In recent years the radio star has slowly crawled out of their grave for revenge with the video. Although, I believe the more mediums for storytelling the merrier, it is true that audio has its perks that make it stand out and be the favorite of a lot of people. My relationship with sound as a form of storytelling starts since my early writer days, when while being on the road I would end up making stories and reciting them to my dad and sister to pass the time (until they grew tired of my voice and told me to write them), it continued as we got stuck at our homes and I found out about this 2 big indie podcasts: Welcome To Nightvale and The Penumbra Podcast. Since then my obsession has continued to grow. What drew me to them was the realization that my gender was more fluid than I thought. There is a separation between body and voice that podcasters (and the audience) utilize to create a world that is more diverse than what we normally see on screen- even when the people behind the scenes may not reflect that diversity (The Penumbra Podcast is a great example of this). Audio Dramas are very popular within the SFF genre, mainly because the world-building that narration and sound effects can create is practically unlimited. However I think that the genre that benefits most from sound is horror, as explained more in depth in this video, we have become oversaturated with images that most of them don’t scare us anymore rather the lack of images does. That is why there has been a growing library of horror podcasts, like The Night Post, Alice Isn’t Dead and Hi Nay, the latter which utilizes ambience to create tension almost to perfection. That isn’t to say that Slice Of Life podcasts don’t have a place either. From Love & Luck to Me & AU, the closeness that audio creates between the listener and the speaker is amplified through exploring every-day life. Modern Indie Audio Dramas have also created writing tropes unique to the form. Pass around through Tumblr in the form of memes an Audio Drama is gay (most of the time) and the villain of the story will either be capitalism, the government, or both. This anti-establishment undertone to podcasts comes in my opinion, because of the fact that access to podcasts isn’t behind a paywall (if you got internet access you can listen to probably any of the popular ones). Even Atypical Artists who previously had their sequels of the popular show “The Bright Sessions” under a subscription based platform, have released them to the general public. Other bloggers have said that it is because the tools to create a podcast are in closer reach than that of television, which is true, however it is significantly cheaper to write a novel than produce an audio drama. For me what makes podcasts unique as a writer is the freedom that film and play can’t give me- I mean the castle and dragon sounded great but you’ve got to think about budget- and at the same time grants me the same feeling that my words are transcending the written word. As a reader it isn’t much the theater of the mind (where your mind creates the story’s visuals) as novels and short stories grant me the same thing, but that I can be productive, do other stuff while also being immersed in a fantastical new world. Another thing that I enjoy as a reader is the voice actors. Recently I’ve started my first audiobook (Self-Made Boys by Anne-Marie Mclemore) only because the voice of Raine Whispers, Avi Roque narrated it. They have a great tone for the narrator and they also do all the voices! To conclude, I think that the radio star, or podcast star now, will continue to live on. Ari Ochoa Petzois a Mexican-Venezuelan bi genderfluid writer. They like dancing to old music and history. In their free time you can find xem trying to coerce their friends to participate in another of their crazy projects.
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