2013 Podfic Meme

[paraka]

Fannish Goals:
2012 felt like a disappointing year for me and podfic. Looking back, I don't know why I was being so hard on myself. But I guess up till then, every year since I started podficcing in 2008, I've always done more than the year before, I've always produced more hours and at least matched the number of podfics. In 2011 I managed to post 24 podfics, totalling 15:47:14 and there was just no way I could post that much podfic in 2012. I was in school that whole year, worked full time throughout the summer, and was incredibly depressed for months and fandom/podfic just took the hit. In 2012, I somehow managed to match 2011's 24 podfics, but only totalled 9:28:07.

So, I went into 2013 with low expectations. January was a mad rush of working on my group podbang submission, but once that was posted (in February), I came up with the goal of posting at least 1 podfic a month. I wanted to ease myself back into things but also get myself into the practice of regularly working on podfic again. There were no minimums required per podfic, and I didn't have any length or number goals for the year beyond that.

Which is why I was so surprised when I realized in mid-December that I had the chance to surpass my 2011 total time. O_O

Over I feel like I accomplished the spirit of my goal, if not in technicality. The podbang podfic that was posted in February was mostly made in January, so it counts as my January podfic. In October I did my absolute best to post a podfic, but at the end of the day, it just wasn't quite done, so it got posted November 1st. Otherwise, all the other months I posted at least 1 podfic. :)

Stats:
I made 15 podfics this year (or 21, if you count the College 'Verse series as individual podfics), for a total of 16:33:29! \o/ This is the most I've ever posted in a year!

This is an average length of almost 1:05:15 per podfic, which is only the second year I've ever managed to average over an hour.

5 of these podfics were co-pods, with diuranl_lee, kronos999, injunket and hananobira.

These podfics are in 9 different fandoms:

Fandom	Total Mins
AI8 RPF	166.23
Arrow	5.67
Avengers	128.92
Bandom	334.43
Hockey	29.85
Multi	10.72
Twoof	302.95

2013 Podfics

Podfic	Author	Co-Podficcer(s)	Fandom	Length	Fic WC	Date Posted
Ain't Nothing so Good as the Cake and Eating it	sofonisba_found	diurnal_lee kronos999	Twoof	4:58:30	50996	14 Feb 2013
Kitten!Stiles	Amazonpoodle, Gyzym	inkjunket	Twoof	0:04:27	493	24 Feb 2013
Bookends to Limbo	amaresu	None	Arrow	0:05:40	776	18 Mar 2013
Sex Scenes Your New Boyfriend's Too Vanilla To Read About	jedusaur	None	Bandom	0:56:00	7572	1 Apr 2013
The Problem I Want To Have	melusina	None	Bandom	1:30:43	12910	1 May 2013
Pretty in Ink	mimesere	inkjunket	Bandom	0:27:47	4193	22 Jun 2013
petewentz @ stumpalicious	svmadalyn	inkjunket	Bandom	0:13:42	1458	8 Jul 2013
The Show Goes On	hazel	Hananobira	Hockey	0:29:51	4057	14 Aug 2013
5 poems about awesome ladies	yue_ix	None	Multi	0:10:43	953	7 Sept 2013
There And Gone	ladyfoxxx	None	Bandom	1:32:56	11882	Nov 1 2013
User Since	rageprufrock	None	Avengers	0:30:45	3848	Nov 3 2013
Track This Thread Chapter 1	rageprufrock	None	Avengers	0:30:37	4171	Nov 12 2013
Track This Thread Chapter 2	rageprufrock	None	Avengers	0:40:22	5937	8 Dec 2013
Track This Thread Chapter 3	rageprufrock	None	Avengers	0:27:11	3725	19 Dec 2013
Spider Honey	impertinence	None	Bandom	0:22:15	2538	6 Dec 2013
The Road Less Travelled	jeyhawk	None	AI8 RPF	2:46:14	24700	24 Dec 2013
College 'Verse Series	dapatty	None	Bandom	0:31:03	4056	29 Dec 2013
15 podfics	15 authors	5 Copodficcers	9 Fandoms	16:18:46	144,265

Total Podfics

Year	# of Podfics	Total Time	Average Podfic Length (mins)	Word Count	Average wc/min
2008	2	0:27:50	13.92	4,966	178.4
2009	2	7:56:38	238.32	84,313	176.9
2010	21	13:34:54	38.8	129,250	158.5
2011	24	15:47:14	39.47	134,443	141.9
2012	24	9:28:07	23.67	87,374	153.8
2013	15	16:18:46	65.25	144,265	147.4
Totals	88	63:33:29	43.34	584,611	153.3

What was the best podfic you made this year?
I think that has to be User Since. Fun Fact: This is the story that is referred to as "The Crying Fic/Podfic" in my household because I cried so much over it, both while reading it and while recording it. I don't think I've even done such an emotional performance and I'm really proud of how it came out. For the most part you can't tell that I cried my whole way through the recording, but there were some places where I deliberately left in the quavers in my voice, the reader's note most notably.


Most popular?
My website only shows monthly download stats, I don't know the cumulative numbers, and AO3 isn't completely accurate...
I haven't been checking my website stats as much this year, and when I did, my older AI8 RPF podfics tended to have the most downloads.

According to AO3 the podfic with the most hits/kudos, which was posted this year is Ain't Nothing so Good as the Cake and Eating it with 3359 hits/34 kudos.

Next is Sex Scenes Your New Boyfriend's Too Vanilla To Read About with 2060 hits/17 kudos.

Third from this year is Kitten!Stiles Stilinski, Pancake Thief with 939 hits/12 kudos.

These podfics place 2nd, 4th, 10th respectively in my overall hit list and 5th, 11th and 13th for kudos.

My Teen Wolf podfics are definitely the most popular on AO3, with 6 of my top 10 being in that fandom. The Teen Wolf fandom is just really strong on AO3. I kind of expected Avengers to be a similar power fandom when I started podficcing in it, but I think it's really died down on AO3 since Avengers came out in theatres, in fact, the only Avengers podfic in my top 10 is one I recorded in 2012 shortly after the movie came out. Though I imagine Track This Thread will get there by the time I'm finished posting it.

By comments, my top 3 are Ain't Nothing so Good as the Cake and Eating it (15 comments, 5th place overall), The Problem I Want To Have (10 comments, 8th place overall) and Track This Thread (7 comments, 13th place overall).

Most under appreciated?
Hmmm. This is hard for me to say. I tend not to look at the popularity/stats of my podfics these days, because my days in American Idol gave me really high expectations which no other fandom has met (~2000 downloads in the first week was pretty average, now I'm getting closer to ~200 the first month). Checking my stats for December, AI fandoms is still holding strongest. The podfic AI podfic I posted a week ago is my top downloaded podfic this month with over 800 downloads, while the two bandom podfics I posted this month, one on Dec 6th, don't even make the top downloads list.

That said, for all that there's less volume on my bandom podfic, I do feel like it's highly appreciated. My friends tend to appreciate them and send me lots of love for making them, so I don't really care as much about the raw numbers.


Personal favorite, for whatever reason?
I think I'll have to say User Since again.


Most difficult to make?
Ha ha, ha ha ha, OMG, my entire household almost gave up while recording Ain't Nothing so Good as the Cake and Eating it. The fic wasn't beta'd before we recorded it so the author gave us permission to make changes if needed and it was needed. A lot of the changes were made on the fly and it's a really long podfic and ha ha ha, we basically made the whole thing in a month, because we had unexpected bed bugs to deal with and had to wash everything in the house, bag it, then vacate the house for days at a time while things were fumigated. I never want to go through that again. So, yeah, this story will always be associated with "ha ha ha, OMG, what were we thinking? Why? Why did we make this!? Why so hard?"


Most "ah ha ha I can't believe I'm doing this"?
5 poems about awesome ladies. So, around the time of pod_together sign ups, I was just finishing taking a beginners French course to try and help me revive whatever I remembered about the language after basically not using it for 10 years and not really speaking it outside of core French classes in school for 20. So, when yue_xi mentioned on twitter wanting to write some feminist meta poetry, but being more comfortable in French, I thought it'd be a great idea for us to pair up and do this for pod_together.

Ha ha, ah ha ha, OMG, why did I think this was a good idea? Did you see the time frames on my last really using French? Did you see the "beginner" in the description of the class I took? It turns out that while I can have a conversation in French if the person I'm speaking to is willing to speak to me like I'm an idiot, I can't actually read French very well and boy, was most of the vocabulary in the peoms outside of my knowledge. O_O

But yue_xi was amazing and recorded all the French parts herself so I can listen to them and try to match my pronunciation to hers. And in the end half the poems were English translations. And I'm really proud of what we made, but yeah, OMG, I don't think I'll ever do something like this again. /o/


Most fun to make?
The copods with inkjunket! The giggle track for Pretty in Ink is so much fun and, actually, I keep meaning to ask inkjunket about releasing the unedited version of that podfic since I think it'd be pretty fun for others to listen to.


Was there one that didn't turn out the way you wanted?
Hmm, that's hard to say. I haven't really been listening to my own podfic much this year, so I haven't really had the chance to analyze them after the editing rush was over. I think I found the pace of User Since a little fast when I relistened to it?


Biggest learning experience?
Definitely 5 poems about awesome ladies. I can honestly say I've never learned so much about myself and my abilities from a single podfic before.

On a more technical side I learned how to use some effects for Track This Thread which is cool and which I've started using in other podfics too.


How has your podfic process changed over the year?
Well, on a set up level, I've gotten my recording process to be pretty darn quiet. I now read the stories off my ipod and I have a stand alone mic, so there's no equipment in there making noise. And, man, is it nice not having to deal with fan noises. I've also started unplugging my freezer when I record, in addition to turning off the heat/air conditioning so there really isn't any changes in the ambient noise while I record.

I also have gotten a bigger monitor for my desktop (which is basically my podfic editing computer, I don't really use it for much else), which makes it possible for me to zoom in and have still have a whole sentence on the screen.

I've started using auphonic to post process my podfic. I don't love it's noise removal, but I use it to increase the volume on my podfics and am very pleased with the results.

On an editing level, I've been really trying to increase the amount of pauses I leave in podfics. When I listen to some of my podfics it feels like I'm zipping through them so fast you could get whiplash!

I've started breaking down my 1st pass editing into 1st and 2nd pass, where I'll go through the part and remove any mistakes/repeated lines, etc. and then do a second pass for breathing and pacing (then however many further passes needed till I'm happy with it).

And, as I mentioned above, I've been using sound effects and filters more than I was in the past.

I don't really feel like my reading has changed that much? But when I was editing The Road Less Travelled (which I recorded in 2012) I noticed that my style has changed a lot! So I guess I have, they just weren't changes I was consciously trying to do? Probably the biggest thing I noticed is that I'm more aware of editing when I fumble. I'm better at leaving pauses before I repeat a line, making sure that I start repeating at the start of a sentence or after a comma, etc. I've also slowed my reading down, though I still haven't decided if that's good or bad, I feel like some of the animation in my reading is lacking when I pace myself too much, but on the other hand, things come out more clearly?


What's next? Do you have any podfic goals for next year?
You know, I think the "post a podfic once a month" thing worked pretty well this year, maybe I should keep at it for 2014. I'd also like to see myself work on some longer podfics. 2013 had quite a few long podfics (half of my top 4 was posted this year!) and I'm hoping I can keep making them going forward.

I really want to keep on top of Track This Thread, which should keep me busy, plus there's another really long one (it'll probably be 20+ hours when it's done) that I had originally set myself the deadline of July 2014 to finish.

I made the top 10 in amplificathon for the first time this year. I'll maybe try for the same again in 2014.

I'd also like to not fail so hard on my comms. There was no podfic_bingo, pod_aware or multipodicity in 2013 and I feel really bad for that. I'm working on getting podfic_bingo up and running again (hopefully in the next few days!) and we'll see about the others.

OK, that's enough goals for now. There are so many things I want to do, but I fear that if I push too hard, or give myself too much to do, I'll have another year like 2012 where I feel like I suck because I didn't get anything done, despite getting a lot done.

Comments

[fire_juggler]

Congratulations on a productive year! Best of luck in 2014!!!