part of the conversation.

---

Then also there are things that I read and think about but don't comment on (except maybe to say "I agree!" or "I enjoyed this"). Maybe you will find these interesting too!
-bookshop at MangaBookshelf: Fannish Inquisitions: Countering Assumptions About Fandom - My favorite is False Assumption #3.
-cesare: in the fandom afternoon - Ces and I both have feedback angst (you probably do too!) and we manage it in very different ways. I liked this post a lot.
-elf posting in ao3some: What's the collective noun for kudos? - Kudos you guys! So awesome!!!
-thingswithwings: Community thoughts, and most especially Britta thoughts
-leish: The Trouble With Witches, podfic of the story by netgirl_y2k.
"She'd had some weird dreams while she was unconscious. She'd dreamed of a beautiful white dragon swooping down and breathing life into her dying body. A delusion, it must have been. Pretty white dragons didn't appear from nowhere to save failed witch-queens, they probably only troubled themselves for people like Arthur and Gwen. Prancing fucking unicorns would probably turn out to save Gwen, Morgana thought bitterly."
I listened to this right after I read T'wings's post about Britta and it had me wishing so hard that Merlin (the show) would allow Morgana to fuck up and still be loved. She's never been one of my favorite characters in canon but the way Netgirl and a few other people write her makes my heart grow three sizes, and she is a real delight in podfic. It is also really good to see a few fanworks addressing what's happened with her in season 4, as hard as that is to do.
-Nicola Griffith: Lame is so Gay: A Rant (from July 2011, thanks to sasha_feather for linking this at access_fandom) - "Using lame as a derogatory term is as dangerous and ill-considered as using the term gay in the same context."

Comments

[jelazakazone]

I thought meri did a great job recording your Freya/Merlin story.

Regarding the remix fic, I'm not seeing anyone else I know talking about it. Maybe no one else that I know except you is talking about it. I've been struggling wtih mine, trying to figure out the right angle to get it to work. I finally found it yesterday, I think.

The person I'm matched with has a different style from me, let's just say, and I'm finding that incredibly challenging to work with. So, I am probably farther behind than you, although at this point I'm not worried that I won't meet that 1K word count.

I'm totally happy for you to talk about Merlin and podfic:)

Oh, also, The Trouble With Witches is adorable. I loved that story.

Re: Lame is so gay: does she address "crazy" in that essay too? This is where I ♥ scifi/fantasy so much and wish we would adopt completely made up words to express frustration like "gorram".

[sophinisba]

I'm pretty sure netgirl_y2k and selenak have finished their remixes already and flammablehat is making good progress on hers. Then again, now so am I - I brought it from 185 words to 1018 in the last couple hours. Whoo! If anything I felt like I was too well matched with my remixee, such that it was sort of hard to find the angle on how to make the story my own, but once I figured it out I've been pretty happy. And now I will say no more for the sake of anonymity.

Nikola doesn't talk about "crazy" in that post, no. That and lame are two words I've tried to stop using in the last few years, but lame still occasionally slips out and crazy, um, I still say in a pejorative way fairly often. It just got really engrained over the years and people don't ever call me on it, even though I do see posts and discussions like this every once in a while.

[jelazakazone]

\o/ You guys are rock stars. I guess I should feel lucky that my remixee is not a totally comfortable fit for me. It's definitely a stretch and good for me though and I'll be VERY happy if I can pull this off.

Maybe she talks about it in a later post. But yeah, I'm trying to erase "lame" and "crazy" from my vocab. I think I use "lame" a lot less than "crazy".

[fitz_y]

I'm so glad to hear you're having such an awesome fannish week!!! So much podfic! Go you!!! And yaaay for remix goodness!!!! I was super super tempted to sign up, but I'm restricting myself from working on ANYTHING EXCEPT FOR my BB and my novel until July. It's Operation Finish the Things I've Been Talking About Finishing for Years Now. Yes. ;-)

Thanks for the links, you always find the best stuff on the internets! Ooh, I really especially loved the Bookshop one, which was AWESOME. Yes, False Assumption #3. She's such a smart smart lady, that Bookshop.

[sophinisba]

Babe, I saw your post about all the progress you've been making on the Morgana/Morgause monster fic and I am SO PROUD OF YOU!!! That's really awesome. I am a remix fanatic but I totally get not signing up for that when you want to devote yourself to the big stuff. Go you, follow your passion omg.

[torachan]

I have started thinking about my remix, but not actually started writing, so you are ahead of me there!

[sophinisba]

Before today I had pretty much just thought about mine, and now I am over the 1000-word minimum. That's always such a good feeling, even though I still have a ways to go. Good luck!

[dodificus]

Since she posted I've been getting a few extra kudos on the fic and meanwhile she hasn't been getting comments, so that's a little bit weird. But then, feedback on podfic is always weird.

Honestly, I'm totally zen about fb (or the lack thereof) on my own stuff at this point. BUT. I'm getting so frustrated this amplificathon with feedbackers, I see stuff recced and then go to the post and the reccer hasn't even left a comment on the original post, I see authors talking about all the kudos *they're* getting and I go check the podficcers post and, yep, no comments again. Another podficcer mentioned that their podfic had racked up hundreds of d/l's, go check the post and there's, like, 5 comments.

If you *know* you're not going to come back later then how fucking hard is it to make a 'yay I love your voice and I'm grabbing this!' comment when you download?

And for once I don't feel like I'm being hypocritical about something, I make an effort to leave fb for everything I listen to and enjoy and SPOILER: IT'S NOT THAT FUCKING HARD.

*cough* Ummm, end rant?

[sophinisba]

Yeah, I guess I used to be a little more relaxed about it when I thought not that many people were listening? Like, I did this longish one last year that was gen for a minor character in a fandom that's not mine and I had just sort of figured I was putting it out there because I want more podfic about black women to exist, not because a lot of people would listen to it. Sure enough, I never really heard from listeners after a few people told me they were downloading, and I didn't think much more about it. But I was organizing my files on MediaFire recently and I saw that that one's had over 100 downloads. Also a popular pairing one I did a few weeks ago has had...132 downloads so far and exactly 1 person has come back to comment after listening. I am really surprised by that. It is also REALLY strange to me that I'm getting more kudos on my ficlet from last year than Meri is getting on the podfic she's just shared. I really do not want the culture to be like this, for the default to be silence for the podficcer, but I don't know what to do.

[dodificus]

But I was organizing my files on MediaFire recently and I saw that that one's had over 100 downloads.

Maybe that's what helps me not get too emotionally invested in comments for my own stuff, I upload straight to the archive, so I never actually see how many people are downloading any particular podfic.

I really do not want the culture to be like this, for the default to be silence for the podficcer, but I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do either beyond what I'm already doing, which is making sure *I* don't play into that culture. I rec, trying to draw attention to the best podfic I listen to, both in my journal and on twitter now but that still very rarely translates into more comments for the podficcer. I sometimes get comments on my rec but the podficcer still misses out.

I would have thought that the intimacy of listening to someone's voice would have made someone *more* likely to form a connection with the creator and want them to leave fb but obviously that's not the case.

I've considered doing a feedback challenge or something like that, to encourage people to get in the habit of feedbacking but then I feel like that might taste a bit sour/insincere to the podficcers receiving fb. I don't know. *shrugs*

[sophinisba]

I would love a podfic feedback challenge. I did a femslash feedback challenge like four years ago and it (kinda sorta) changed the way I do fandom.

[dodificus]

I don't really know how to go about it/how it would work though. So, that's a problem:)

[meri]

I really do not want the culture to be like this, for the default to be silence for the podficcer, but I don't know what to do.

I've never thought about it like this, I've always framed it as expectations that were already set in stone by the time I started recording. I know I'm not stellar at leaving feeback but still this culture change you speak of, I'd like to give that a try. (Also, if podfic was hostable or something on AO3 I think podficcers would get lots of kudos. Lots.)

[netgirl_y2k]

The podfic of The Trouble with Witches was wonderful and would have delighted me anyway, but it always makes me feel extra squishy when people indulge my ridiculous Morgana feelings.

After all my angsting about signing up for remix this year I finished mine ludicrously, ludicrously early. I feel like I got a really good match though, someone who is a really good writer, but whose approach to the fandom is the polar opposite of mine. Of course, now I've given myself a month to fret over the reception :-)

Good luck with yours!

[sophinisba]

It makes me happy that you manage to come back and write something for Merlin every once in a while, and every time you do it ends up being something I love. Don't know if your remix is in a fandom I know but I'm glad you had a good experience with writing it.

I brought mine over 1000 words today!

[meri]

1. I love that fic! People like me, in relationships sorta like mine, having a good time and lots of sex!!! <3

2. I've been totally getting feedback for the podfic. Not tons, but it's podfic. I get one and I'm happy. I've gotten more than one. :DDD

3. I'm so happy you like the cover. :DDDD