“Ted Writes a Novel” Recording Demonstration Posted

Over the last 2 ½ years I’ve been recording the writing exercises I’ve done in the writer’s group I joined. Recently someone who heard about this asked me to do a demonstration video about how I did it. I’ve posted that demo video now.

I’ve used some of my writing exercises as the basis for a few of the short, animated videos I’ve done. Part of the reason why I started to record and post my writing exercise was to develop my skills in recording voices for my animation videos.

At first I was reluctant to do such a demonstration, because I felt what I was doing was rather primitive compared to what others could do. Eventually I convinced myself that there were some people who could benefit from my experiences.

For my demonstration, I wrote a very short story, “Ted Writes a Novel,” so the demonstration video wouldn’t run too long.

I use Audacity on my PC computer for recording and editing. The microphone I use is a Yeti Blue USB. I modify my voice for different characters using voice.ai. I use Natural Reader text to voice for some characters.

I used OBS Studio to record a video of the process of recording, cleaning up, and editing the video. After some procrastination I edited the 32 ½ minutes of raw video into a 10 ½ minute video. I wanted to keep the final video short, so I cut out or sped through repetitive sections. I also used the opportunity to cover up some of the mistakes I made.

I finally finished the video this week and posted it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ffwmb9_XIs

I hope you find this useful.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Project Updates – November 2023

I have been lax in my blog posting. In fact, I actually got some stuff done though. A couple of writing exercises written, recorded, and posted. I thought about some other projects but haven’t put those to bed yet.

“The Last Thing He Said to the Late Great Chef”

As the end nears, two old friends recall high lights of their relationship.

https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-last-thing-he-said-to-the-late-great-chef

As I write this, I am struck by the similarity to my script “After You’re Gone.” This wasn’t planned, I just reacted to the random title we got.

“The Mystery of the Resourceful Chiseler”

Jeffery recalls the life of Ralph, a notorious conman and chiseler he locked horns with, in the past.

https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-mystery-of-the-resourceful-chiseler

After I wrote this one, it occurred to me that chiseler could also be used to describe a type of sculptor. I have an idea for a short piece based on that but keep procrastinating.

Removing Audio from Sound Cloud

I have been posting the recordings of my writing exercises on Sound Cloud. Unfortunately, I am getting closer to the limits of my free account. I have removed some of my older posts from the site and put them on my own website. Posts on Sound Cloud do get more hits than audio posts get on my site. However, the number drops off fairly quickly, so I don’t see that I lose much by removing the older ones. I plan to start loading all my older recordings to my site and removing more from Sound Cloud.

“Ted Writes a Novel” Demonstration Video

I made some progress on my “Ted Writes a Novel” recording demonstration video this week. I had a first cut that runs about 16 ½ minutes. I felt that is too long, but I was not sure what to cut. I think there are places where I can fast forward the video through repetitious sections. I would rather do that than cut them out. It is some thing I’ve been planning to do tomorrow for the last month.

This week I watched the first cut four times and identified around 30 changes I want to make. Now, all I need to do is make those changes, and I’m done.

“Felix”

“Felix” is a short story I first wrote a decade ago. I wasn’t happy with how it turned out and I’ve gone back to look at it from time to time. I did an outline to help me get a better handle on the story. Over the last few days I’ve though that I should just to a minor rewrite and post the story. That will make it a “finished product” for me and I can concentrate on my other unfinished projects.

Other Unfinished Projects

In my last blog post I listed a whole bunch of unfinished projects that were hanging over my head. By no means were these all my unfinished projects. Maybe, like “Felix,” I can go ahead with minor rewrites and thus leave them behind me. It all takes time and energy though. Some of those projects are not worth the effort.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog