For one of the first assignments this week, I had to watch a few videos on audio storytelling and write some “nuggets” about them.

I watched these earlier in the week, but forgot to post about them, so I rewatched them and am posting them today!

Ira Glass

First thought: wow his voice is wonderful for radio!

But onto some real thoughts.

I was rather stunned by his first video. I understood coming into this audio storytelling week that radio would be different than other digital forms of storytelling. I think of it kind of like how when I am teaching, I have to keep students interested by creating a story. I can’t just read out a paper I wrote on the Civil War battles. I have to tell a story. One event happened. Then this event happened. And while these events were happening, other events here were happening.

That’s why I really connected with Ira’s first video. These points were the best things I picked out for creating a radio story.

• Start with the action.
• Raise questions for the listeners. “The house is really quiet.” Well, why?
• Have a moment of reflection. “Here’s why the hell you are listening to this story.”

Part two wasn’t very insightful for me. I know when something sucks. I know when to give up on something. But seriously. His voice is wonderful.

Part Three was my second favorite. And it really applies to what I’ve been dealing with this week. My taste is good enough that I can tell when I’m creating crappy stories. But the point is, he says, is not to just quit. I had to be reminded of that this week. Just like when I used to write the crappiest research papers my freshman year. I wanted to give up on being a History major. I thought I wasn’t doing well enough. I wasn’t living up to the standard of historical research I’ve seen in scholarly journals. But I didn’t quit. I kept going and pushing through. Now I’m turning out work that is lightyears away from what I wrote my freshman year.

I have to keep reminding myself of this, though, while working with all these forms of digital storytelling. I’m not good at writing creatively, but I can’t just quit. I need to push through it.

Part Four: He basically is saying don’t have a terrible personality and talk about yourself all the time. He’s right, though. You have to have a genuine interest in people to be a good storyteller.

Jad Abumrad

Jad Abumrad: Why “Gut Churn” Is an Essential Part of the Creative Process from 99U on Vimeo.

I’ve never been a radioperson. I don’t really understand listening to people talking or stories on the radio. I love Pandora, don’t get me wrong. Sometimes I love listening to radio shows in the morning. But those shows are nothing like the stories we are listening to this week. So, I guess, for his two videos, I was kind of like “What’s going on..?”

When I’m required to listen to stories on the internet, yea, sure, I will listen to them and get into it. But on my leisure time? More than likely not. I get distracted too easily. While listening to those stories, I was drawing in a notebook. I need something to look at.

Jad Abumrad talks about this in the first video, but I still don’t get it.

I guess I’m more of a video person than him.