Audio Writing Tip: Cultivating AHA! Moments

UPDATE Jan. 6: I’ve increased the volume level on this file significantly and re-posted it. It should be easier to listen to now.)

Here’s another CONTENTIOUS audio edition (podcast). Today’s show offers a tip about how to make the writing process more natural and comfortable.

LISTEN NOW! Right-click that link to download the show. It’s an MP3 audio file, about 1.1 MB. Running time is just over five minutes.

For a more in-depth version of this tip, see my Oct. 27, 2003 article: Clear Thinking, Clear Writing.

If this type of advice helps you then consider getting it one-on-one in more detail, fully customized to your needs, through my writing coaching. I enjoy coaching, and my clients tell me they do too. Writing does not have to suck! I would be happy to help you make your writing process easier, more fun, and more effective. To explore this option, just e-mail me.

Production notes…

Again, my standard disclaimer: I am a total beginner in the audio world. My goal with each audio show is to learn from last time and do one new thing right. This time, I focused on bringing up my volume level. I also did a tiny bit of post-production editing. Gradually, my audio shows will become more polished.

Webfeed trick: I learned that, for whatever reason, an RSS 2.0 feed (which is required in order to deliver a podcast via feed) must include the language tag. That’s been fixed for my new RSS 2.0 feed. Just FYI, in the XML code for an RSS 2.0 feed for an English-language audio show, the language tag goes just before the description tag. It looks like this: <language>en-us</language>

This time, I spoke without notes. I think it flowed better (more naturally and coherently. I’m not really comfortable with reading out loud.

Also in this show you can hear my cats a bit in the background. (Note to self for future recordings: Keep the cats out of the room.)

Thanks to my listeners for your patience with my learning process.

Thanks also to the following folks who have been tremendously helpful:

Kris Smith, my audio mentor and new friend. Listen to his show: Croncast
Tom Vilot, my husband, system administrator, and the one true geek in this house. He’s also a highly talented artist who creates custom handcrafted portraits based on your photos: Painted Snapshot.
Everyone on the Yahoo Group Podcasters, for their advice, insight, support, and constructive criticism. I’m learning a lot there!
Everyone who’s taken the time to comment on my first audio effort, either in comments to my first show or by e-mail.

As always, feel free to comment below or e-mail me.

If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds

Post meta

This entry was written by Amy Gahran and posted on January 4, 2005 at 10:33 am and filed under Audio Show, Real World Writing. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Comments are closed, but you can leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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4 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

Good ‘cast, Amy! By the way, if you open OneNote on your PC (especially on a tablet, for mobility) while having those “talk it out” conversations; set it to record voice; and jot yourself little notes–and especially the “Aha!” notes–while it records, your written or typed notes automatically then index the audio! So all you have to do to find a particular piece of audio is click on the words, and the audio jumps to that spot. I’ve found it invaluable, especially in long meetings–but even in soliloquies.

1. Joel Orr on January 6th, 2005 at 7:22 pm
Nice job, Amy. Volume levels were much better, audio was cleaner. More importantly, the absence of that ‘noise’ helped focus in on what you were saying.

Nice touch pointing us to the article to sort of read along (or pre-read, which probably works best).

Nothing wrong with ’some notes’, but you were more conversational this time. How about talking points to help keep on track.

The writing tips are a treat to enjoy. Even better to hear you talk about them. Perhaps in future podcasts you can do the same sort of ‘tip’ theme. Then, give some personal experiences/examples where you’ve either coached someone on this or used your tips yourself. Do it without mentioning names/companies - just the type of company you were working with… maybe?

Enjoyed the show! Thanks.

2. Robert on January 6th, 2005 at 1:42 am
Amy, I heard about your new podcast via Dave Slusher’s Evil Genius Chronicles. I enjoyed you helpful hints on writing.

I might be able to help with your podcast. I posted a “how to” along with screenshots that might help you to resolve some of you audio issues. You can find it here: http://mwgblog.com/archives/2004/12/27/podcast-about-the-podcast/

Hopefully you’ll find it helpful. If you shoot me an email, I’ll be happy to send you a screenshot of what your audio looks like for comparison to some of the pictures I posted. A few tweaks and I think you’ll have nailed. Enjoyed your podcast.

3. Michael Geoghegan on January 5th, 2005 at 3:55 pm
Hi Amy,

Very interesting, this podcasting thing. For me however, there’s one major caveat. As I am following most of the new webtrends through feeds from my professional workspace, I often bump into a very annoying thing called Websense. Especially items like MP3 and “audio download” are big nono’s to this Big Brother-like nanny. Maybe somewhere in the future, you could write a piece about “how to increase traffic by avoiding Websense triggering keywords”

4. Tim Wouters on January 5th, 2005 at 1:52 am