#WriteTuesday – Panel Discussion and More Podcast Recording

Hey everyone, how’s it going?  I survived the panel discussion over the weekend!  I was super nervous going in – I haven’t done a presentation like that since grad school (and presentations have always made me nervous!)  But I made it through my fifteen minute presentation (I read it over the night before and timed it out a few times – it was about 13 minutes, so perfectly in the 10-15 minute time they gave each of us during the afternoon).  And I had a really fun time during the q&a discussion afterwards!  Unfortunately Austin Campbell was unwell, but Bry Kotyk, Clint Fleury and I were able to bounce thoughts off each other really well (our presentations, while looking at different aspects of creativity, all touched on similar themes, especially how the internet has made new tools for creative individuals to collaborate, or even just pull their own work up from anywhere).  I also quite enjoyed Dr. Scott Pound’s presentation; he looked at how creativity per se hasn’t changed thanks to the internet, but how it has enabled a sort of counter-cultural movement where people use texts preserved in the shadow net to create something new.

Then yesterday was another full day recording the podcast for work!  We’re actually doing really well in terms of recording; while we’ll need a few more days (including today) to finish up, we’ve got very few scenes left to record!  I’m actually really excited for today; we’re going to be listening to parts of what we have recorded already to see how it sounds (and to plan for any needed re-recording).  I’ve heard some random scenes here and there and it sounds great so far; I can’t wait to hear more! 🙂

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#WriteTuesday – First Group Podcast Recording!

Yesterday was our very first group recording session for the work podcast.  It went really well!  I wasn’t sure how recording was going to go with only two mics, but very early on we developed a system that worked for us.  So we ended up getting almost all of the big group scenes recorded! 🙂  I haven’t heard them yet (we didn’t have speakers), but based on how the voice acting went, I am very, very excited to hear the final episode when we get to editing! 🙂

Other than that, not too much to report.  How’s your week been?  Anything exciting planned for the next week?

#WriteTuesday – More Book Editing and Podcast Recording

Wow, I can’t believe it’s February already!  Where did January go???  And where did the week go?

Well, a lot of the week went towards thinking about the book.  I ended up agreeing to write another chapter for it; that ended up only needing to be a sidebar in another chapter that’s already written, so that worked out. 🙂  In terms of editing, me and one of the authors went back and forth over a chapter; I think it’s in pretty good shape now!

Then yesterday was another podcast recording day.  This one was only me and the lady who is recording everything (Lisa); almost all of the scenes between our two characters are done now (we’re missing one where we need another voice).  Plus all of my character’s monologues are done too!  That means next week the whole group of us will be getting together to do some of the scenes with all the characters.  I’m pretty excited for that! 🙂

Last week I also said I was going to go back to trying to plan out my productivity like I used to in the fall.  I put just a couple of things into my plan for the week (mostly book editing) and managed to get most of them done, so that was a win.  Thankfully I only put those few things in – I feel like I’ve been waaay too busy over the last month; if I’d put any more in I’d be overwhelmed for sure!  So I’ll have to continue with only putting a few things in per week right now until I feel like I have a little more space to breathe.

So that’s been my week.  How was yours?

#WriteTuesday – Podcast Recording has Begun!

Last week, we unfortunately had someone drop out of the podcast I’ve been co-writing at work.  That meant we had to shuffle the cast a bit, which resulted in me being bumped from one of the side characters (Charlotte) to one of the main characters (Kaitlyn).  And we’re recording some of the Kaitlyn scenes Monday (ie yesterday)!

Cue me freaking out a bit.  I’ve been ready to play Charlotte for months now.  While writing the script, I could picture her voice in my head.  I knew her.  I could nail her dialogue.  But Kaitlyn was written for someone else.  While writing I was picturing her as the other actress, trying to tailor the words to her.  And suddenly Kaitlyn is me!  What do I do???  I’m not Kaitlyn!!!  😨

Well, one of the best things I did in the middle of freaking out a bit was message an actor friend of mine for some advice.  What do you do if you’ve been preparing for one role and suddenly given another one.  He sent me the most wonderful reply (thank you again, Kevin!!!) telling me to find the commonality between me and the character, and make sure I bring myself to the character.  So with that in mind, I spent a few days trying to figure out who Kaitlyn is as a character and how exactly we can connect.  And then I started playing with the dialogue a bit (that was an idea I had based off talking to my friend Scott about how Anthony Hopkins prepared for Two Popes), trying to deliver the lines in a way that is still me (I’m not going to lie, I also tinkered with the dialogue here and there if I had trouble saying something as it was written, too).  Between all of this, by Saturday night, I felt like I had a feel for Kaitlyn’s voice.

Kaitlyn’s character has changed a little bit in the process.  We originally wrote her to be more monotone and sarcastic, particularly with her humour.  But now that I’m the one delivering the lines, especially opposite the other main character, Darryl (who is absolutely ridiculous; he’s voiced by my co-writer, Derek), the monotone sarcasm felt hollow.  I found myself delivering a lot of the lines with a hint of laughter and light teasing instead of sarcasm as I was practicing over the weekend.  So the podcast is going to have a different Kaitlyn than originally envisioned, which will hopefully be ok!

Thankfully recording yesterday went really well.  Lisa, (another co-worker who was doing the recording), said Derek and I sounded really natural – the dialogue flowed well and sounded like a conversation (bonus points for our writing! 😉 )  We actually recorded more than we thought we would yesterday, which was another bonus – I can’t wait to hear the finished product! 🙂

It’s going to be a bit though before it’s available; while the scenes that just feature Derek and me are done, we’ve got a few more recording sessions scheduled.  There will be one for my character’s monologues, a few for a few other character monologues, plus a few involving almost the entire cast!

I’ll post more updates on this project as I have them. 🙂

#WriteTuesday – Podcast Update and Edits Continue

Whoops, I missed last week’s #WriteTuesday, when I was supposed to let you know how the podcast read through went!  I was honestly pretty worried about it – my co-worker Derek and I have been working on the scripts for months without much of a break, and so were both too close to them to be objective; I was half-convinced we were going to be told that the scripts aren’t as good (or as funny) as I thought they were. Thankfully that wasn’t the case – everyone seemed to like them, and the first eight scripts only need minor dialogue changes! Episode 9 needs to be edited, so that’s going to be my plan for work over the next few weeks.

I have to say, the read through itself was a super fun experience – I’ve never had characters I’ve written come to life like this before! 🙂  Plus the fact that there were only minor dialogue changes made me feel like Derek and I really nailed the characters for the actors.

The editing has also been going well.  I’ve gotten two book chapters edited and sent back to their authors over the last two weeks (I just finished the second one last night).  Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll have the first one I finished back so I can take another look at it (I know there are comments waiting for me, but I didn’t want to jump back into it and confuse everything; I’ve been using track changes on Google Docs and when I’m done the chapters look like confusing messes thanks to all the green!)

So how have the last few weeks been for you? What are you working on? 🙂

Happy Thanksiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 🙂

This week I received word that the book chapter I was waiting on was written! So I spent a lot of time this weekend working on the edits for it (around checking on my cat who wanted to be outside and going to a family Thanksgiving dinner).  I also managed to finish reading the March 2019 issue of Maclean’s – onto April 2019!

This week I’m excited (and somewhat nervous) – at work we’re doing a read through of the podcast scripts I’ve been working on! I don’t know if I’ve said much about the podcast on here, but me and a coworker have been writing a radio-drama for the 50th anniversary next year. Right now all nine scripts are written (the last few just need some tightening up); we’re hoping to start recording later this year with the first episode released around Feb 2020! I’ll let you know how the read through goes next week. 🙂