Pod-Together 2020 FAQ

[klb]

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Audio of Pod-Together 2020 FAQ:

Frequently Asked Questions

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

If you sign up on the Match Maker sign-up post, the mods will assign you to a partner or group. You may sign up here as an individual, or as two or more podficcers who want to work together and need to be matched up with a writer, or as 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 sign up on the Group sign-up post. In this case, they will not be assigned additional partners by mods, and they will have the option to opt out of check-ins.

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.

Are translations of pre-existing works allowed?

We've been asked specifically about whether translations of preexisting fannish works are allowed in this challenge and the answer is yes. If all group members are happy with the idea and approval can be gained from the original writer to translate the story, then it is allowed. All we ask is that the translator pay special attention to optimizing the translation for audio.

I want to participate, but I've got a busy summer ahead and I'm not sure I can commit or, “What's a Party Favor?”

A Party Favor is a no-commitment pod_together style project that can be submitted and posted on the last day. 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. Party Favors have no word minimum, no pressure or commitment, and are made completely outside the bounds of the challenge, until the day they show up in our inbox as a delightful surprise! The last day to submit Party Favors is Saturday, September 5th.

What's the modding style like?

We are very hands-on mods. Part of the premise of this comm involves throwing strangers together and asking them to collaborate, which can be difficult! So the mods take extra care to ensure that everyone feels happy 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 could have been easily fixed with mod mediation, 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!

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 if I need to drop out?

If you need to drop out, please let the mods and your group know right away. The more advance notice you give us, the more easily we'll be able to help the rest of your group find a replacement. Even if you think you might finish, please let us know if you have dropout concerns so that we can prepare someone on standby to jump in if needed.

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

First, please make sure that if you want an extension, 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.

If it turns out your project has become too long to finish in time, you might polish up just part of it and submit that at the deadline. Either partner is allowed to continue to edit or add to what they submit at the deadline, as long as what they submit has a beginning, middle, and end and could be used as the final product in case of emergency. Also, submitted writing must have a fully finished portion that could stand alone if needed and that podficcers can begin 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.

Alternatively, you could consider writing a short emergency back-up fic to submit at the deadline. That way, if the main project you’re working on (and having trouble finishing) falls through, your partner will still have something to use. This takes the pressure off of everyone. In the best case scenario, where you do finish the main project, the emergency back-up fic could become a Party Favor that you and your partner submit.

How do groups hand in their finished assignments?

Writers can either email us a link to a shared version of their draft that their podficcer has access to (for example a shared Google Doc) or post the text as an AO3 work and submit it to the Pod_Together 2020 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. All group members should be included as coauthors on the AO3 post.

Podficcers submit their assignments by including their audio at the top of the AO3 work. (If the AO3 work was not already posted previously, it must be posted by the podfic submission date at the latest.)

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, massive multi-voice collaborations, immersive soundscapes, 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 this post on how groups did it our first year.

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:

1. 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.

2. 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 DW (pod_together), twitter (pod_together) or on tumblr (pod-together). We also have a Discord, which we will email out to participants when sign-ups close.

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

Comments

[annapods]

Is the discord open to people who are only doing party favours and not signing up?
(Also, thank you so much for organizing this challenge, I can't wait!!)

[klb]

Good question! Yes, absolutely. Just email us at pod.together [Bad username or site: gmail @ com] and we'll happily let you in. Just not making the link public because we don't want to deal with spammers.

[annapods]

Thanks! I'm already in it from last year (if it's the same discord?), but I'll pass the info along to my party favour authors. Or I could invite them myself if it was easier?