The older I get as a
writer in particular since I abandoned watching television on any
kind of regular basis (aside from Netflix and Amazon Prime series and
some stuff on youtube) has found myself getting busier and busier
with creative projects who touch on writing but not my own in the
field of Podcasting for example.
A few of you already
know I started a regular Podcast series called Spoken Label in 2016.
This was originally designed to done as one or two off, but over time
it took off more and more in particular as I got better and better
with it, and it’s currently as of typing around 120 or so separate
sessions and has another 9 or so pending (with others pending for
recording too). Certainly on the earlier sessions, I can heard my own
nerves in it as I was learning how to run the show more and more and
I like to reflect its a good sign of how well respected they are, I
am generally uploading one a week at the moment and have enough
recorded for release until the middle of July and am expecting more
to been getting recorded over the next month or so.
Nowadays, what I
have learned with Spoken Label is simply keep everything in a similar
pattern so everything starts off from the same point – i.e. what
lead the person I am talking to taking the art (usually writing) they
are doing and letting it flow from there. I’ve interviewed some
people who are even more experienced than me. There was one for
example who I won’t name who I found out had released a incredible
amount of books which I didn’t realise until our chat had done 20
books in around 6 years and had another two on the way.
That chat was
amazing as there was so much I could ask that writer, but I wanted to
keep it to a manageable level. Now a manageable level for some
Podcasts can be two or three hours, but there are Podcasts which have
sections and sections with it. Take for example an interview with an
actor or director on one of my favourite Podcasts, the Empire Film
Magazine Podcast, I’ve noticed works somewhere around 20 minutes
(but with no strict planning for more or less) works as it lets them
talk about a specific project which most of my artists are talking
about 90% of the time.
Some Podcasts I do
know however like asking quite specific questions to the people they
are chatting, with Spoken Label I have never really done that in
three and a half years, I prefer really to do before we sit down to
properly get going do what I term as fact checking really, make sure
my facts are correct I know for the introduction and make sure there
isn’t anything specific we need to touch on or cover and away we
go.
Not all Podcasts
have gone to plan, as I’ve had crashing laptops to deal with, and
even once ad a Policeman stick their head through the window in the
room I was doing the Podcast (warm summer night) to check whether
next door was in and even once in a coffee shop when a friend walking
past spotted I was in there with a female writer and thought he would
pop in to say hi and ended up sitting in for the rest of the Podcast
speechless.
I’ve also had
venue problems where I have arranged to meet up with somebody only to
discover the venue we were going to meet up in was totally unsuitable
and we had to move somewhere on no notice whatsoever.
Spoken Label has
been a challenge I’ve found over the years not in the fact of
getting guests but rather time management and the uploading and
trying to give everybody as welcoming a experience as possible and
dealing with problems as they come along with a smile and a joke (if
needed). I’ve made quite a few new friends out of it, and some
people I’ve never spoken to again and would recommend anybody to
have a go at it.
Whether I would
suggest setting up a 2nd Podcast to run alongside is
another ball game like I did is another ball game
And I’ll talk
about that next.
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