The Story

Jen & Chris discuss "The Story" - the methods they used to develop their first fiction podcast, THE STRANGE CHRONICLES.

In their recurring segments, they discuss "Technical magics or mishaps," "How the writing is going," and provide a "Podcast tip," something to help you along your journey in making your own fiction podcast.

Email us at info@thestrangechronicles.com

Sign-up for our mailing list at https://thestrangechronicles.com

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

00;00;10;23 - 00;00;24;00
Jen
Hi and welcome to Making The Strange a podcast about how we made our fiction podcast. We will take you along with us in real time as we create our fiction podcast. I'm Jennifer, the writer and creator of the Strange Chronicles.

00;00;24;11 - 00;00;31;18
Chris
And I'm Chris, the producer of The Strange Chronicles, a sci fi noir detective podcast.

00;00;37;21 - 00;00;43;18
Jen
In today's episode, we're going to talk about creating the story. We'll talk about the theme characters and genre.

00;00;44;04 - 00;00;54;22
Chris
And our technical mishap or magic segment. We'll discuss a piece of technical magic that happened along the way and in How's the writing going? Jennifer will discuss how the writing is going.

00;00;55;11 - 00;01;01;28
Jen
And finally, we'll provide a podcast tip, something that you can use as a strategy for making your own podcast.

00;01;02;19 - 00;01;06;06
Chris
First, a quick rundown of this podcast and why we are making it.

00;01;06;22 - 00;01;15;05
Jen
Okay, making this strange is a meta experiment. It's us making our own podcast, hoping that it will help you make your own podcast.

00;01;15;06 - 00;01;24;22
Chris
The experiment is partly to keep us on task and make sure we complete the season and also to share what the experiences like for others who might have an interest in telling their own fictional story.

00;01;25;18 - 00;01;37;05
Jen
Exactly. So if you happen to be one of those people, we'd love to hear from you. You can email us at info at the Strange Chronicles dot com and we'll be sure to include your questions in a future episode.

00;01;37;15 - 00;01;42;09
Chris
So how is this experience been going for you? You getting started? Okay. Are you still in the beginning?

00;01;42;20 - 00;02;15;17
Jen
Honestly, it was super fun making something new. As always, more work than you expect. It took a lot longer recording than I thought. Like, say, 15 minutes of video took video voiceover took 4 hours to record. So, yeah, it just took a lot longer going over it and doing multiple takes and trying to make it sound good. So hopefully as we continue on, I'll get faster at recording and understand voiceover a little bit better.

00;02;16;02 - 00;02;18;19
Chris
Yeah. Prioritizing time, that's always the hard.

00;02;18;19 - 00;02;28;16
Jen
Part, right? You are much better at time management and planning than I am. I just kind of jump in full steam until I can't go any longer and I'm realizing that might not work.

00;02;28;19 - 00;02;35;08
Chris
I mean, I think we all do it. It's just a matter of trying to, you know, I make lists is how I do it.

00;02;35;08 - 00;02;45;09
Jen
I do that as well. But somehow that did not help me prioritize as I just look at the list and realize I haven't checked any of the boxes yet.

00;02;45;25 - 00;02;53;04
Chris
It's okay. You just got to check one. And then you just. You pick that one, number one most important, stick to it. Do it until it's done.

00;02;53;04 - 00;02;55;11
Jen
Recording the podcast today.

00;02;55;24 - 00;02;56;08
Chris
Yay.

00;02;56;11 - 00;03;06;14
Jen
Okay, so now it's time for our technical magic or mishap. And today is a magic. So, Chris, tell us something magical that happened with the tech.

00;03;07;12 - 00;03;11;24
Chris
All right. So today's magic stemmed from a mishap, actually.

00;03;12;06 - 00;03;15;21
Jen
But we'll get to that in the next episode we had.

00;03;16;13 - 00;03;46;16
Chris
So for this in order for us to both record, I was trying to make it a little bit more professional. No, no. For both of us to record. I was trying to make it a bit more comfortable for us. We were sharing a microphone and leaning over each other. It was, you know, it was a little cumbersome. We were sitting down trying to squeeze into a place where you know, we could find some decent soundproofing in a house that the floors squeaking and cars drive by and all sorts of noise.

00;03;48;02 - 00;04;08;15
Chris
So out of that, I went ahead and I went and bought a couple of boom arms and I bought myself a microphone so that we would each have one to speak into to be huddled over bumping heads. And the first boom arms that I bought were terrible. I won't say the brand name, but let's just suffice to say that they didn't actually bend.

00;04;09;00 - 00;04;10;11
Chris
The tension in them was so.

00;04;10;12 - 00;04;13;03
Jen
So this isn't a mishap. That's the next.

00;04;13;03 - 00;04;29;23
Chris
Step. I know. I know. I know. This is a mishap that I'm getting to the magic. I'm getting to the magic because sometimes the mishap breeds something magical. So anyway, that tension was too tight. It wouldn't bend. It kept flinging straight up.

00;04;30;06 - 00;04;31;06
Jen
The mishap.

00;04;31;06 - 00;04;32;15
Chris
And going ten feet above your.

00;04;32;15 - 00;04;41;00
Jen
Head. No, you just don't explain the mishap. Just say there was a mishap. But the magic is anyway. Or should we just do this as a mishap?

00;04;41;01 - 00;04;42;02
Chris
Yeah, this is a mishap.

00;04;43;21 - 00;04;45;18
Jen
And then we'll do the magic in the next episode.

00;04;45;19 - 00;04;49;04
Chris
Sure, sure. Magic can be the next episode. Okay, so another mishap.

00;04;49;06 - 00;04;50;24
Jen
I'll let me reintroduce you.

00;04;51;17 - 00;05;10;07
Chris
But we'll let me continue before I lose my train. Okay? I can go back to that and throw that in. Okay, that's fine. Anyway, so here we are. And I got new booms. I exchange them out for some much nicer booms. These ones are made by road. I will say that because they work and I'm happy with them.

00;05;10;20 - 00;05;30;26
Chris
Which allowed Jen. It helped us out in to two areas actually. Jen records in her closet when she records the main series, the actual scripted one, and she was kind of huddled down, sitting on the ground with her mic on this little like tripod thing. And it was very uncomfortable for her. So the boom I was able to mount so she could stand up and record.

00;05;31;14 - 00;05;53;21
Chris
And from what you told me, it's magical. Yeah. See, there's the magic tells you we get to the magic, and now here we are. I got two of them, and I have my own microphone. And you're on your microphone that you had. And we're recording together and we're standing up and we're able to look at each other and have our devices in front of us.

00;05;53;21 - 00;06;05;13
Chris
So we can record and be comfortable. And I just try not to shift my feet and make the floor squeak. But no, this is great. I love this. This is way better than our first recording. I'm happy.

00;06;05;22 - 00;06;07;09
Jen
Well, you'll see when you listen back.

00;06;08;27 - 00;06;16;28
Chris
Yeah. Next up, we're going to discuss how the writing is going. So, Jen, how is the writing going?

00;06;17;21 - 00;06;20;21
Jen
Okay, so the writing is going terribly.

00;06;21;14 - 00;06;22;04
Chris
Oh, no.

00;06;22;22 - 00;06;44;13
Jen
Yeah. Waiting on feedback for the next episode. Have no new ones written. The only positive is that we made ourselves a deadline calendar, which hopefully will be key to getting us back on track. So the verdict on the writing for now is that it was bad. Hopefully I will get more done in the next episode and I won't feel so behind.

00;06;45;00 - 00;06;51;24
Chris
Okay. I hope it goes better for you. Next up, we're going to discuss the story.

00;06;51;25 - 00;06;58;27
Jen
Yes, this is the story episode. Now, this is just going to be the basic rundown of the Strange Chronicles season one story.

00;06;59;04 - 00;07;00;28
Chris
All right. So let's start with the theme.

00;07;01;16 - 00;07;28;23
Jen
Okay. So The Strange Chronicles has themes of belonging finding your people, finding your voice. Gray The main character is pretty confident when the series starts, but she wasn't always so assured. The supernatural wasn't really something she was so accepting of initially, and she has to learn that she's good at detective work and finds a kindred spirit in her partner Jo, and her life kind of finds its rhythm.

00;07;30;05 - 00;07;52;16
Jen
Gray's father was a private detective, so there's definitely a legacy angle. Some of the tropes we explore are a misfit looking for acceptance mixed with partners fighting crime and then coming home after a change. So over the first season, Gray learns how important her work is to the greater good and maybe even to herself.

00;07;53;19 - 00;07;57;11
Chris
All right. Another part of story is identifying the genre that you want to be in.

00;07;57;16 - 00;08;27;20
Jen
Yes. So genre is a personal choice. Some of the most popular fiction podcast genres are romance, thriller, and of course, my favorite sci fi or fantasy. I do think choosing a clear genre will make it easier for your listener to find you. So yeah, you could have something that kind of crosses all the genres, but I think if you hone in on one specific genre, you know, you'll have like an easier way to contact your audience or speak to your audience.

00;08;28;23 - 00;08;41;29
Chris
I think one other part of story that we maybe could talk about, too is, you know, are these episodes standalone? Is this a continuing arc? How did you go about that? Did you did you have any thoughts on that? What made you decide which way to go and why?

00;08;43;28 - 00;09;11;10
Jen
So I wanted them to be standalone so that someone could join in at any time and listen to a complete little story, but also having some personal stakes and an overall arc with the characters. I added that end because I think because this project is hopefully will be bigger than this one season of this podcast. And so I had to work in some other ideas as well of, you know, the personal relationships that are happening.

00;09;11;13 - 00;09;20;27
Jen
But yes, they are standalone. So like from the beginning to the end, that will be the one mystery will be solved or not solved.

00;09;21;16 - 00;09;25;13
Chris
But you've got a little nugget sprinkled in there that do tie it all together. So there is a bit of an arc.

00;09;25;17 - 00;09;26;20
Jen
Yeah, for sure.

00;09;27;00 - 00;09;33;00
Chris
Okay. Now it's time for our podcast Tip. Something that we learned to help make your journey easier.

00;09;33;18 - 00;09;54;20
Jen
And the podcast tip for today is don't be afraid to learn a new skill. There are a lot of things that can be intimidating about making a fiction podcast. There's the idea, the writing, the planning, the production, the marketing and social media. For me, the most intimidating was learning the audition software. So far, the most intimidating so far.

00;09;54;20 - 00;10;20;12
Jen
I should say that I don't know the first thing about audio software and didn't know the jargon or how it worked or any of the commands. But you know, I watched a few YouTube videos and I was able to learn a very basic knowledge of how to record audio. And I still have a lot more to learn, but I probably, you know, I keep refreshing myself as we go, but I'm trying to lean in on the thrill of learning something new.

00;10;20;18 - 00;10;49;24
Jen
So that's the tip. Don't be afraid to learn a new skill because probably a lot of people can get stuck and not make their their really cool story because they're afraid that something's too hard or not in their wheelhouse. So I think that just try to lean in. YouTube has like videos for everything, so if something is intimidating you, that's like a signal that you should learn that thing, even if it scares you.

00;10;50;10 - 00;11;13;02
Chris
I like that. I'm a bit of a perfectionist myself. Maybe a little bit. Yeah, I can. I have trouble being satisfied with things, but I think there's, you know, something to be said about you when you think you've done something really well and you might think, you know, this is the best I've ever done. You can always do better, you know, and that that's part of the learning experience.

00;11;13;02 - 00;11;16;08
Chris
So just always take what you've done and build upon it.

00;11;16;17 - 00;11;39;00
Jen
Yeah. And I think to if you just admit that you have no idea what you're doing, it kind of frees you a bit. You know, if you're always trying to do something perfectly, then you're going to get stuck a lot. Yeah, but if you just say just just admit I'm terrible at this or I have no idea what I'm doing, it makes it more fun to me because if I was like.

00;11;39;11 - 00;11;40;00
Chris
Oh.

00;11;40;17 - 00;11;58;06
Jen
Audio software, I have no idea what I'm doing. This is going to be so hard and got really in my head about it. It probably would have taken a lot longer to actually do it, but I'm just instead I kind of think of it as like a funny thing, like, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm going to try.

00;11;58;06 - 00;12;10;13
Jen
And that's really what this podcast is all about, is like not having any idea what we're doing. This is totally new to us and hopefully our experience could be helpful to someone else.

00;12;10;24 - 00;12;18;01
Chris
Yeah, there could be magic in mistakes. All right. Well, that is it for this episode of Making the strange.

00;12;18;02 - 00;12;27;24
Jen
We want to thank you for tuning in to our journey and creating a fiction podcast. We hope it will inspire you to create your own story because we believe that everyone has a story to tell.

00;12;33;14 - 00;12;40;07
Jen
Please email us with any podcast tips or questions you might have at info at the Strange Chronicles account.

00;12;40;29 - 00;12;54;15
Chris
Thanks for listening. You can follow us on Instagram at making the Strange and at the Strange Chronicle podcast. Be on the lookout for the Strange Chronicles, a sci fi detective podcast until our next episode.

00;12;54;24 - 00;12;57;22
Jen
I'm Chris and I'm Jennifer. Keep it strange.

00;13;03;20 - 00;13;06;05
Chris
This has been a kings of kontent production.