[production-notes] Episode 5.3 (Patreon)

Sorry everything's so late this week! I had a lovely birthday bbq on Saturday, the first since covid! That went on quite late and knocked me back.

SO things are not quite as plain sailing as they could be, eh? Here's a BIG behind-the scenes for you: In my first draft the fall kills Amelie. I couldn't stand reading that every time, so I changed it. Maybe one day I will become the kind of author who kills their darlings, but not today. I suppose MINI's loss was more abstract? Strange.

I love the SIGNAL for today, Void Behind. I wrote it in 4 hours Sunday night (late late late!) and I'm sure it could be better with more time. Not everything is possible every week. I'll return to it and give it the B section it deserves soon.

I think the title, Void Behind, might have been in my music notes for the longest. Let me tell you the story:

About 10 years ago I was commuting on the London Underground to my day job as a web developer. There were works happening, and one set of escalators were boarded up. There was a construction-only door entering the site at the top, and on it was a warning that there was a 4-story fall behind the door. It said, you guessed it: Void Behind. That stuck in my brain as being TERRIFYING and I added it to my notes. You can see a similar example I found on google in the track artwork.

One for my nerds: I've started using a little script I wrote in pure python to check my scripts for:

• Capitalisation (Pacific Ocean often got me, for example)
• Missing sections
• Signal name
• 2000 words minimum
• And I'll add more all the time

The 2000 words is a new problem, I've started to add LOADS of todo items and notes at the top of my episodes, as the format evolves and becomes more complex (would you be interested in the template?). This tricked me into thinking I have been writing more than I have been, making the episodes subtly shorter. This is now fixed.

I try for 2000 words, which is about 20 minutes. You'll note that 16 minutes has been more typical. This will fix that!

If you're interested, I've attached the script. Only python is needed, which might be installed on your machine already... GOOD LUCK!

Thank you all for your support, talk to you next week! <3