Getting Better At Your Craft (A Small Retrospective)

I spend so much time plotting, working on, and releasing new content that I sometimes forget to stop, take a breath, and look at just how far it is I've come in execution and skill level in some aspects. This is something that I think a lot of folks deal with in creative fields, especially those who haven't "made it" to the point that they have name recognition, and the sponsorship checks to go with it.

However, it's still a good idea to look back at the stuff you're making, and to acknowledge how far you've come, even if you're not quite where you want to be just yet.

It all comes back to drawn blades, and a little blood.

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A Year Or Two Can Make A BIG Difference

I have always enjoyed audio dramas. I grew up listening to them, and back when I was still earning my degree I dabbled with making an episode or two. It was an overall rewarding experience, but at the time I simply didn't have access to the tools and materials I needed to make things happen. Fast forward to not quite 2 years ago, and Adrian Kennelly at Azukail Games was looking to some ways to expand the content available on the company's YouTube channel. Since I was one of the major contributors, he asked me to talk about Sundara, my plans with it, and where I was going with the setting. That did pretty well, and he wanted to keep expanding... which gave me the idea to dramatize the short fiction from the supplements we already had on the market as a way to draw listeners into the worlds we were creating!

The Duel was the introductory fiction from Cities of Sundara: Ironfire, the first supplement from Sundara: Dawn of a New Age, which is still available for both Pathfinder Classic as well as Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. I wanted to start the setting off with an engaging story, and though it was originally split into two parts, the audio drama put them both together.

For what I was capable of at the time, this wasn't bad. I was recording off of a very small mic (the Samson SAGOmic, which is a fine piece of portable equipment or for virtual tabletop play, but not amazing for dramatic recording), I was using the free version of Wondershare Filmora (hence the watermark), and while I could competently clean up the vocals and add some sound effects and background music, there was definitely a lot of room to grow.

Compare that with the most recent tale told in Ironfire that came out a little over a week ago!

Swords and Sand is the opening story for the most recent supplement Merchants of Sundara. This supplement brought 3 years of releases full circle, and gave us the second installment of the tale of our mysterious outlander, and why he's returned to Ironfire. And if you watch this video you can hear the upgrade in my mic (I now use a Blue Yeti microphone, which I'd highly recommend), but it's more than just the tech that's improved. I've learned a lot of new tricks for cleaning up tracks, adding effects and voices, and I knuckled down and learned how to make an actual video using Shotcut to go with the audio drama (even if it is really more of just a slideshow to follow the main beats of the story).

It's not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. However, I feel that it does show the improvement one can make if they regularly put in the time, energy, and effort to get better at something. and I wanted to take a moment to remind folks out there that, whatever it is you're doing, ask if you could have pulled off what you did today 2 years ago. A lot of you probably couldn't, which means you're doing better!

Coming Full Circle

Before I go today, I wanted to draw readers' attention to another video that recently went up on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. Because my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting is in something of a unique place right now. I don't want to stop expanding it, but at the same time I want to poll the audience to ask what they'd like to see more of.

I've gone through three phases of releases for the setting thus far, and I'd like to know what it is that readers and listeners are most interested in out there. Do you want more audio dramas? Novellas? Setting books? Factions? Species? Would you like to see small towns, plot hooks, or full adventure modules?

Everything is on the table right now, but I need to get feedback from folks to make it happen! And if you enjoy our audio dramas, and want to see more of them, go back through the archive, and leave comments on your favorites that you'd like to see expanded! Then, before you click away, make sure you subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel to help us get monetized so we can afford to keep making things!

What's Next on Table Talk?

That's it for this installment of Table Talk! What would you like to see next? I'm listening for your comments and votes!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel for Azukail Games. Or, to check out books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my hard-boiled noir series featuring the street beasts of NYC in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, or my recent short story collection The Rejects, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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