How I produced: A Mind/body Affair

This is the uncensored, behind the scene, of how I produced a piece called A Mind/Body Affair, about the times when the mind and body are connected and not so-connected.

Ideally, listening to the piece, A Mind/Body Affair, would make more sense but you can definitely get something by just reading!

How the story was found?

One afternoon, I need to keep myself inspired.?

So I decided to spend some time at the New York Public library. If you’ve been to NYPL’s Stavros Niarchos branch, my favorite spot there is the mezzanine area. My mission that day was to see if I can get story ideas from books that people write, and the mezzanine area has some of my favorite themes, like science and marine animals. I’ve done it in the past, and a lot others do it. I remember a podcast workshop last year where the folks from This American Life told us how this piece was found through digging up books with first-hand accounts.?

But I want to browse it differently this time. So I gave myself some rules so that I don’t get too distracted or over-stimulated by the many books:?

1. I’m going to apply a lot of constraints on myself. I will spend only a few minutes browsing. I will only read books that are really specific and (this means, no encyclopedia, no general knowledge books). I will only browse for personal narrative books or memoir. I will only skim the summary and then decide if I should invest on it more or shelve it.?
2. I’m only going to browse for books with unfamiliar topics to me. Seeing and reading something as a newbie is simply more exciting!

And then I found Cricket Radio. It’s a book by John Himmelman and it says that it talks about why (not how) cricket/katydids make sounds. I skimmed the introduction and liked it. But the problem was, there weren't any chain-of-event stories that I could identify from the book. There were a lot of anecdotes, but I couldn’t seem to find a solid personal account yet. The way he wrote was so charming that I thought to myself, I want to reach out and join him on his next cricket stalking trip!?

That’s how it started, but clearly this story isn’t about crickets! What happened after was that I was looking for his contact when I stumbled upon his blog and read it for pleasure, all the way until posts from the early 2010s. And that’s how I found out about a recurring dream John had. Although low stakes, iIt was a wild experience, presenting John as a storyteller who has a desire he didn’t realize at first and his account until the end of that journey. I just have to talk to him.?

Kill or not to kill

I was able to speak with John maybe a week after I reached out to him and I felt like why?! :( :(?

Our conversation felt lackluster, like I can’t get things out of him. I couldn’t seem to get a response longer than a few words, and it seemed like he downplayed all the big things he wrote on his blog and book. I tried probing some information beyond what he wrote, but I couldn’t get much out of him. If he’s not feeling it, how can I?? You know what I mean??

I pondered for a while, wondering if I should even go forward with it. I was so close to just killing it, like so many other pre-interviews I had. I re-read the blog and book with the hope I can get another angle, another opening. Finally, I decided that, ok, let’s just focus on the blog post that is already, clearly a story. Let’s forget about exploring the anecdotes from the book for now.?

And then, I also thought about my last piece with Najee and what I promised to do with all these ideas. To let them see the light of day even if they’re not as good as I want them to be/as I imagined they can be. I told myself that I just had to allow my pitch and story to be bad, I have no other option.

So I came up with a briefing plan for John. I made a checklist on how I can communicate what I need from him, how he might tell the story so that he can be his own narrator, so the story flows on its own. Here’s a screenshot of my note and list:?

My interview with John turned out to be one of the best interviews I’ve ever had! The fears I had during the pre-interview did not happen. While the brief and notes I prepared helped, I think what also made the interview so pleasant was because I sensed that John trusted me more at this point. Other than time, I also shared my personal stories about my time of high anxiety and how my mind/body reacted to that. I hope that I was able to assure him that I want this to be a meaningful collaboration, rather than an extraction of his personal experience.?

Just as talking to a friend is easier than talking to a stranger, so is this interview with John was easier than our first call. I hung up feeling like I had made a genuine professional connection.?

How the structure was built

I had little distraction while building the structure of this story, mainly because the series of events that I’m zooming in was very specific and focused. That definitely gave me a lot of advantages! Some things I tried to expand during my interview to help build the story were about John’s relationship with math in general, why this math issue mattered so much to him at the time, and the aftermath of his dreams. If you notice the pattern here, I’m simply trying to build a contrast between before and after the tension point of the story.?

There were actually a lot more things we discussed after John’s final dream but I didn’t end up using it here. This is the point where I had to let go of a lot of tapes that I think were great on their own, but they don’t really build or add to the story in a significant way.?

My challenge during structuring the story was actually trying to tie the two parts/stories together. Connecting my story on the first part and John’s story on the next.?

The more I hear John’s story, the more I think that my story doesn’t necessarily speak to his experience. Unlike in the previous piece, this time I wasn’t sure if I can draw commonalities between the two stories. After spending quite some time on this, I decided that it’s ok not to do the same trick. Let these stories connect much more loosely. Let the two parts be more like a relay marathon.?

And that’s it, that’s how I produce this story. As usual, a lot of doubts that I had to get through and a lot of letting go that I need to make. That’s just how it is!

I know there’s so much more aspect of audio story producing that I don’t get to touch on this newsletter or the last, like editing, sound designing, and so much more. For now, I’m going to focus on the editorial aspect of my production unless there’s something unusual about my technical experience. Peace!

Hi there! A lil' context about Pitch. Kill. Pitch Again:

This newsletter is me trying build my pitching muscle and also to give an uncensored view into how audio stories get made. I feel like, for myself, who for a long time don’t have any connection in the industry, have no direct guidance or editor coaching me and no access or knowledge to break into the industry, knowing where to start to get better in what I’m doing was hard. The wall become insurmountably taller and more strenuous to climb on when you don’t know what exactly to do, which is a really crappy place to be in. And I really do want to get better at it!

This newsletter is the manifestation of that incremental growth I’m making in my practice, however slightly. I hope you can benefit too!

This newsletter is originally published on my Substack page. Going forward, I will post on both platforms. If you find this beneficial, feel free to subscribe here or via Substack. Thank you for your support!