Over the past four weeks, I have been busy writing and refining my script for episodes one, two, three, four, and five. Each episode is roughly fifteen pages and about fifteen minutes long. During spring break, I also met with Mr. Gosselin twice to discuss the episodes. We talked about character interactions, the overall flow between episodes, and plot considerations. 

On top of the story development process, I have sorted out which microphones I will be using, as well as identified a safe spot in my home to record with little noise pollution. Going forward, I will be testing out different recording software, and choose the one that works the best in terms of both sound quality, and ease of use. 

During my meetings with Mr. Gosselin, we have discussed numerous concepts involved in maintaining audience attention. For example, Mr. Gosselin has highlighted the importance of dialogue and flow within a story. Early in our meetings, Mr. Gosselin pointed out that the dialogue spoken by the main character and the narrator needed to be distinct and the switch between them had to flow well in order for the audience to distinguish who is speaking. A further concept he introduced was the need of an outline for the podcast as a whole, as well as each episode. One of my struggles early on was not having a complete and logical outline for my story. A final concept that Mr. Gosselin and I discussed is the use of cliffhangers and suspense. Mr. Gosselin gave a good piece of advice, where as I’m writing the end of an episode, I need to ask myself “Why should the audience tune in for next week?”. I greatly value Mr. Gosselin’s feedback as I think he is an amazing editor and has a lot of valuable advice. 

In Chapter ten, De Bono wrote about the importance of considering both action and perception alternatives. For my podcast, one action alternative Mr. Gosselin suggested was the use of templates and outlines to help structure or develop the story. In one of our meetings, Mr. Gosselin told me the story about where he proofread work for his colleagues. He would read over their script, and then ask for their outline. He could tell when they hadn’t used a template or outline, and told them the importance of planning everything out first. In contrast, a different mentor may have an alternate view on outlines and templates. The creative process is unique to each person and their methods vary greatly from one writer to another and from one script to another. One famous screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin famously claims that he has never written an outline for any of his plays or movies. According to Sorkin, he brainstorms the first scene and attempts to “walk in the dark with a flashlight.” 

Similarly, for my podcast, one perception alternative that Mr. Gosselin gave me is that my protagonist should lead the plot as much as possible. The main character should be actively searching for the next plot device instead of stumbling upon it. Overall, I tried to follow Mr. Gosselin’s advice with regards to the protagonist, however, sometimes, the opposing perception made better sense from a plot perspective. 

My learning centre will consist of a dedicated website highlighting key aspects of my In-Depth project. Specifically, I plan to include:

• An introduction to my podcast
• A link in which people can download podcast episodes
• A short teaser trailer 
• A quiz and/or infographic 
• Social media links where people can follow/share or access my podcast download link in a different way

As my In-Depth topic was very broad and had multiple elements, my learning centre will focus on the creative side. I believe focusing on the story and writing process will appeal more to my audience than the technical components.

I hope that my audience will learn that script writing is difficult and takes a lot of time. It is impossible to write a perfect script on your first try. Each of the podcast episodes consist of multiple drafts and rewrites that reflect notes and advice from my mentor, Mr. Gosselin. I also hope that my audience will be entertained. During the pandemic, many people are always looking for new and different forms of entertainment and I hope that some people will enjoy listening to each of my episodes. The objective of my In-Depth project was to be inherently interactive with the audience and I am optimistic that my podcast will find an audience that will enjoy and stick around.