Out on the Wire

interesting read, had to read it for class so didn't love it to its full potential

Out on the Wire by Jessica Abel is a book-length comic about storytelling in the medium of radio/podcasting. Or as the subtitle explains, “The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio.” I zipped through the first half, fascinated by the interviews with all of these great storytellers describing their theories of storytelling.

But, it kind of bogged down in the second half. Abel states at the end of the book, “...couldn't leave anything out. In fact I kept adding more in.” It felt like it. Ironically, where it bogged down the most was in the section about editing.

The vast range of characters became overwhelming, too. Since she chose to structure the book thematically, we'd get an interview with the team from one show, and then another show, and then another. In the next section we'd see most of them again, but I would lose track of who was who, and Abel rarely made re-introductions. It made for confusion and a lot of flipping back to previous sections.

But, overall it is a good book. Anyone interested in podcasting needs to read this book, and anyone interested in storytelling could benefit from it also.

I would definitely only recommend this to fairly hardcore radio nerds, but I loved it. Really interesting look at different philosophies of storytelling/radio making. The kind of podcasting Kait and I do is pretty tangential to this book but it works not only as a guide for those who want to get into TAL-style storytelling but also just as a behind-the-scenes look for fans of those shows.

I think the graphic novel format works pretty well for this–they talk about how radio is a “visual” medium because for it to work well, the hosts have to describe things so that the listener can see them.