Some Questions For My Fans · 8:25am Oct 2nd, 2017
So, a few things to establish out of the gate:
1) I love this fandom and this website
2) I love talking about ponyfic and have a lot I want to say on the art of writing
3) My friends generally find what I have to say interesting/funny
4) I am running out money
All of those things together suggest an idea that I have been kicking around for a few months with varying levels of enthusiasm, which is starting a podcast for discussing MLP fanfiction.
My basic plan is this: I would have a few different episode types that I would cycle through, publishing a new one once a week. I would do things such as episodes discussing abstract writing concerns (such as darkness in fiction, headcanon and show faithfulness, information density, cosmic horror as a genre, etc.), breakdown episodes where I discuss specific problems were even good fics are at cross purposes with themselves, (cynicism and padding in Fallout: Equestria, emotional fatigue in Background Pony, lack of emotional focus in Night Is Passing), specific fic reviews were I breakdown and promote what I feel is good and often overlooked fiction (You can see my Things I Have Been Reading posts of yore for examples of what that might look like), author interviews, and follow up episodes where I'd engage with reader comments and discuss how my viewpoint may have evolved since I last articulated it. Audiobook production is also be an option I may get into. I'd generally try to stick to the ethos I laid out in this blogpost—focusing how stories succeeded or failed on their own terms and discussing things on the level of cause and effect. The podcast would be edited and per-produced ahead of time, although I'm considering a variety of more spontaneous fair such as open voice chat sessions periodically or twitch streams if people want that. My friends seem to think me screaming at how painfully stupid and dickish NPCs in the Witcher are is pretty entertaining.
Part of my motivation here is, like I said, I love this community, and I kind of want to give back to it by sharing all the things I've learned by being a part of it. I also always hate seeing great fics go under appreciated, and have always wanted to help authors get attention when I felt their work deserved better than it got. Thing is, like I said, money is a concern. If I couldn't get some kind of regular income off of this I'm not sure I could in good faith commit the time and capital to it. I'd like to set up a Patreon and offer up a few other avenues of support, but I just don't know if I'd have an audience for this let alone one with any interest or capacity for supporting it financially.
So this is why I'm here now: I want to ask you, my fans, if you'd like to see this happen. If I get enough positive feedback, I'll roll out a few test episodes and we'll see from there. So, with that in mind, I want as many of you as possible to answer these questions.
1) Would you be interested in more content from me in general talking about story quality and writing theory?
2) What kind of content would you be interested in seeing? Does what I have outlined already sound interesting, or is there other stuff you'd want to see me tackle?
3) Would you be interested in that being presented in an audio format?
4) Would you be interested in longer episodes or shorter episodes? What kind of time-frame works for you?
5) If the quality is good, would you be both able and willing to offer some financial support for it? What kind of Patreon rewards would you be interested in seeing?
If you have any questions , or need elaboration, ask I shall attempt to provide. Regardless, I want to thank you all for your time taken in reading this and preemptively for your responses. I do intend to keep writing fanfic regardless, so no need to worry about that. Right now I have other creative obligations eating my attention in that sphere, but I hope to crank out at least another one shot or two this year.
Anyway, tell me what you guys think.
As an aside, I have also kicked around the idea of shanghaiing my various FimFic Famous friends into playing various tabletop RPGs and producing those sessions as podcasts for your entertainment.
I honestly just find the idea of subjecting Skeeter the Lurker to Wraith the Oblivion to be inherently amusing.
I always love more people talking about writing, but I have to admit that while I am apt to read articles, I don't do podcasts. Not sure why; I just never listen to them. Maybe because I read so much faster than I listen, or can go back and easily reference parts of an article more easily, but I just don't consume them.
So... yeah. More stuff about fanfiction is good, but I'd probably not personally consume it in podcast form, so I probably don't have anything useful to say on that front.
I think it's a good idea, could be a source for general criticism of topics and writing advice, could have series based on more broad topics, I could totally see a sort of YouTube channel format for this. as for length of episodes I would say 10 minutes or so, as that seems to be the magic number for that kinda thing from what I've seen on YouTube. As for the money issue I would say look for stable income in a part time/full time job (not trying to be rude, it's just good to have reliable income) and in that thread you could drop the job if it doesn't work out or fall back on it if it doesn't work out
Tl;dr: go for it
4684581
That's part of why I'm asking. I don't need much money right now, and I'd love to do this for free, but if I can't get anything out of it, the wisest course would be to shelve it and push that energy into trying to find more traditional work for the time being. I already have other projects I've invested work into in hopes of a payoff later, so I don't need anymore right now.
Man, podcasting seems to be becoming a crucial part of an online presence these days.
And honestly, making it in audio form would make me about twice as likely to pay attention to it, given I'm always looking for things to listen to while playing games or drawing; the exact things that plain text would require me to stop in order to read, which just won't cut it.
Sounds fun.
Wish I could add more to this statement.
~Skeeter The Lurker
While I can't throw much money at it, a podcast would be something I probably would listen to. Alternating between general topics and specific stories would help you keep things fresh
I would be on the same circumstances as 4684870, donations-wise for now, but I think you'd have plenty of interesting topics to talk about and expanding on what you have already touched on previous blogs could be really good material.
Weird as it sounds, i enjoy reading more than listening, but I'd be down for hearing it too. I can't promise to be able to pitch any funds your way, but i will signal boost your podcasts and i'd be down for a silly one off game.
Like TD, I almost never listen to podcasts. I have a VERY LARGE library of audio lectures; I listen to 1 to 3 hours per day by playing them in the background whenever I'm eg walking from one place to another; it would still take me years to listen to the ones I already have.
I think you could write smart stuff about literature and theory that I'd like to read, but I may be a minority. I would support you to do that with some token Patreon contribution, as I too am running out of money.
The reality of Patreon, and of all fundraising, is that most of the money comes from a few big donors.
Yeah, I do tend to prefer reading to listening too. If I'm going to consume some recorded media it's usually video. I don't have an interminable commute, like some people, to provide a convenient time for listening to long form spoken material.
I also don't have very specific desires when it comes to blog (or podcast) content. Usually the people who keep my attention surprise me somehow.
So yeah, not much good advice from me.
I think this sounds pretty great and I would love to see you do it, at least for the test episodes.
I think having a rotating topic would work well, and you could make voting on what would be the next subject for whatever format is next a Patreon reward. I think having episodes of about 30-60 minutes would work best in general but maybe having different length of episodes for different topics would be appropriate; as for distribution it might be best to offer a direct download, audio website and youtube upload.