As promised – if you missed it on Friday, or if you’d just like to hear the whole thing again, you can now listen to the broadcast here!
Day Five
We did it! After a week of intense writing, rewriting, recording and editing, we all met at 2 PM today to listen to our broadcast live from The Source FM.
I think it’s safe to say that we were all very happy with the result! It’s great to see that our hard work during this week paid off, and that we were able to create something really interesting together in the first week of the course. We’re all very happy that we got to spend this week working with Paul Dodgson, who made all of this possible, and we want to thank him as well as the talented people here at Falmouth University who recorded and edited the show.
Listening to the show together. PHOTO: Joe Nicholson
If you missed the broadcast today, don’t fret! You’ll be able to listen to Something to Declare the radio show online at The Source FM, and we’ll share the links here as soon as they’re available.
And as for the future – who knows? The project has been completed with great success, but if you keep an eye out for us in the coming months, I think you might find that we still have something to declare.
Listen now!
Something to Declare is due to go live in the next few minutes! Listen at thesourcefm.co.uk or locally around Cornwall and let us know what you think!
Day Four in Pictures
After reading through the script together and making some adjustments, we spent the day recording our stories. Below is a series of pictures showing the recording and editing process in our studio in Falmouth. The finished product will be broadcast at 2 PM on the 26 September on The Source FM.
All pictures are by the talented Jay Armstrong.
Quick update
It is now Thursday and we’ve started recording! You can follow the process on Twitter and Instagram, both at @sth2declare
Preparing to record our pieces. PHOTO: Tim Bragdø
Day Three
After a night of careful rewrites, keeping in mind the feedback we got from Paul Dodgson as well as our fellow students, we once again met at 9AM.
Bright and early. PHOTO: Jay Armstrong
Today we worked to join the different texts together in pairs. When we record the radio broadcast, two and two writers will read their pieces together. Some of the stories we paired together shared the same overarching theme, while others had more subtle similarities. It’s great to work with so many talented writers, who have all written completely unique texts, but who still found a way to come together to create a greater whole.
Giving each other feedback. PHOTO: Jay Armstrong
After organizing and editing our pieces in pairs, we read our texts to the rest of the students. It was really interesting to see stories that might seem quite different at first come together beautifully, while still remaining two separate stories. I’m really excited about the work we’ve done, and I’m now more convinced than ever that this is going to be a really fun and interesting listening experience for those who tune in to the show.
The final hour of the day was spent discussing the order in which the stories will be read, and now we’re all ready to meet in the recording studio tomorrow!
Day Two
PHOTO: Jay Armstrong
Another great day with Paul Dodgson, from the BBC. 9am isn’t usually the time I reserve for my creative energies, however this morning we got straight into it. After a few warm-up exercises we were tasked with writing our travel experiences. Students went off in their various directions, to sit secluded or in groups. I stayed on the top floor of the Stannary with the beautiful views of Falmouth, the sunshine, my pen and my notebook. This was it, let the ink flow!
Reading first drafts and getting feedback from fellow students as well as Paul Dodgson. PHOTO: Jay Armstrong
Several hours and cups of coffee later, we reconvened to hear first drafts of each others stories. As everyone got up and read I was amazed at the skill and diversity of the writing that came out. I’m getting really excited for when it all comes together on Friday!
On the first day…
We met Paul Dodgson, who’s in charge of this project, and he asked us to introduce ourselves and say something about ourselves that would make people want to know more. We learned a bit about writing about travel, as well as writing for radio and how that might be different from writing for other media.
After suggesting many different names, most involving more or less successful puns, we decided on the name through voting. We also delegated some tasks, and have among other things appointed people in charge of creating a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a blog (that would be yours truly) and a press release.
I’m pretty excited to see what tomorrow will bring!
So what’s this, then?
It’s the first week of the Professional Writing MA course at Falmouth University, and our very first project is something one of the tutors described as an “extended icebreaker” – we’re making a radio show together! It will be broadcast on Source FM, at 2PM on Friday 26 September.
The theme of the programme is going to be travel, and each of us will get to tell a different story about travelling, drawing from our own experiences. With 24 very different writers and only five days to make it happen, it’ll be very interesting to see how it all comes together.
On this blog we’ll chronicle our journey from our first meeting today, through all the inevitable ups and downs of this process, and up until we hear the finished product on Friday.
Something to Declare 