Radio Essay Reflections and Other Neat Things

Writing this first radio essay was an interesting experience, and I'm pretty happy with how my essay turned out other than the fact that my voice doesn't sound like Ira Glass... I'm working on that. The length of this essay was really challenging for me, but it allowed a lot of easy and quick revision that I felt like I wouldn't be able to find time to do in a longer piece. What was frustrating was that I had to be so brief while still trying to tell a 'story'. I had a hard time trying to milk a 'purpose' out of my writing, and I think if I continue to revise this piece I will have to focus on this more.

Actually recording the essay was really fun! I've loved learning how to use audacity and edit my tracks. Being forced to speak my writing definitely keeps me honest, but I like that I can write in a less conventional style and use my voice to add punctuation, emphasis, and tone. In my other writing (mostly academic stuff) I've tried to move away from unreadable acadamese and use more of my natural voice to write. I was so sick of writing academic bullshit, and I think writing for these radio essay will help me develop that personal voice in my other writing.

I'm excited to start using some music and other audio tracks in theses pieces. I'm a huge fan of ambient music and found sounds, and I've always wanted to have an excuse to go record the sounds of the river or some frogs, or some squeaky shoes or whatever. Plus, I think my stories might go well with some phat beats in the background.

Comments

  1. MEGAN B.February 4, 2018 at 10:55 AM

    I agree with you! The most challenging aspect for me was deciding on the content to cut and to keep for my piece. The most difficult task was getting to the heart of the story in such a small amount of time, and telling a story worth listening to. I feel like the pressure is more intense in this type of work.

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  2. BballengerFebruary 4, 2018 at 11:23 AM

    I'm glad that you singled out the challenge of making your purpose clear in these pieces, Ben. In general, nonfiction both shows and tells, and this is especially true for a sound essay, where listeners have even less patience. But it's also important to realize that whatever you're trying to say through your story doesn't have to be profound or deep. We're after little understandings that might surprise us and our listeners a little.

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    1. UnknownFebruary 4, 2018 at 6:22 PM

      That's a good point. I always get nervous when I have to write personal nonfiction because my experiences can't possibly be interesting enough for readers! It's nice to keep in mind that simple, familiar, well told stories can be as interesting as epic tales.

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  3. UnknownFebruary 4, 2018 at 10:17 PM

    I really feel your struggles in trying to sound like Ira Glass I think we're all there a little bit, haha. I also like that you are open about the troubles of trying to nail down a purpose in such a short piece, I think a lot of us struggled with that particular aspect. I'm glad to see that other people enjoyed recording and editing as well. I spent nearly three hours just playing with stuff on audacity and was shocked by how quickly it went by and how engaging it was. It sounds like you have a lot of great ideas for our more dynamic pieces and I look forward to hearing what you come up with.

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  4. UnknownFebruary 5, 2018 at 7:38 AM

    I'm actually really nervous about adding music. Despite getting used to Audacity, this last assignment was pretty straight forward: tell a story, keep it short. It wasn't that different than writing microfiction in a workshop class. Finding a way to add sound that enhances rather than detracts is going to be an interesting challenge.

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    1. UnknownFebruary 12, 2018 at 12:45 PM

      I'm with John on this. I've been having fun researching different music to use with my piece, but I'm a bit intimidated to start. It sounds like you have a good start. I can't wait to hear it!

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