BIRTH OF OMINOUS THRILL

Hello Thriller!

Don't mind if I call you "Thriller," do you?

I'm Jeff Schmidt, the creator of Ominous Thrill, a dark fiction audio drama anthology featuring character-driven tales from the dark side with great performances and vivid sound design.

This post is about how this crazy little indie audio-fiction series came to be.

Hopefully, you'll find a bit of inspiration here, too. Here we go.?

In 2019, I challenged myself to develop a few story ideas for a potential “horror anthology” fiction audio series that was to be “pitched” to publishers.?

They were very simple logline ideas with no deeper story or even characters attached.? It was simply a matter of getting a few ideas down, plopping them into a fancy pitch deck, and sending it out to “market” with an agent “shopping it” to publishers and platforms. I figured if someone (anyone??) wanted to make the series, the “story” stuff could be more thoroughly developed at that point.??

Well, even back then, in the halcyon days of “stupid money” sloshing through podcasting, there was no “stupid money” to be found for this horror anthology idea.

People generally distrusted fiction, horror, and anthology as a monetizable podcast formats. This pitch was all three - and to be fair, they were mostly correct.

Only a few of these kinds of shows (fiction/anthology/horror) earn back their expenses and more, and those are by far the exceptions. Most projects like this are lucky to make money and are purely a “labor of love” or a hobby. There is nothing wrong with any of that; it is just the reality of the “market.”

I was extremely busy working on client projects, so it was too easy to set the whole idea aside and forget about it—except I never really forgot about it.?

It wasn’t that specific "project" that kept burning in me, but the idea of becoming a creator—of moving from being only a service provider to other storytellers to becoming a storyteller by developing my own ideas.?

It would take far too many years for me to finally make space for it. But in late 2022, I decided I could no longer put it off.

Fast forward - the result is “Ominous Thrill.”?

The idea of making my own series stretches back even further; so far, in fact, it’s embarrassing for me to admit how many years I let go by without acting on my own artistic impulse.?

If there is any lesson to be gleaned from Ominous Thrill, let it be this: no matter your age or station or whatever real or imagined limits you face, do not ignore your own artistic impulses.

Do not set them aside to focus only on the needs of others for extended periods. It's frightening how quickly days become weeks, months, and years.??

Carve out space in your life, even if only a few minutes a day—steal back that time for yourself and explore your artistry. And yes, I want you to call yourself an artist. Give your effort and ideas the time and dignity they deserve. Leave expectations of success and external validation behind and just DO.

What you “end up” with is not the point because you’ll find no end. Trust that the process and journey of doing, making, and exploring is enough to nourish your spirit in ways few other pursuits can.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, I'll create more specific posts about the inspiration behind some of the individual episodes.?

Of course, I'd love to hear from you. Send me a message here on Linkedin, MY WEBSITE, or OMINOUS THRILL.

Cheers!

--jeff