[Listen]
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[Woman’s Voice]
This is Behind the Cut with Christopher Gronlund. The companion show to Not About Lumberjacks.
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Christopher Gronlund:
Behind the Cut is an in-depth look at the latest episode of Not About Lumberjacks and likely contains spoilers of the most recent story. You’ve been warned…”
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Before chatting about “In the Margins,” I have a listener question to answer. Curtis Hart asked: “What is your thought process when choosing other narrators?” (Okay, so he specifically asked how I choose between Cynthia narrating a story instead of me, but I’ve used other narrators in the past, so I’d also like to cover that.)
While I’d be comfortable narrating every story I write for Not About Lumberjacks, when a story is from the point of view of a woman, I prefer having women narrate those stories. In my mind, I associate my deeper voice being a strange thing to carry a story featuring a female protagonist. So that’s why women narrate the stories I write featuring women.
When it comes to the other narrators I’ve chosen over the years, there are just people I love working with. I adore hearing their take on something I’ve written. Perhaps the best example is Michael Howie’s reading of “The Hidebehind.” It takes place in a lumber camp in Ontario, Canada, and Michael has the perfect tone and authentic accent for that story. That’s really it: I like working with friends…most of whom, I know through podcasting.
So…why don’t I do it more often?
When working with others, you have to arrange things around two schedules: the narrator’s schedule…and mine. Also, I believe in paying narrators, so there’s cost involved. (Because I work with friends who refuse to take money from me, I offer to pay them or donate to a charity of their choice…and they always choose charities!)
Not About Lumberjacks is a thing I do on my own time, and I sometimes find myself with a break in my schedule sooner than planned. If I keep production in house, I can adapt to those moments and sometimes get episodes out sooner. But if I tell someone they have three weeks to narrate a story and I find myself with unexpected time a week in, I can’t tell them to adapt to my schedule if they planned to narrate things a week later.
I’ve not used a remote narrator since Jesse Harley narrated “Geocached” almost two years ago. I’d love to work with others more, but it’s just easier to do it all right here.
That’s why Cynthia narrates even more than she has in the past: we live beneath the same roof! The logistics of creating a new episode is just easier when everything is recorded on the same gear and in the same manner. (Well, that and—just like how people love hearing my voice—many listeners love hearing Cynthia’s voice on the occasional story.)
So, a quick recap: I feel like a story with a female protagonist is best served by a woman’s voice and…it’s just easier to do everything under one roof.
Thanks for the question, Curtis!
And now…a bit more about the latest Not About Lumberjacks story, “In the Margins…”
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In 1979, a good friend introduced me to a strange, new-to-me game called Dungeons and Dragons.
Figuring out a tabletop role-playing game as fifth graders wasn’t easy, but when we settled on our version of the rules, we had a blast. In time, we were regulars at Viking Hobby Shop (now Ron’s Mundelein Hobbies) in my hometown, spending our allowances on new adventure modules.
I loved everything about Dungeons and Dragons, with one big exception: the puzzles.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate puzzles; it’s not that I necessarily hate puzzles, but I can’t claim to be a fan of them. With Dungeons and Dragons puzzles, the biggest issue I had is I couldn’t see what my character was trying to solve. (And in the 70s, the men writing D&D adventure modules seemed to really get off on creating complex puzzles—many that made sense only to them.)
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A year or two before discovering Dungeons and Dragons, The Hobbit became a favorite book. The famous chapter, Riddles in the Dark—in which Bilbo is challenged by Gollum to a series of riddles—captivated me. As a fourth grader, I couldn’t figure out the riddles, but…once they were revealed, I understood them.
That seemed fair to me: a challenge to readers who might be so inclined to ponder the questions Bilbo and Gollum posed to each other, but not leaving people hanging if they didn’t figure things out. (Or, ya know, resulting in a favorite D&D character dying because they crawled into the mouth of the friggin’ great green devil, rather than trying to figure out the portal of mists puzzle in Tomb of Horrors.)
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With my disdain for puzzles, and vague tolerance of riddles, it might seem strange that the latest Not About Lumberjacks story is based on them. But I set out to do what Gary Gygax’s puzzles did not: give listeners and readers a chance to figure things out if that’s their thing…but also provide answers like Tolkien did for me in The Hobbit.
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I’m a technical writer by day, and I’ve also assisted with usability studies. Sometimes I treat the fiction I write like the software I document and test: my goal is not to show off how complex things are behind the scenes, but instead—to present something that makes sense to users. (In this case, listeners and readers.)
I could have tried writing the literary version of the computer game, Myst—where Kenna had to run to this side of campus to the other—flipping switches and turning levers to unlock the hidden library. But that would be miserable to write, and even more miserable to listen to.
So, the riddles are solvable…at least if you’ve read plenty of children’s literature. (And if you haven’t, you still didn’t have to wait long for answers. Hell, the clue to one of the novels was the first line from The Hobbit, which mentions the book’s title. And most of the other books can be found with a little digging on Google…I know, because I put myself in Kenna’s shoes to see what popped up in basic searches!)
Assuming the role I’ve had in usability labs, I also considered the format. Short riddles and poems, many of which Kenna repeats, is a consideration to people listening. Sure, you could always pause and write things down if you’re really into solving things, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you figure out any of the clues because Kenna solves them for you.
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I’ve chatted with people who assume I put great effort into planning the stories I write, but I’m not one to plan. I find that wading into a story and doing the work reveals what’s there. I did think about making Kenna’s challenges more complex, but that would have resulted in a slog of a tale. Even dedicating as much time to the first couple riddles with all the others would have likely worn thin. (Which is why there’s almost a montage as she rushes about, solving things quickly.) What mattered wasn’t so much the gauntlet Kenna was running, but where it took her. More important than the riddles was her relationship with her parents and school…her losing her job along the way. And then: not having to figure out what she’d do with the rest of her life because the efforts in her studies resulted in a job coming to her.
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“In the Margins” is a story of appreciation to many of the books I loved as a kid. It’s also an acknowledgement that most written stories never see publication or find an audience. It’s never lost on me how fortunate I am to have a small audience listening to the stories I tell. There are regular Not About Lumberjacks listeners around the world I don’t know—and that blows my mind!
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I started out this behind-the-scenes essay talking about how much I’m not fond of puzzles, but that’s not entirely true. Every story I write is a puzzle in which I figure out how characters and places and words and ideas and scenes all fit together. It’s far more complex than a puzzle to be solved in Dungeons and Dragons—and by the end, I want everything to make sense for listeners and readers—even when I’m writing stories with ambiguous endings.
To that point, if you didn’t figure it out: the answer to Kenna’s book riddle— A patchwork quilt Is the best defense against a frenzied storm On a dark and stormy night…—was A Wrinkle in Time.
Maybe I am a bit like those crusty old Dungeon Masters after all…
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Thank you for listening to Not About Lumberjacks and Behind the Cut. Theme music for Behind the Cut is a tune called “Reaper” by Razen. Visit nolumberjacks.com for information about the music, the episodes, and voice talent.
Also, for as little as a dollar a month, you can have access to a bigger behind-the-scenes look at Not About Lumberjacks on Patreon. Check out patreon.com/cgronlund if that sounds like you’re kinda thing.
In November, it’s the annual REALLY Not Not About Lumberjacks episode. Find out what happens to Big Nick Champeau when a wicked river carries more than just logs downstream…
Until next time: be mighty, and keep your axes sharp!
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