Sorry for the late post, i've been working all weekend

When working on my first audio draft for the commentary project, I found that the most difficult thing or me was keeping the story brief and under 400 words. I struggled with finding the right balance of details that would help move the story along and would help with narration.
The main problems i had with audacity was getting my laptop accept the headset mic i was using and to get my laptop and audacity both agree on which setting of the mic i was using.
I think that also being constantly conscious of how my voice infliction is influencing the interpretation of certain words, and the importance of a sentence.

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 4, 2018 at 8:04 PM

    I also had microphone issues...I finally just gave up and used my phone. You are much more patient that I am! I think that it is important to be conscious of all these different things during recording, but sometimes I needed to forget everything just to get a decent recording.

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  2. UnknownFebruary 5, 2018 at 11:13 AM

    It really depends on the software you choose to use. Using my iPhone and husband's Mac I was able to have a pretty easy time transferring the audio to the computer. Also, for the words, I think it depends on the story you are telling. Some are shorter and some are longer, It can be difficult making a short story longer and a longer one shorter, especially when it is flash nonfic.

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  3. UnknownFebruary 6, 2018 at 8:22 AM

    I would agree that saying what needs to be said in under 400 words is the biggest challenge; it's one I failed to meet, though I got to within 12, which is good since my first draft was nearly 800 words.

    Stripping down the language for the radio format was, not easy, but logical. The hardest part was figuring out which points--entire story beats--could be stripped without losing meaning.

    I've mentioned it in at least a couple of responses, but I think one of our most critical jobs (which I think Bruce was touching on when he said we are all too reluctant to kill drafts, which also ties into what Ira Glass said about how much material they record and then toss) is to know which of our personal stories is the right fit for which assignment. I think I was pretty close with my first choice; I could definitely use another fifty words, but I got the point across. I don't know that it would hold up to a full seven minutes, that it has that depth. Which means that whatever story is told for this upcoming project, in turn, needs to be a story that you *can't* tell in a mere three minutes.

    I think it is correctly making these assessments--having good taste, as Ira says--that is the biggest thing we can be learning right now.

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