Are you really on the right creative path?
What you think you know about storytelling success may be all wrong. Re-introducing my test for clarifying your creative direction and taking more risks: The Backpack Test.
Welcome to Sound Judgment, the newsletter that helps you become a better storyteller in audio and beyond.
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Hi storytellers –
A few notes before I dive in.
First, this newsletter will now come to your inbox every other Monday instead of Sunday. Consider it creative inspiration for your week ahead.
Second, some of you may notice that you’ve read “The Backpack Test” before. Originally published in July 2024, this essay was one of my most popular newsletters of the year. But Sound Judgment is growing so quickly that I know hundreds of you never had the chance to see it the first time.
I’m also republishing it now because the subject is fitting for the moment. Today, the first Monday after our long holiday break, feels like the “real” beginning of 2025 to me. It’s at this time of year when I deliberately question my creative and professional choices.
So do millions of others — maybe you. I hope the “Backpack Test” will help you decide what to continue doing, what to ditch, and which new ideas to pursue. I wish you the courage of your convictions.
The Backpack Test
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.
I’ve been trying build a new muscle:
the muscle of insight into what I truly desire.
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?
Are you working on something that’s not worth the effort, something that you wouldn’t suffer insomnia for at 10,000 feet? Is it possible for you to let it go? (If the answer is “No, because I’ve put too much time and effort into it so far,” read up on the concept of “sunk cost.” That’s not a good reason.)
Can you imagine a bigger, more exciting, wilder challenge? Something worth the discomfort of the nerves you’ll face trying something new?
Tell me in the comments: What are you going to let go of, and what will you embrace instead? Where are you stuck in indecision?
If you need help applying the backpack test, say so, and I’ll chime in. And I invite Sound Judgment readers to as well. Let’s have a creative block-breaking conversation right here in the comments!
🏆 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!
Lucky you: Laura and Nate are running a new series of workshops on producing narrative podcasts starting TODAY, with a class on scriptwriting and the architecture of storytelling. February 3 is a narration workshop, and on March 3, they’re rerunning Sonic Storytelling, the sound design workshop I took. Sign up here.
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
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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.’”
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Hi I exercised that muscle recently and it was a really good shout! Happy New Year.