Are you really on the right creative path?
What you think you know about storytelling success may be all wrong. Introducing my new test for clarifying your creative direction and taking more risks: The Backpack Test.
I’d be so thrilled if you’d make me smile! Just hit the ❤️ button at the top or bottom of this email. I’ll know I’ve made a friend and you’ll help others find Sound Judgment.
Hi storytellers –
I should be waking up on the top of a mountain right now.
I was supposed to be on a backpacking trip with my family this weekend. But instead of feeling like this:
I was feeling like this.
Deciding to stay home was a huge struggle. I wanted to hike with them and see the Rocky Mountain views. But I’m suffering from a bad bout of insomnia and I loathed the idea of waking up in a tiny tent at 2:30 in the morning, never to sleep again.
But I was also worried that the minute they left, I’d regret staying home.
In short, I wanted to want to go. I also wanted to see myself as a hardier person than perhaps I am.
But I’ve been trying build a new muscle: the muscle of insight into what I truly desire. To my gut feelings. And (looking at you, 2:30 a.m. wakeups) to what my body is trying to tell me.
What does all this have to do with storytelling?
A few days ago, a savvy pair of audio creators — a memoirist and a former creative director at Pixar — asked me, “What causes podcasts to fail? Or, conversely, what makes a podcast succeed?”
Clearly, the answers would form an entire book.
But here’s the one that has to do with my backpacking trip: Too many people make podcasts about subjects they’re not honestly interested in.
We rely too heavily on AI to make choices for us. We create to feed some unknown, frequently changing algorithm. Or (and this one is completely understandable) we take a project that’s offered to us because we need to make money. I’ve done that many times in my journalism career. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. At the same time, I regret some of those choices.
Ultimately, though, we can try really hard to want what we want to want. We can force desire. But it’s unsustainable. When you encounter not simply the work involved to create anything for the public, but the relentlessness of it (another deadline) it’s no wonder that the vast majority of podcasts don’t last past 10 episodes. Many never make it past three.
So consider this the “backpack test.”
Do you want to make whatever it is you’re considering badly enough to suffer the consequences? (Is it worth tolerating severe insomnia in a tiny tent?) Or is a different idea actually calling you?
Would you be more likely to sustain the effort if you followed your curiosity, no matter how crazy or risky or new-to-you that path seems?
(This is not to say we shouldn’t learn new topics that someone else offers us. Early in my career, I took jobs reporting on high tech. Ultimately, I felt unfulfilled. However, I met wonderful people through those jobs, and the skills I developed led me to covering entrepreneurship later — a subject I found endlessly fascinating.)
Today, though, after too many years of choosing safety, I’m choosing the riskier path. I’m more likely to sustain the effort when the stakes are higher. When my dream is bigger. And it’s truer to what I really want.
How about you?
What are your creative dreams?
Here’s a challenge:
Share your idea for a podcast (series or episode), feature story, speech, or any other storytelling in the comments. If you need help applying the backpack test, I’ll chime in. And I invite Sound Judgment readers to as well! Let’s have a creative block-breaking conversation.
P.S. If you received this newsletter via email, please check back later on Substack.com or on the app for the audio version! I’m working toward releasing them at the same time, consistently, but I’m not quite there yet.
Advanced Interviewing: Finding the Real Story
The best way to hone new interviewing skills is hands-on, in community. In this new virtual, live course, we’ll learn how to interview with our hearts as well as our heads. We’ll learn and practice interviewing for the elements of story: narrative, character, conflict, action, stakes, and meaning. I’m excited to share that we’ll be joined by special guest John Barth, the founding producer of Marketplace and a key developer of Reveal and The Moth Radio Hour. John will lead us in a session on live interviewing. (To hear us explore what “hostiness” is, listen to Episode 2 of Sound Judgment, “The host defines the brand with John Barth.”)
Four 90-minute sessions, July 16-August 6, $299, by application only
Discounts available for prior workshop participants
Some scholarships available by request.
Photo by John McCann on Unsplash.
Thank you to reader Sarah Storm for your recent pledge to Sound Judgment!
I’m so grateful for your message.
(Won’t you join Sarah in subscribing for free and making a pledge?)
🏆 Learn from the best
Study: So what did I do instead of hiking to Lower Sand Creek with my husband and daughter? I had my own version of perfection (nature, theater, and learning in the same day). I took my dog, Liza, for a local hike. I grabbed the last orchestra seat in a phenomenal, sold-out production of Illegally Blonde. And I took a course on sound design by narrative superstars Laura Joyce Davis and Nate Davis.
Many sound design workshops are heavy on technical details and light on storytelling. Laura, a lecturer and managing editor of the Stanford Storytelling Workshop, and Nate, a longtime creative director, offer a fresh, strategic approach that quickly helped me make decisions about music and sound effects.
They offer a simple, usable framework for employing sound design to highlight what’s most important in your story. Laura also led us through a few speed exercises. I sound designed the lead to a new story from scratch in just a few minutes!
They’re offering Sonic Storytelling again in August, along with two other classes. Check them out!
Saturday, August 10, 9-11am PST (12-2pm EST) Scriptwriting & Story Architecture
Saturday, August 10, 1-3pm PST (3-5pm EST) Finding Your Voice(over) and Tracking Narration Like a Pro
Saturday, August 17, 9-11am PST (12-2pm EST) Sonic storytelling: sound design to make your stories sing
Sign up here: https://narrativepodcasts.com/workshops
Listen: My friend Andrea Learned recommended the Pushkin show Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso last week, and thank goodness she did. How have I missed this eight-year-old show? Fragoso is one of the most thorough and captivating interviewers I’ve ever heard. Plus, I could listen to Talk Easy for the music alone. Listen to his interviews with playwright and film director Annie Baker and filmmaker Ava DuVernay.
As always, it is a joy to be with you.
Elaine
🤗 Please help the Sound Judgment community grow! If something in this newsletter resonated for you, please restack it on Substack Notes or share your favorite part with your friends via email or social media.
Note: I will be in the woods with my family next week, so there will be no newsletter on July 7. I’ll be back with you on the 14th!
Epilogue
“I come from a culture where when two people meet, the first person says ‘I see you.’ And the second person says, ‘I am here to be seen.’”
Curious to hear more about which former Creative Director at Pixar is working in audio now!
Hi Elaine, this post really resonated with me. As a former radio producer who has now made just over 30 episodes of a podcast I think curiosity is at the heart of good story telling. If you are truly curious about that subject you will find interesting people and you won’t run out of questions. I also believe that passion about a subject always shines through in audio. So this post contains such good advice for anyone thinking about starting a podcast and wanting to get beyond that ten episode mark. ‘Follow your heart as well as your head’, as a good friend of mine once said to me.