Quick guide to audio file management and naming conventions
I once asked a group of about eight audio makers about file management and the conversation almost ended in a
Suffering from ‘pod-guilt’? Don’t worry, it’s common and treatable
The difference between being an audio documentary maker and not being an audio documentary maker is one audio documentary.
But Evana raises an interesting point.
I don’t know anything about Evana’s situation, but I’m thankful for her vulnerability in raising the question.
It hints at a feeling I would describe and recognise as guilt.
That’s my experience anyway, when I’ve had spells throughout my career where I haven’t been in a position (paid or unpaid) to make audio documentaries.
In 2018 I was not in a creative role and my job had little to do with the craft of storytelling. Across that year, in my own time, I chipped away at one documentary project. Only one. It was a lot more than nothing, but still, I couldn’t escape the feeling.
I think it’s a phenomenon all audio makers will experience and can relate to.
Diagnosing pod-guilt
What do we do when it’s been a while since we did the thing we said we do?
You might be feeling like a fraud. Unworthy. Others around you kicking goals and yet you haven’t had a run on the board in forever.
When it comes to podcasting, this feeling is known as pod-guilt.
Do not be alarmed; it’s very common and easily treatable.
You are who you say you are
Most of the time, especially if you’re freelancing, it’s your decision.
One of your few liberties is the opportunity to choose how and what you want to call yourself; how you want to signal to the world in a few words what you can do.
In some ways, job titles can be limiting or disempowering.
But in other ways, titles can be a cape we choose to wear.
And nobody gets to take away your choice of the cape you choose.
They will try. They will place you in the wrong box. They will tell you what you’re not. They will make assumptions and join the wrong dots.
I would expect them to, like I’d expect someone to only make half a puzzle with only half of the puzzle pieces.
So when it comes to describing yourself, only you know the full picture and therefore, you are only accountable to yourself.
The challenge is that what you do is almost always tangled up with who you are. That is to say, your identity.
Doesn’t matter if it’s an inch or a mile
George RR Martin hasn’t released a book in nine years.
The Avalanches took 16 years to make their second record.
My brother has more children that Jonathon Zenti has episodes of his successful podcast, Meat.
It doesn’t matter if your last piece was five days ago or five years ago. In the same way, it doesn’t matter if your last piece was five minutes or five hours long. In the same way, it doesn’t matter if your piece was amazing or just okay.
Making 100 documentaries might make you a better documentary maker, but it won’t make you more of an audio documentary maker.
When it comes to expressing how you describe yourself, you either are, or you aren’t. Whether you are brilliant, struggling, experienced, mid-career, mediocre, or any other adjective is a different discussion.
Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) said in Fast and the Furious, winning is winning, whether it is an inch or a mile.
But you wonder, how can I be x, if I’m not doing x?
Is a fisherwoman still a fisherwoman when her rod is not in the water?
How does pod-guilt come about?
Feeling pod-guilt is a normal, uncomfortable emotion.
It comes about when you feel dissonance: your lack of action is not in line with the identity you expressed.
One way to deal with it is to change your identity.
If your title is a weight dragging you down, if you want to change how you think about what you do, you should feel empowered to change it.
But for many of us, this is not what we want.
I am a good uncle to my brother’s many kids. I think of myself as a good uncle. When I stuff up and behave like an average uncle I don’t flip my identity into being an average uncle to avoid feeling uncomfortable.
So then what?
In the uncle case, I act like a better uncle.
In your case, you could solve it by springing into action. Pick up the phone, start booking talent, hitting record and running at that edit montage.
After all, there is no better way to become an audio documentary maker, than by doing what an audio documentary maker does.
But if it were that easy, you would have done that already.
And it’s not easy. In fact, as anyone who attempts it will tell you, audio documentaries and podcasts are hard.
And if you’re independent it’s harder again. You have a job, you have bills to pay, you don’t have time, you don’t have energy, it’s a global pandemic, it’s the vibe, it’s the constitution, it’s Mabo.
All of these reasons are valid.
And so you are stuck in pod-guilt — oscillating between throwing it all away to become a postman, a gardener or a disaster management expert or diving into the work, knowing it will likely consume you.
I don’t know any audio documentary maker who doesn’t daydream about what their career would be if they weren’t in audio.
Treating pod-guilt
You don’t need to take the cape off and you don’t need to super glue it to your neck.
What if the uncomfortable feelings are uncomfortable and what if they are also a good thing?
Because they’re telling you something.
You care.
You care about the craft of documentary making and your role in contributing and sharing stories.
You care so much that you feel physiological pain.
These feelings will make you want to run, but you know you can’t. Because running from pod-guilt is like running from quicksand — it only makes it worse.
So what can we do?
We can sit with pod-guilt. We can acknowledge it. Maybe, we can lean into it?
Maybe pod-guilt is trying to help you?
It’s prompting you to recognise and think about the difference between where you’re at and what you want.
And while it sends you that message, you can also acknowledge that now might not be the right time to achieve it.
Because sometimes you make podcasts and sometimes you don’t. And that’s okay.
Yes, fulfilling the action will validate your identity.
But if you think speed and volume is the way to measure your identity then you might never be satisfied.
It’s why, even after a decade of making stories, you are susceptible to pod-guilt just the same.
How does time factor in?
The bar to become an audio documentary maker might be one documentary.
Merely one. Barely one.
After that, you get to decide.
While output might validate you, it is only a means to an end for the stuff that matters: attitude, craft, collaboration and even intent.
If you are playing the long game you don’t need to constantly re-evaluate your title based on your current motivation, your busy period at work, and especially anyone’s idea of output.
The fisherwoman is still a fisherwoman when her rod is not in the water.
