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Speaker 1: Hello. So I wanted to take some time
to introduce myself, talk about what this

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Speaker 1: podcast is about, and then with a
little bit of time left, I'm going to talk about

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Speaker 1: the most recent episode,
"Planescarred" one and two. Okay, so hello. Uh,

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Speaker 1: Collected Forge is a podcast where I
get to take my writing and turn them into audio

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Speaker 1: stories. So I'm learning the art of
sound design, and this is a place for me to

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Speaker 1: practice and share, and hopefully,
uh, give you some entertaining stories along the

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Speaker 1: way. So right now I'm in the process
of publishing 12 stories, two episodes each.

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Speaker 1: This is a sorta- sort of shotgun
approach. We're gonna see what sticks, what's

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Speaker 1: exciting, what makes me excited, and
then I'm gonna take two of those story worlds,

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Speaker 1: maybe the same stories, and I'm going
to go much deeper into them. Uh, about 12 to

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Speaker 1: 13 episodes, so probably a full
season, and those episodes will be more
polished.

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Speaker 1: Uh, so that's where I'm going with
the podcast, right? Uh, I'm gonna slowly dive

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Speaker 1: deeper, less of this sporadic new
story every week thing. Um, I'm really just
trying

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Speaker 1: to figure things out right now. So a
little bit about the format. Uh, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: keep getting two episodes per week.
Uh, I have designated episodes that do not have

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Speaker 1: any sound design, uh, as raw. That's
what the word raw at the end means there. And

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Speaker 1: when I get a chance, sometimes I will
go back and remaster sections of the episodes,

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Speaker 1: uh, with, uh, full sound design, uh,
audio cleanup, music, stuff like that. And if I

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Speaker 1: do that, I'll post it again. So
that's what that format means. If you don't see
raw

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Speaker 1: next to it, that means I've done some
amount of sound design. So that means there's

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Speaker 1: atmosphere tracks, music, Foley sound
effects, there's spot effects, um,

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Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff. Uh, and
usually I don't get all the way through the full

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Speaker 1: episode. I kind of just focus on
certain pieces that are interesting to me or
that I

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Speaker 1: think, uh, will teach me something.
So it's a little sporadic, uh, so bear with me.

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Speaker 1: When we start getting into the full
seasons, the episodes will be more and more

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Speaker 1: polished as I not only get better and
more efficient, but, you know, I s- I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: spend a little bit more time, and the
release schedule will slow down to one episode

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Speaker 1: per week instead of two.

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Speaker 1: So that's where we're going. Uh,
that's what it is currently. Uh, I have much
bigger

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Speaker 1: plans, and maybe I'll get into the
master plan another time. But for now, it's just

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Speaker 1: gonna be new stories every week, and
we can treat them like short stories. Okay. So

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Speaker 1: I think that's enough backstory. And
so let's talk a little bit about "Planescarred"

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Speaker 1: episode one and two.

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Speaker 1: What I love so much about this story
is really the world. Uh, I knew about the world

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Speaker 1: and the magic system long before I
knew about the characters, and that's really how

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Speaker 1: I've been approaching, uh, each of
these stories really is I, I come up with the

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Speaker 1: magic system. I come up with the
rules of the universe beyond the magic system,
uh,

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Speaker 1: which is a super set, and then I
think about, what kind of people would this
create?

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Speaker 1: What kind of cultures might you get
out of this? And then you sorta zoom in from

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Speaker 1: there. Okay, what kind of cultures
might be in conflict? What would their problems

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Speaker 1: be, uh, if they could have this? Like
if you've got magic that can purify food

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Speaker 1: [laughs] or make food appear, right,
you have a very different kind of problem, uh,

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Speaker 1: from people who can see the future or
who can go into the past. Uh, who knows,

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Speaker 1: right? Uh, the magic systems have a
profound effect on how the world works, just

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Speaker 1: like how the rules of our world has a
profound effect on how the world works. So

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Speaker 1: once I know the magic system and then
the world and I start to dial in on the

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Speaker 1: setting and the time period, uh,
that's when I start creating characters. Uh,

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Speaker 1: so the characters in this story

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Speaker 1: are at war, uh, and it's two
different planes. And we haven't gotten into,
you know,

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Speaker 1: how many different planes there are,
how you move between them, uh, but most of that

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Speaker 1: is already spelled out. This one was
pretty well flashed out-- fleshed out, the

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Speaker 1: world anyway. Uh, so we've got a
delegation of magical people who

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Speaker 1: are on the physical plane or the
mundane plane, which is basically where we live,

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Speaker 1: uh, and they have dwindling
resources, and they've been cut off, and, oh,
spoiler by

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Speaker 1: the way, if you haven't [laughs]
listened to this episode, you should, uh, you

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Speaker 1: should, you should pause. But I don't
think you should be surprised that there's

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Speaker 1: conflict. Spoiler, there's conflict.
Uh, you should pause this and go listen to it

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Speaker 1: first. So they're stranded, uh, and
they have to make friends quickly in order to

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Speaker 1: survive. They've basically been left
out to dry, and I won't go too into detail on

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Speaker 1: what's going wrong, but suffice to
say, many things are going wrong, uh, uh, all

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Speaker 1: over the place. Uh, and they may have
to save the people that they were more or less

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Speaker 1: sent here to fight. So that's the
story. Uh, what really drew me to

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Speaker 1: this story, uh, is the magic systems.
Uh, sometimes it plays a central focus, uh,

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Speaker 1: sometimes it doesn't. Uh, in this
one, it was fairly important for the magical

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Speaker 1: people, uh, for obvious reasons. Uh,
the one that was most exciting to me,

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Speaker 1: uh, is the School of Villomancy, the
ability to have magical diseases that you can

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Speaker 1: derive from the environment, and you
can shape and tailor the effects that it has on

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Speaker 1: people. Uh, it's just really cool.
Uh, it's-- it has a lot of room

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Speaker 1: [laughs] for use and I guess abuse,
uh, and I very quickly turned it

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Speaker 1: into a weapon. Uh, so it has-- not
only is it an interesting plot

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Speaker 1: device and the main character's stash
of magical diseases is now stolen and

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Speaker 1: somewhere [laughs] in the hands of a
nefarious group of actors-

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Speaker 1: Uh, so it is not only a plot device,
but it's just a really cool school of magic,

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Speaker 1: and we'll get to explore a little bit
more about what it can do and what its limits

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Speaker 1: are. Uh, but I just thought it was
interesting 'cause I, I had never seen a magic

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Speaker 1: school quite like this. You know,
there's lots of gross magic, [laughs] like body

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Speaker 1: magic, transformation stuff. Um,
there's lots of gross schools of magic, uh,

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Speaker 1: in stories. Uh, but this wasn't, in,
isn't just gross. It's gross in a very weird

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Speaker 1: and not obviously useful way. Like,
what, what are you gonna do with magical

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Speaker 1: diseases? How, [laughs] how useful
could this really be? Uh, and what makes a

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Speaker 1: disease magical instead of just
mundane? Uh, and the answer is it has lots of
very

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Speaker 1: interesting effects that, you know,
don't really seem to make a lot of sense. But,

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Speaker 1: uh, as an author, I write for, at
least in part, what is cool and

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Speaker 1: interesting to read. Uh, I try to
make it coherent within the rules of the w-

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Speaker 1: the world that it's in, and that's
really the rule of thumb. It's not, does it make

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Speaker 1: sense, but does it make sense in
their world? So I just have to construct the
rules

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Speaker 1: of the universe and keep them
consistent, and that's really what readers are
looking

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Speaker 1: for when you're looking for logic.
Uh, it just, it has to be internally consistent,

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Speaker 1: not necessarily [laughs] consistent
with our world. Uh, that's one of the rules that

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Speaker 1: I try to follow with magic systems. I
don't always succeed. Uh, you gotta follow the

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Speaker 1: rule of cool sometimes, uh, and I
think that that's perfectly fine. So yeah,
that's

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Speaker 1: the story. It's the School of
Villomancy. There are eight schools of magic.
I'm sure

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Speaker 1: we'll get around to all of them. Uh,
we briefly saw a few others. I think Mother

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Speaker 1: Lissandra was, uh, using Gristview,
the, basically the ability to spray magical

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Speaker 1: concrete. Uh, it's really not more
com- complicated than that. Uh, but yeah, we'll

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Speaker 1: explore the world a little bit more,
uh, and the cultures and the clash between

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Speaker 1: them, uh, and what makes the physical
plane physical, what makes the magical plane

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Speaker 1: magical. What are the other planes?
How do you get there? So I'll explore all that.

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Speaker 1: Uh, it's a pretty cool setting. It's
one that I've thought about for a long time. So

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Speaker 1: yeah, that's Planesguard. Next week,
we are also going to be revisiting an older

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Speaker 1: story of mine. Uh, it's a character
from a book I wrote. Um, this is basically the

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Speaker 1: backstory to his story. Uh, and it is
in a place called

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Speaker 1: Everhouse. So we'll get to that next
week. I'm excited to write that one. It's

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Speaker 1: definitely lower magic. The setting
is a little more wild. Um, but there's

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Speaker 1: definitely less magic. Uh, but
there's always some. There's always some. So
yeah,

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Speaker 1: that'll be The Lightslinger, I think
is what the name of the book or story will be.

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Speaker 1: Uh, yeah, and I think that about does
it. I'll try to publish episodes where I talk

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Speaker 1: about the stories and really what I
think makes a good story. Uh, it's really a

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Speaker 1: theory, right, a work in progress,
and what I'm learning about sound design and,
uh,

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Speaker 1: the struggles I had in creating the
episodes and, you know, stuff like that. Uh, so

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Speaker 1: speaking of which, moving on to the
sound design of Planesguard. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, there was a lot of outdoor
scenes. Uh, so I spent a lot of time going

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Speaker 1: through, uh, sound effects for, you
know, people in crowds. But you know what's

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Speaker 1: difficult is when your time period
doesn't have cars or trucks or planes and

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Speaker 1: somebody flies a plane overhead on
your sound effects. [laughs] Like, okay. Uh,
it's

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Speaker 1: actually exceptionally difficult to
get, um, the right time periods for atmospheres,

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Speaker 1: and there's a lot of times where I
try to cover it up or [laughs] hide the fact
that

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Speaker 1: there's a car driving by, cut it off
in editing. Um, so that's always an interesting

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Speaker 1: challenge. Uh, uh, I got to do sound
design for a fryer. Uh, that ended

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Speaker 1: up being... That scene ended up being
a little longer than intended, [laughs] the

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Speaker 1: Fry Anything stand. Uh, but it was
funny, so, uh, hopefully that was

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Speaker 1: appreciated. I, I poured a lot of
love into that scene specifically for sound

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Speaker 1: design. Um, yeah. Uh, I think on this
episode I really spent a long... I

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Speaker 1: spread my sound design evenly,
whereas in some past episodes, I've really
focused on

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Speaker 1: just a few minutes, and then most of
the rest of the episode is basically dead air,

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Speaker 1: uh, other than my voice. But on this
one, I really did spread it out fairly evenly.

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Speaker 1: Uh, I wish I could have spent a
little more time on the action scenes at the
end,

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Speaker 1: but action scenes take a lot of time
to do sound design for. It's the kind of thing

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Speaker 1: you just, you don't notice until
you're actually in there making it. Every little

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Speaker 1: scuff of the foot, uh, move it,
movement of clothing, grabbing clothing, uh,

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Speaker 1: footsteps, uh, bouncing off walls,
and that's just the sounds of movement. That's

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Speaker 1: not even the sounds of, you know, all
the magic that is happening or gunfire or

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Speaker 1: everybody else who's moving around
and saying things and they grunt and go, "Ugh,"

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Speaker 1: when they get hit. So it's got a very
high density of sound, so it takes an enormous

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Speaker 1: amount of effort to do an action
scene. Uh, but they are very exciting, and I
will

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Speaker 1: say that the sounds really add a lot
of depth and immersion to an action scene.

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Speaker 1: There's something that you get with
sound that you just can't get with words. I can

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Speaker 1: say, "She swung her head back and hit
him in the face," and you can imagine that,

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Speaker 1: but when you hear... [whooshing]
[imitates punching] [laughs] "Ugh," it's just so

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Speaker 1: much more descriptive of what
happened, right? I don't have to say, "And then
his

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Speaker 1: bones broke," when I can just make
the sound of crunching. [laughs] And you know

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Speaker 1: exactly how bad the hit was, right? I
don't need to dive into whether it was a

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Speaker 1: glancing blow or not. You hear that,
the huge crunch. Like, oh man, that was a big

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Speaker 1: hit. Um, so I find that it, it's
really, it really adds another channel of

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Speaker 1: information to action scenes that

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Speaker 1: is really hard to get in another
format. Uh, so that's cool, uh, but it is

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Speaker 1: time-consuming.

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Speaker 1: Um, what else would I like to say
about this episode? Uh, I enjoyed it. Uh, I
wrote

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Speaker 1: it in basically one, maybe two long
sessions. Uh, it was,

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Speaker 1: it was fun to write. It's got a lot
of humor in it. Uh, I think that I reflexively

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Speaker 1: put a lot of humor in my stories. I
like dark grittiness every now and then,

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Speaker 1: um, but I like lightheartedness too.
Uh, and I think I... There's a mix of that in

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Speaker 1: this story. There's a lot of, uh,
gross-out moments. Sorry to give you two stories

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Speaker 1: like that in a row. [laughs] I
promise that is not usually how I write. It just
so

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Speaker 1: happens that, uh, both of these
stories have magic systems that are, eh, a
little

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Speaker 1: bit nasty. Um, but yeah, uh, I
enjoyed writing it. Uh,

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Speaker 1: it was really cool. Uh, it's sort of
a urban setting.

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Speaker 1: Uh, next, next week's setting will be
interior.

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Speaker 1: [laughs] 100% interior. Uh, I'm
really

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Speaker 1: excited about the next one. It's one
of my favorite settings. Uh, you'll, you'll

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Speaker 1: recognize, uh, what novels it's
inspired by, uh, if you listen to it.

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Speaker 1: But, uh, I think that's it for me.
I'm not gonna keep droning on, but this was my

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Speaker 1: first developer commentary. As
always, I want your feedback. The reason I'm
even

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Speaker 1: releasing this podcast at all is
because I want feedback. Uh, I believe that you

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Speaker 1: need to share things in order to get
better. And yeah, so here's to getting

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Speaker 1: better and thanks for listening. See
you next week