Pod-Together 2024 FAQ

[klb]

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between Match Maker Sign-ups and Group Sign-ups?

If you use the Match Maker Sign-up form, the mods will assign you to a partner or group. You may sign up here as any of the following:

• an individual
• two or more podficcers who want to work together and need to be matched up with a writer
• two or more writers who want to work together and need to be matched up with a podficcer

If there are writers and podficcers who already know they want to work with each other, they can choose the Group Sign-up form. In this case, they will not be assigned additional partners by mods, and they will have the option to opt out of check-ins.

Participants are welcome to sign up for more than one group. They are also welcome to sign up for both Match Maker signups AND Group Signups, as long as they are okay with working on more than one project!

Will all groups have just one writer and one podficcer?

Not necessarily. Every year there are some participants interested in working with multi-podficcer (and sometimes multi-writer) groups. This opens up all kinds of possibilities, like script format for multiple voices.

If you choose Match Maker Sign-ups, you will be asked to tell us whether this is something you are interested in.

If you choose Group Sign-ups, you can have as many group members as you want. If you want to write and podfic on your own, sign up as a "group" of 1. If you have multiple writers/podficcers that want to work together, go for it!

You’re also welcome, once you’ve started planning your project, to invite additional members into your group to contribute to the writing, podficcing, editing, etc, as long as all group members agree.

What's a Party Favor?

A Party Favor is a fully unmodded pod-together project. This means that they are projects that were intended for audio from the start, rather than based on previously posted writing, and that the writing and audio are posted simultaneously (or if no writing exists, only the audio is posted). Just like other pod-together projects, they can be created by a team of writer(s) and podficcer(s) or by one person taking on both roles. Unlike other pod-together projects, they have no word or length minimum and no mod deadlines, and you don't have to sign up for them in advance. Think of them as similar to Treats in exchanges! You can add Party Favors to the AO3 collection at any time on or before Saturday, September 7th. All Party Favors are revealed Sunday, September 8th.

Party Favor projects that finish and turn in their project to the AO3 collection by the podfic deadline (Sunday, August 25th) and that meet the length minimum have the option to be revealed during the regular posting period. We will reach out to the creators of any projects that meet these criteria to check whether they'd like to use this option.

What's the modding style like?

Part of the premise of this challenge involves throwing strangers together and asking them to collaborate, which can be difficult! So the mods take extra care to ensure that everyone is seen and supported. That's one of the reasons for the mandatory check-ins. Mods will follow up with groups or individuals that don't respond at check-in, not because we don’t trust you but because we’ve seen everything from computer failures to emergency hospital stays come up in the past and we know better than to assume that silence means things are fine. We’ve also seen hurt feelings or communication issues within partnerships that would have benefitted from mod intervention (including being reminded of the option to change groups!), so please don’t be shy about coming to us with whatever’s on your mind. Even between check-ins we’re always happy to hear from participants, whether that’s just a check-in that things are okay, a situation that needs brainstorming help, or a potential problem. If participants have any worries or need any help, we encourage you to contact us (pod.together@gmail.com).

If you can't get in touch with someone in your group, please let us know. If you need to drop out or if your partnership isn’t working and you’d like to request a different partner, we'd rather hear it from you early on than try to scramble something together at the last minute. If you even think there might be a problem, keep us in the loop. We’ve dealt with hundreds of partnerships at this point and have a lot of ideas and resources to help you have an enjoyable experience!

Although we are hands-on mods when it comes to supporting group members and following up on check-ins, we don't believe in micromanaging what participants create and will not ask to proofread or suggest changes to the content of your work. The one thing we do require in terms of content is that all works must follow our content moderation rules.

I’ve gotten my assignment, now what?, or “What is icebreaker week?“

We strongly encourage writers and podficcers to start discussing their project right away. To help with that, there will be an icebreaker week where mods will post little activities to help group members get to know one another and get them started on their project. The activities in icebreaker week are not mandatory. However, participants should use this time to determine what kind of project they'd like to make and how they plan to go about doing so. This is also the time to set expectations, such as what partners need from each other and what they hope to get out of this creative experience. The best way to make sure you get what you want is to communicate those wants clearly at the start!

What happens in the Pod-Together Discord server, and do I need to join it?

The Pod-Together Discord is a chat-based platform where current and previous participants can gather to talk about their projects, help each other, have watch parties & listening parties, brainstorm Party Favor ideas, and more. All participants are welcome to join, but it is not required.

If you join before signing up to participate, you will only see a few channels in the Discord, but you can use those channels to ask questions to the mods and other players in the Discord. Once you have signed up, let us know and we will give you the role that gives you access to the full Discord!

What should I do if a deadline is approaching and I don’t think I’ll be ready?

First, let us reassure you that it is okay to drop out if that is what feels best to you! We can find your partner a pinch hitter if they want one, and many participants have gone on to have great pinch hit experiences after their original match fell through.

If you prefer to stay in and get an extension, make sure you ask for it on or before the date of the deadline, since late extension requests will not be granted. See the Rules post for specifics on how to request an extension.

A couple other tips:

1. If your project is too long to fully finish in time, you can write a smaller scene from it and submit that for this Pod-Together. You can always add on more after Pod-Together (or even as a Party Favor!) if there's extra time later.


2. Alternatively, if you are a fast writer, you might consider writing a short emergency back-up fic to submit for the deadline. This takes the pressure off of everyone and gives your partner something to work on. In the best case scenario, where you do finish the main project, that main project could become a Party Favor that you and your partner submit.


3. If you have gaps in your story and if your podfic partner is interested, you can allow your partner to fill in those gaps through improv, or you can agree to fill in those gaps together with oral not!fic.


4. You can reach out to the mods at any time to ask us to match you up with a co-writer, co-podficcer, cheerleader, editor, beta, or other support person to take on some of the work. While we can't 100% guarantee you a match, we usually have a high success rate finding volunteers for these type of roles.

How finished does my work need to be at the deadline?

Short version: Your work needs to be finished enough by the deadline that if a life emergency happened and you became unavailable for the next few months, your partner would still be able to complete and post both parts of the project on time.

Long version: The text submitted at the writing deadline needs to be ready for the podficcer to start working on right away. Podficcers must have their full allotted time to work on the audio and should never be held back from starting because they are waiting for the text to be finalized after the deadline. Any additions or changes made to the writing after the writing deadline are optional, not mandatory, for the podficcer to include in their audio. That said, the text and audio do not need to exactly match, so writers are allowed to make changes in the text as long as they are comfortable with those changes not necessarily being included in the audio version. Writers are also allowed to work together with their podficcer to make changes to the text as part of the podfic-creation process, as long as that is something all group members are interested in. Examples of this would be the writer listening to a readthrough of the text and then revising the text based on it, the writer allowing the podficcer to make changes to the text as they read along to make it fit their voice better, or the podficcer and writer getting inspired and deciding to add another chapter or section between the writing deadline and the final posting date. Please note, though, that all of these on-limits scenarios still involve the podficcer being able to start right away after the writing deadline.

The audio submitted at the podfic deadline needs to be a complete draft, fully uploaded to the AO3 post, and ready to be revealed. If the podficcer would like to further polish or add to the podfic between the podfic deadline and the posting date, they may. Replacing old audio with newer and more polished audio is allowed, as long as there are no stretches of time after the podfic deadline where the post has no working audio included at all.

Once more, if you are worried about not finishing in time, please read the extension policy in the Rules post.

If my group creates a multi-chapter work, do we have to post all the chapters at once?

If your group would prefer to post a multi-chapter work one chapter at a time, and the first chapter meets the word/lengh minimum of pod-together that's fine. All you need is to post your first chapter on your reveal date, and you're welcome to add future chapters at whatever pace you'd like. However, we prefer multi-chapter works to be finished by the deadline even if they are not posted all at once. We are open to allowing unfinished WIPs if a group reaches out to us and we can confirm that all group members are truly comfortable with this plan.

May we post the audio and text in separate AO3 posts?

Partnerships can choose whether to put the text and audio in one post together or have them in separate posts that link to each other. If a partnership chooses to have the text and audio in the same post, the audio should be linked at the top of the post, above the text. If the partnership chooses to have the text and audio in separate posts, then the top of the audio post should include a link to the text post and the top of the text post should include a link to the audio post.

Partnerships are also allowed to post an audio-only (or video-only) work and are not required to include text, although if text is easily available we suggest the group consider including it for accessibility reasons.

How do we hand in our finished creations?

Writers should share with us a copy of their text that their podficcer has access to. This could be something like a shared Google Doc or an AO3 work that has the podficcer listed as a co-creator. Anything posted to AO3 should be submitted to the Pod_Together 2023 collection. The collection is moderated and set to "unrevealed" so the stories will show as "mystery" works until the mods reveal them on the scheduled posting day.

Since the podfic deadline is close to reveals, podficcers all need to post their work on AO3 by the podfic deadline, in the Pod_Together 2023 collection. If their writer is not included as a co-creator on their AO3 post, they should also share their finished audio directly with their writer at the deadline in a way that the mods can verify, for example by emailing their partner a link to their audio and CCing the mods.

What happens if my group meets the Early Writing and/or Early Podfic Submission Deadlines?

Completed works will be revealed across a ten-day posting period. The mods will make a posting schedule so you can know when to expect your story to be posted. Projects that meet the Early Writing AND Early Podfic submission deadlines will be posted first, followed by projects that meet the Early Writing OR Early Podfic submission deadline, followed by all other projects.

What does a work written specifically to be podficced look like?

That's up to you! Part of the goal of this challenge is to explore answers to that question.

In past years we've had some great variations, including submissions with filk, poetry, multiple POVs, found footage/audio drama, massive multi-voice collaborations, immersive soundscapes, playable games, computer voices, sound effects, audio-only, multimedia integration, and multiple languages.

There's no wrong way to do it, but if you want a place to start, you might look at this post about ways to make a story easier to perform or these posts (DW|LJ) on how groups did it our first year. There is also a spreadsheet of ideas pinned in the #brainstorming channel of the Pod-Together Discord.

Are translations of pre-existing works allowed?

Yes, as long as all group members are happy with the idea and the original writer gives permission for the translation and podfic. All we ask is that the translator pay special attention to optimizing the translation for audio.

I am new to this sort of collaboration. How exactly will it go?

Here are entries from previous years if you'd like to see how others have done it in the past.

Again, the specifics are up to you, but remember, this is a collaborative effort. You need to be flexible with the ideas you bring to the table. Writers shouldn't look at this as an opportunity to get a guaranteed podfic for a specific fic idea and podficcers shouldn't think of this as a chance to have someone write them a specific prompt.

Groups should start off with conversations about shared interests and the direction they'd like to see their project move in. Here are some suggestions for what to do after that:

• The writer can start to write several possible works they have in mind (perhaps summaries, outlines, or specific scenes) and the podficcer can pick the one they connect with most for the writer to continue and finish.


• The writer can write part or all of a piece, the podficcer can beta it and/or do a test-read, and then the writer can adapt the piece based on the podficcer’s input. The podficcer may also request performance notes from the writer on a test-read and then use these to adapt their final performance!

During the conversation about shared interests, it's a good idea for all group members to discuss what their strengths and weaknesses are; try to see if you have any matching strengths you can use as a starting point/catalyst for your project.

You may wish to use tools like Google Drive to share the written story, so all group members can leave notes and suggestions and also so the podficcer can start preparing for their performance as early in the process as possible.

This should be an equal collaboration, although ultimately, the writer gets the final say over the words of the work and the podficcer gets the final say over the performance of it. Beyond that, the details of the end product will be yours to decide. Be creative, have fun, and see what works best for you!

pod_together is multi-platform! You can follow us on Dreamwidth (pod_together), twitter (pod_together) tumblr (pod-together), and/or join our Discord server.

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask here or email us at pod.together@gmail.com.

Comments

Clarification of Party Favor dates

[ageorwizardry]

Hi! This FAQ says "You can add Party Favors to the AO3 collection at any time on or before Saturday, September 2nd. All Party Favors are revealed Sunday, September 3rd."

But the Rules post says:
"Saturday September 7th Reveals end, Party Favors due.
Sunday September 8th Party Favors revealed."

I am guessing the 7th/8th dates from the Rules post are correct, since those are the dates that correspond to a Saturday and Sunday this year — so should the dates in this FAQ post be updated?

Thanks!