Casting into cyberspace: A new medium for writing is on the horizon
By Matt Van Tassel
Phil Rossi has not gotten his book “Crescent” published, but thousands of people have already listened to it.The serialization of novels, like the ones Charles Dickens used to do, have gone the way of general interest magazines and polio. When one trend dies, another is usually right on its heels. However, in this case it took a few decades.
With the popularity of television came the decline of periodicals and their seemingly endless number of blank pages that needed filling. Then the Internet popped up and provided writers, both rookie and veteran alike, with all the blank pages they could dream of.
Enter Phil Rossi and a staggering number of aspiring novelists. Rossi has been writing on and off since sixth grade. He's 28 now and lives in Ashburn. After becoming interested in writing again after several years respite, he wrote, “Crescent,” the first novel he felt was truly worth readers' time.
Rossi began to get interested in writing again after he started listening to audiobooks on his way to work.
“It’s a great way to kill those hours of commuting,” he said.
About October 2005, Rossi began looking for something that would inspire him to pick up writing again. He found “I Should Be Writing” by Mur Lafferty – an often funny and candid podcast about the trials and tribulations of self-described “wannabe-writer” Lafferty, who hopes her “stack of rejection letters and battle scars [will] benefit” other wannabe writers.
For those of you who associate the word "Internet" with the inner lining of a swimsuit rather than a worldwide information system, a “podcast” is audio broadcast over the Web. Listeners can subscribe and listen to a new show about every week on a computer or download to a portable device and listen on the road. And, as Rossi informed me, “pod” simply stands for “portable on-demand.”
“[Lafferty’s podcast] was my gateway drug to the world of podcasting,” Rossi admitted.
Also a musician who sings and plays guitar with Phil Rossi and the Bad Habit and bass with Pharmacy Profits, Rossi was intrigued with the idea of introducing readers to his novel through sound.
He finished the first draft of “Crescent” about Thanksgiving last year and had a polished version by March. Like any process, transforming the manuscript into a podcast – reverse transcription if you will – took some time.
“At first it was difficult to get the pacing,” Rossi said. “You just repeat the line until you get it right.” Rossi used a relatively inexpensive setup: his computer, Pro Tools software and a condenser microphone. Sometimes he would spend 90 minutes recording a 45-minute podcast. Rossi said he would usually do the recordings after getting home from work late at night. “You just have to convince yourself to be enthusiastic,” he said.
Rossi describes his novel as “Stephen King in space.”
It’s a science fiction novel that incorporates themes of a ghost story, a frontier story and a character drama. The story unravels on the mysterious space station, Crescent, revolving around the drinking, smoking, blue-collar, anti-hero Gerald Evans.
In the book, Rossi describes Crescent, a space station so big it’s a veritable floating city, as “a disembodied talon, black, silhouetted as it floated 400 miles above the gray-green expanse of the planet Anrar 3.”
Throughout the audiobook – or podiobook, if you prefer – Rossi fills the background with contextual sounds and ambient music: A crescendo mounts as Evans’ ship descends toward the space station, the automated voice of the ship’s computer confirms commands, in the bar music can be heard from the jukebox, and as Evans enters the space station, intercom pages and crowd chatter leak through the speakers like residual white noise. Rossi pays careful attention to the proximity of each speaker and background noises.
These are effects that cannot be obtained in the pages of a book.
“It hearkens back to the roots of storytelling,” Rossi said about audiobooks. “The coolest thing about the whole process is connecting with people and reaching them on a very visceral level. I love to hear people say, 'Your novel made my day,' or 'It kept me up at night,'” he said – although he would prefer to hear the latter.
The band Chrysalis provided the eerie soundtrack. A lot of the music was produced original for “Crescent.”
“It was a cool challenge to match [the music and sounds] to the tone and mood of a section of text,” Rossi said. “It was like taking an audio snapshot of the chapter.”
Rossi released the book, one chapter per week, over several months. He has received a great response from listeners, some just begging to hear the next chapter. “Crescent” has spent a couple days on Podiobooks.com's “Today's Top Subscriptions” list, including a No. 1 and No. 2 spot, and also broke into iTunes' top 25 list.
“It's extremely validating, people being really into my work – it completely floored me,” he said.
Between the music, the book, the artwork and the Web design, it's been a lot of work. But through the process, he learned much about his own writing style.
“Podcasting a novel,” he said, “you are intimately involved with your own work.”
As for getting published, he has just begun to send out manuscripts, but he’s in no hurry.
“All the heavy lifting is done,” he said. “If it ever does get published, what a cool book signing that would be – a signing, a concert and a reading all in one.”
Contact the reporter at mvantassel@timespapers.com