Storytelling podcasts: What they are and how to make a good one

The Q'd Up Podcast on Podcasting

In this week’s episode, Jay and John are joined by special guest Isabelle Mongeau, writer and producer for Q’d Up Audio, to talk about storytelling podcasts.

Podcasts can be a great format for telling a story and some of the most successful shows around have been narrative podcasts. But making one of your own can be a daunting task if you don’t know what you’re doing. The guys talk to Isabelle about her process for creating a compelling narrative podcast, from coming up with the story focus to promoting it once it’s all done.

Show highlights:

Introduction

Isabelle Mongeau - background (1:25)

Isabelle takes us through her background as a writer and some of the new things she’s doing.

What is a narrative podcast? (3:42)

Not all podcasts sound the same. That’s the case for storytelling podcasts and narrative podcasts, which revolve around telling a story with a conclusion -- whether short-form or told over a series.

Favorite storytelling podcasts (4:32)

John, Jay, and Isabelle list a few popular narrative podcasts, including some of their own favorites.

A potential pitfall of narrative podcasts? (5:56)

This format can be really rewarding but can also take a lot of time to produce. Jay talks about a podcast he once worked on and both how fun it was and how time-consuming it was for him. Isabelle discusses some of the different forms a narrative podcast can take and what goes into producing one.

Storytelling process - A seven-step process (8:06)

From developing the focus of the story to publishing and promotion, creating a storytelling podcast is a seven-step process from beginning to end.

Step one - Focus (8:51)

Developing the focus of the story is perhaps the most important step. Finding something that you’re passionate about is critical.

Why not just release the interviews? (10:31)

With many narrative podcasts including interviews, why go through all the trouble of producing something with them? John and Isabelle cover some of the most important reasons why someone should take a more narrative approach.

Step two - Storyboard or outline (12:27)

Part of what makes a compelling storytelling podcast is having well-crafted narrative beats and episode structure. Storyboarding each episode out allows you to finetune your story and overall narrative arc.

Step three - Interviews, transcription, and pulling quotes (15:44)

With all your ducks in a row, now is the time to start getting to the main work. Getting and recording your interviews is simple enough, but you probably don’t want to spend a number of hours transcribing each one. John goes over some of his favorite transcription services

Step four - Write and edit your script (19:48)

This step might seem self-explanatory but messing it up will seriously hurt your podcast. Isabelle gives a few tips for creating a compelling script and ensuring it sounds good when you need to read it.

Step five - Recording your script (22:54)

Recording might sound like the easiest step of all but audio differences between guests and hosts can make everything sound bad. John goes over the way he typically handles recording storytelling podcasts.

Step six - Getting the audio right (29:04)

All the main work is done, now you can get into editing all the pieces together to create your story.

Step seven - Publish and promote (29:13)

With everything recorded, mixed, edited, and ready to go live; now you need to don your marketing hat. You need to get the word out about your podcast and social media can be the ideal spot for storytelling podcasts to gain attention. Isabelle and Jay give a few tips to best promote your podcast.

Links:

Q’d Up

Pod Vader - Twitter

Pod Vader - Email

Pod Vader - Linked In

John - Email

John - Linked In

Izzy’s Ink - Youtube

Isabelle Mongeau - Twitter