<Gentle clapping>

There’s such a wealth of brilliant storytellers in INDIE audio drama…<👏>

<Some Huzzahs>

Such a wealth of skilled and hard working sound designers…<👏> dialogue editors… …<👏 >composers…<👏> directors…<👏> producers…. <👏> artists…<👏> voice actors…<👏> marketeers…<👏> well. Less of the latter – we’re all still trying to work out that whole discoverability through marketing thing, being honest. Pretty-much market in a naval gazing kind of way, unsure how to lure folks from true crime climes or celeb run shows or talk based shows with …pretty much no budgets.

We do wish the bigger publications would actually take a delve into indie shows and actually listen to some and not list the same 4/5 (though of course those are brilliant but oft contain well funded shows and not proper indie made shows of awesome) – there is much to be discovered on the indie scene – gems like Oz9, Amelia Project, Edict Zero, Campfire Radio, Victoriocity, This planet needs a name, Oblivity, Seen and not heard, We fix Space Junk, Harlem Queen, 2298, Wolf 359, Someone Dies in this Elevator, Boom, Silt Verses, – all shows made with love, time and tears…and oft very meagre budgets if any at all.

To the gorgeous Folks who have supported the making of INDIE audio drama, as Patreon supporters or Kickstarter or crowdfunder backers, we salute you – you hold up and encourage creatives to keep on keeping on, and this, is truly…wonderous. Thank you. Keep doing it – like having a review, it makes the world of difference. So yeah, do review the shows you listen to as well if you can find A little time– doesn’t take long to write…2/3 lines of potentially (hopefully) positive enjoyment of something! Get toit!

But why – Why should folks with all sorts of media demanding their attention, pay more attention to these audio drama shows of audio joy?

Because …many many reasons! And many more!

Because….it’s oft immersive and …sublime!

Because…You can escape from the every day to different era’s, be inside and outside of someone’s heads and experience, can learn new things, imagine worlds unknown, experience massive emotions through use of pause and voice and music and sound and performances…oh there’s some ASTOUNDINGLY TALENTED indie voice actors out there (looking at you / listenin to you…Tanja Milojevic, Karim Kronfli, Fiona Thraille, Erika Sanderson, Dany Ellett, Briggon Snow, Alan Burgon, Zach Valenti, Beth Eyre, Felix Trench, Chijioke Williams, Tom Crowley, Meabh De Brun, Angelique Lazarus, Evan Tess, and so many more!)

Because…in an indie audio drama…You can yearn for someone to be loved, overthrown, wake up, perish, and win the day, all in the space of a podcast episode – which is also a lure! They make you…feel! Live! Love! Adore and truly, truly…sometimes…hate….😬😎

Want an hour and a half’s ear-movie experience? You got it! (Edict Zero, Ancestry)

Want some micro fiction? 1–3 mins of content? You got it! (2298, Limbo, Magic King Dom)

Want an episode a week for …5 / 10 / 20 weeks? A year?

YOU. GOT. IT! (Many pods)

YEp. Something for everyone. Yes I mean you. Whaddaya like?

Comedy? Wooden overcoats. Definitely Human. Oblivity. Oz9, Victoriocity, Star Tripper, Fan wars – Empire Claps Back, Mockery Manor, Mission Rejected, Civilized, Wynabego Warrior…

Real life? Y2K, Mija, Ochenta Podcasts stories of lockdown…

Horror? No sleep, Shadows at the door, 11th hour anthologies, Unwell, Bogies and Ghoulies, We’re Alive, Scottish Podcast, White Vault, Tunnels, anything from Rusty Quill…

Sci fi? Edict Zero, Marsfall, Primordial Deep, Apollon, Dashing Onions, Darksend, The Orphans, Hadron Gospel Hour, Old Gods of Appalachia, Caravan, The Bright Sessions, Folxlore, Life After, Steal the stars, Uncanny County, Subjective Truth…

LGBTQ+? Penumbra podcast, Alba Salix, Big Gay Future, Valence, Love and Luck, Fireside stories, Sidequesting, Moonbase Theta Out, Caravan, Archive 81, Starship Iris, Arden, The Hidden People, Magnus Archives, We fix space junk, Null/Void, Pilgramage Saga, We know none, Kalila Stormfire…

Fantasy? Alba Salix, Ancestry, The fall, Sidequesting, Windfall, Cultureverse, The Tower…

Romance? Deck the Halls with Matrimony. Margaritas and Donuts…

Musicals? In strange woods, 36 questions, The Ballad of Anne and Mary…

Hybrid interview / Audio drama? Anyone F’Coffee, Heyer Today…

Anthology? The truth, Big Loop, MADCAP, Unseen,…

Drama? Hopepunk? Political? Historical? Noir? Absurd? Detective? Stuff for kids? D&D? Other groovy Roll the dice extravaganzas?

It’s all out there – ya just need to be a little proactive to find it.

Try hashtags for the genres with #audiodrama or #audiofiction or #audiofictionlove. Check out the Fiction Podcast News Weekly newsletters by Lindsay Harris-Friel ‘n me.

And articles by Lindsay for The Podcast Host.

And…a lot of fans become creatives because they have been so inspired by the storytelling they’ve heard. If that’s you – here’s a few useful pods too!

Want to act for audio drama? Try MADIVA podcast on the Quirky Voices Presents Feed.

Want to improve your writing for audio drama? Try ADWIT podcast.

Want to learn many skills in audio drama creatin? Check out the back eps of Audio Drama Production Podcast. Or the new upcoming Indie AF, on the Quirky Presents feed from mid Nov 2021!

So. No excuse really. Listen. Enjoy. Share!

Have a delve! And please do Share on social media what you’ve found on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, TikTok, Instagram…And beyond!

And…ya know…if you do have a little look, I promise…such treasures you will uncover!

Please Do share them!

Review them! Play them again! And tell the creators what you think of their shows – that goes such a long long way! #doit!

END CREDITS

Epilogue

And…ya know why I also love the medium so so much? I’m afraid yes I am going to tell you.

Because…

Everyone

Has

A uniquely individual experience – everyone imagines their own horror house, interior of a space ship, vista of a planet, caverns of Mars, and character hues and faces and dress and – you get me? Your brain gets a good work out in the imagination department and that can only be a healthy thing.

No-one is dictating how you imagine the different textures and colours – tis all done through the beauty – the awesome capabilities of ….sound.

Yes visual mediums have helped give us linchpins for various imagined landscapes and places and – we all can imagine vast and impressive space ships thanks to of course shows like Star Wars, Star Trek and Spaceship 1999, Battle Star Galactica and Buck Rogers from my childhood….but audio drama gives you room to independently embellish…to make the scene and folks in it as vibrant and exciting or as scary and hide-behind-your-own-hands as you wish …inside your minds eye.

And

That’s

Truly

Special

And it’s also easily accessible by folks of all walks of life and ability and disability and culture and beliefs and social, economic and historical standpoints – if they have access to the internet and something to play things on.

Folks are trying hard to also make shows more accessible to those hard of hearing with transcripts and use of playing the shows with images on YouTube….which has also been contentious for ‘what is a podcast?’ Abut…that’s for another time.

Listen to the footsteps of someone running through a stream – you are the cameraman – I’m close up on the feet splashing, the pebbles and stream bed under their feet, the clear water, their shoes, then a full body shot of them falling into the stream. The sound of a gun cocks. You’re there. Panning up. You see the hand that…Cocked it, the gun up close. The character face as they speak, have the upper hand / cut to their view of the person in the stream reacting…worried, possibly done for….Fun!

Or

Listen to the sfx whoosh of a door on a space ship – why don’t we have those doors in our houses huh? Huh? (Yeah yeah cost, blah, engineering blah) But we can note that door opening in the background of a dialogue – Just 0.8 seconds of sound and yet seeee the person entering through it in a hurry / drunk / annoyed / in peril etc, due to the skill of the storyteller, working in tandem with the sound designer and composer, directed actor, and produced soundscape.

Brilliant brilliant brilliant

So

How to listen to these stories? Well. That’s the thing – you can be doing…ANYTHING! You’re not limited to be sat in front of a screen. It can be an individual experience or with groups! Huzzahs! Yes you too can binge episodes like you would a series of films, a box set or a tv show.

You can have it on a mobile gadget or a phone and listen whilst running or doing housework or gardening, or in a queue or on a bus….enjoy whilst driving, walking by yourself, or at a sleepover with pals or with the whole fam’ly round a cosy fire with a warm mug of hot chocolate.

THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS TO ENJOY IT

Yes.

SoRRY FOR SHOUTING. I’M JUST EXCITED.

I love it as a medium because ….there are less restrictions as to how it can be enjoyed… and yet…some shows …BEING HONEST…are simply better in headphones due to the rich sound design and finer chosen details and layers of soundscape or even story that you miss, if you listen to it on a speaker, or in a car, or in circumstances less intimate than plugged right into your ears.

So hey.

You can, of course do what you want with your lives.

But I truly feel it will be all the richer for laughs, scares, imagined experience, connecting with others through joint experience, and enjoying a myriad of characters of fun and fear and all in between, and, to be honest, just simply immersing yourself in darn fine storytelling, if you just. Bother. To look.

Dares ya.

Enjoy!

Sarah🎉🌎🌍🌏💙

||| MADIVA PODCAST

||| by Sarah Golding of Quirky Voices

|||Season Four Episodes of this how-to voice acting interview podcast are all |||available now on the Quirky Voices feed on all podcatchers of audio joy!

…………………………..

Creating an interview podcast from conception to record, release and marketing… ish

…………….

COFFEES CONSUMED PER EPISODE:12

PINTS OF WATER DRUNK: 15

SNACKS EATEN : too many

Frustrationoneter: 6.6

Happy factor enjoying the process: 9.9

Self doubt : Defcon 4

Marketing efficiency: 1.5

Love for Patreons believing in y’work: 190%

Belief that the guests are audio gold : 190%

Dickometer of m’ host ship : 80%

Urge to quit I mean, who wants to listen to me anyways?: 30%

Urge to share this audio gold with the world: 💯

Hope that people will listen: Infinite/Undeniable

………….

TASKS AND TIME TO MAKE ONE MADIVA EPISODE HAPPEN

1. Decide on :/research season gueststopics — Spread over 2 hours all told
2. Reach out to potential guests — email. — 10 minutes to compose and reread and check email address is right and spellings
3. Reply to their reply with a few potential dates of interviews. — 5 minutes as above
4. Decide on a date and book it in and ask if they want to see the questions or have a SURRRPRRRIIISE? — 5 minutes
5. Write and rewrite / scrap and start again and write the questions -15 mins
6. Research the guests works — listen to eps if I haven’t already - 1–3 hours
7. Look up any quotes or resources to use for the ep — 1 hour
8. Contact interviewee day before to check alls well with time and topics and send checklist — headphones, record their end, water, CleanFeed link, any questions… — 10 mins
9. Send CleanFeed link 10 mins before record, warm up, check questions, drink water, check and prep laptop, get excitedddd. REMIND HOUSEHOLD YOU ARE RECORDING — 15 mins
10. Record interview with CleanFeed as backup and remind interviewee of tech prefs, send their side to me + any extras discussed — 1 hour
11. Save my end EPNUMBER_MADIVA_GUESTNAME(s)_TOPIC — 5 mins
12. EMAIL interviewee ask for resources and links for the shownotes, and pictures of logo and faces for publicity / chase up any missing audio : resources they said they’d share. — 5 mins
13. Edit for patreons — longer, rougher, leave in some mistakes and funnier moments. Oft no intro or music — sometimes less added extras of audio clips. Leave a day, listen, edit again, take out some Ums, run through RX 8. Forget all the settings you used last time and forget to write down you need to write down the settings for this time…. — 2 hours
14. Ping to Patreon supporters who are bloody lovely and amazing and supportive folks of audio loving quirky joy. Apologise for something as always feel I need to be doing more for them. — 20 mins
15. Edit ep down for general release, add music, intro, clips. — 90 mins
16. Sometimes make time for headliner app clips plus accuracy of subtitles — 40 mins
17. Sometimes make time for Buzzsprout sound bite — 15 mins
18. Create CANVA ep template for season 4 — 30 mins
19. Create CANVA artwork to align with other releases — 10 mins per ep once design template sorted
20. Create transcript — currently using descript….- 80 mins (for a 60 min ep)
21. Write shownotes and add all links as transcript is processed — 30 mins as link to social media etc
22. Upload audio to Buzzsprout — 5 mins
23. Add in chapter markers of interest — 10 mins
24. Check transcript, edit and add to Buzzsprout site — 20 mins of faff
25. Panic you sound like a dick — always
26. Worry the listeners numbers are down this season, what am I doing wrong? — Always
27. Press. The. Publish. Button. Dick. — One point twenty one seconds
28. Jump on Twitter at 1am and Facebook to ping out the episode link — 15 mins
29. Next day. Publish links on wherever you can think of including Slack and Discord and Tumblr and VA sites and other fb sites and Twitter hashtags and previous students of quirky courses — 30 -40 mins of faff trying not to get distracted
30. Contact interviewees with alll links to let them know it’s out and hope they enjoy and share it! — 5 mins
31. Hope everyone ALSO enjoys it and shares it cos this has taken around uhm 16 hours and 45mins of my life to make. Yeah. Give or take…And it’s not even close to what an audio drama episode takes which is more like 40–60 hours! Per ep. Yep. 😬 Yep. Each episode. Yep. I’m still editing some. Yep. So, ya know, give respect to the podcast makers! Give support to the podcast sharers! AND THANK YOU FOR LISTENING AND SHARING THE EPS cos we just want our shows to be listened to, for mine in particular, to be helpful, and for folks to find new amazing talented creatives to follow, and be inspired by, as I am…all. the. time.

So

Ya know. Feel free to….

32. Embrace the Quirky feed.

33. #havealistendooo

And

34. Please share rate and review!

35. Fanks

36. MUCHLY!

Would love to know your thoughts on how you utilise your time to make your audio podcast of joy! I love speaking to creative people from the audio drama community, and I WISH i could do more interviews a week and get things out more often, but, I am a voice actor for other folks, (in over 100 podcasts now) a teacher, and a mum, as well as hosting another podcast -ADWIT, co editing the Fiction Podcast News Weekly, Running voice acting courses, organsing and hosting monthly Audio Drama Hub Virtual Pubs, and trying to produce my own Quirky audio fiction, and learning new things every day so things can get…..juggly!

Happy creating all and oh how exciting it is to write here…I’ve been meaning to for a while.

Sarahx

https://quirkyvoicespresents.buzzsprout.com

Www.quirkyvoices@weebly.com

Feel free to email me: QuirkyVoices@gmail.com