It’s been a while since I’ve written a podcast script for Cobalt City Adventures Unlimited. But we’ve just posted the last episode of the current story (which our producer busted her ass to make astounding). So we need more material. There’s no way around that. We’re geared up to do fillers before the third season, which we’ll start airing in the fall – that’s no problem. But a script? Oy.
The hardest part is getting used to the formatting. And having just finished the first of six episode scripts, I feel I’m back in that groove. But there are other things that are trickier, and that’s slowing me down.
We’ve had a lot of learning over the past two seasons, most of which I equate to thinking about budget. Sure, we don’t have to build sets and go to locations in any real sense, but the fewer location types we use, the easier the ambient background noise mixing is. And while I love conversations with large groups, big casts with everyone talking over everyone else, or talking while in action, etc., that’s hugely time consuming. So, episode one has one primary character and a handful of extras (including a brief exchange with the co-star), but almost all of the conversations are one-on-one. And everything takes place in one location. Episodes 2-5 will also take place in only one location so the background sound mixing should be tons easier. And it’s just three characters, one of whom is…well, I don’t want to give anything away.
But the trickiest part for me is that I’m a very visual person. So retraining myself on how to tell a story that is heard but not seen is a tricky thing. For instance, how do you convey the horror of a swarm of albino cockroaches other than a skittering noise and a few minutes of “Ewwwwwwwww!!”?
The first episode is done. I’m not going anywhere for the next few days, and not doing much of anything other than writing and laundry, so I expect to have the rest of this pounded out by bedtime Monday. The sounds of fireworks will be my celebration for having finished approximately 9,000 words in 3 days.
Oh, and a sneak preview for this fall’s audio drama? It’s tentatively called Bug Hunt, and stars Worm Queen and Doctor Shadow as they go on the hunt in Cobalt’s under-city for a mysterious insect presence. It will be the perfect companion to the Dark Carnival and Benevolent Apocalypse anthologies coming out that season!
Tales from the Ragged Edge 
Sounds like an interesting project.The only thing I can think of for your cockroaches is skittering sounds. Now you’ve got me thinking about this…
Our audio wranglers are top notch, but every now and then I toss them something that catches them off guard. The “monk psychic party line” effect from Return of the Prodigal Eagle part 6 didn’t slow them down too much (and came out awesome). But the rocket pack sound that I didn’t even think about had them flummoxed.