What It Takes to Make A Podcast

It's a lot of tools and work, let me tell you...

Photo by Soundtrap on Unsplash

It’s not easy being an independent podcaster. It’s also not easy doing all the work yourself. Especially since I do this show solo with no co-host(s). It’s important to plan things out and do your homework. So here’s a run-down of what it takes for me to produce every episode of The Westerosi Primer.

Script writing

Initially I wasn’t going to write a script for this podcast. I was originally going to wing it like I did with Three Fates Decide and to some degree with Cafe Manga. However my first attempt at recording Episode 2 about the North was a disaster. It was too long and rambling. The fact the recording was messed up was a clear sign this was the wrong way to go about it. So I started scripting.

I just open up Microsoft Word and clicked on to A Wiki of Ice and Fire to start researching some of the main points I should include in each episode. I’m not a natural script writer. So I just basically write an essay. I do rewrites mostly because I realize that what I initially wrote doesn’t sound right when spoken aloud. I even make tweaks while I record!

Of course this is only for episodes 2-11 of the podcast. The more recent episodes I’ve been doing are my commentary/reaction to Season 2 of House of the Dragon. Which means there’s way less scripting. I work out the opening and closing of the episodes so that it’s more consistent with each episode.

Recording

Recording is so much easier with the script. I know exactly what I want to say. In general the recording process can take as little as 30 minutes. Due to the really short production schedule I have to do the episodes each week now, I can’t really script the entire episode. At most I write bullet point notes of things to talk about in the episode and just talk. I have to admit the recording sessions are closer to an hour, especially in the previous episode I did for “Rhaenyra the Cruel.”

Another thing I also did was I had planned out audio tracks that I knew would be consistent elements in each show. I pre-recorded the intros and outros. I also worked out excerpts of the amazing theme song to use in the show as well. All I’d have to do is swap out the talking portions for each episode. This template would reduce the recording work I do. Also it makes compiling the contents for each episode a LOT faster.

I’ve been using Descript to do the recording. (Please note the link is an affiliate link.) It is really handy to use since it includes lots of tools that also make editing easier later.

Editing

Editing is so much easier with Descript. At the risk of this sounding like an advertisement for Descript, it really does make it a lot easier. The new tool they released, Underlord, is impressive. I can quickly delete sections of audio that contain all my flubs in a snap. Of course it’s not 100% perfect. Probably 95% of the work is done with it.

I do that last 5% of editing on Audacity. Audacity is where I do the tiny bit of editing that I can’t quite get done in Descript. Also I compile the pre-recorded intro/outro and music and then export into the episode you hear.

The final touches

I’ve been using Podium to help me quickly come up with basic show notes and the transcript. I do plenty of edits. After all it’s an AI and not perfect AT ALL. In fact I wind up re-writing at least 1/3 of the stuff it produces. It does still make it a lot faster to produce the episode descriptions and transcript in such a short turnaround time. I’m hoping to reduce using it for Season 2. Season 2 will be mostly scripted episodes so I will have those as both the transcript and the starting point on show notes.

I previously was hosting the podcast on Acast. It’s not a bad host and the free plan is super generous. However it doesn’t have the growth tools that would make things so much easier. Which is why starting with Episode 11 about Essos, I moved it to the current host, Red Circle.

There were a couple of possible other hosting services I could have switched to. However the biggest thing that made me pick Red Circle is their Cross-promotion market place. I haven’t used it yet to reach out to another podcast. I didn’t have time to record a proper promo until recently. Funny enough? Just a couple days ago, I got a surprise cross-promo request! But that’s going to wait until a later post to talk about!