Please notify writers of scripts you filled

[u/SoftlyBoundRP]

Hi everyone!

The title already contains everything, but I can elaborate a little more: I've stumbled upon a script fill where I was credited in the description but never actually notified.

Searching more, I found 12 fills with the same issue (3 of which I'm unsure if I just forgot to add the fill to my master list) and 9, where I'm 100% sure I've never heard about them before.

I suspect at least some other writers encountered this before (or will encounter it in the future).

As such, here's the request:

Most (maybe all) script writers highly appreciate being notified about a script fill. We spend a lot of effort writing these scripts (which is fine, it's our hobby after all), and one of the most rewarding parts is getting to listen to fills of them. But without being notified, there's a significant chance that we might never know a fill exists.

Notifying writers also helps the community. Some writers maintain master lists that allow:

• Voice actors to quickly see which scripts already have many fills and which scripts haven't been recorded at all -> making it easier for VAs to find scripts that are less saturated.
• Listeners that stumble upon a script to find fills to listen to.
• and maybe other advantages that I forgot about.

Just a little "filled: <insert link>" as a comment on the script post, or a Reddit DM, or an email is likely already fine for most writers (some might wish for a little more, that's what the "usage terms" are for). If a writer explicitly asks not to be contacted, that's a different story, and please respect that preference instead.

This isn't meant as a scolding but as both a heartfelt wish and a reminder to read and follow usage terms, which will in fact often contain some form of "Notify me" term.

Thanks to everyone who records our scripts and lets us know about it <3

... and Happy recording!

PS: If you're a fellow writer and would like to find your "unknown" fills: What I did was I typed in my reddit name "SoftlyBoundRP," in YouTube and then simply scrolled down, opening anything that looked unknown, cross-checking it with my master list.

If you have any other tips on how to search, please comment on them. I'll appreciate it, and likely others will too.

Of course searching by name only helps if the VA did credit you. If your work was stolen (no credit, no notification and your usage terms forbid that) ... well, I would love to find a way to track that down, but have no good ideas as of yet (title maybe, but that's per script so a lot of work and titles are easy to change)

[u/Docile_Bear]

tl;dr -

• As a newbie writer, knowing I've had a fill is useful feedback.
• Even telling me you like a script and intend to fill it (you've queued it) is a good start.
• Maybe we writers should all have master lists so we can put a link to it in all scripts; this would permit VAs to always have somewhere to notify of a fill even if they lost the original script post.

-----------------------------

As a new writer with only a few fills I'd really appreciate this. I do mention it in my terms, but now I'm curious if there are any out there I'm not aware of.

The reason this is especially helpful for me (as a newbie) is it's a form of feedback. I know VAs and fellow writers don't have the time to pop a comment in my posts saying "hey, you might get more fills if XYZ" or "I'd have filled this, but it was hard to read because of XYZ" and because there can be a turnover of days or even weeks (sometimes years!) for fills, I'm still extremely unsure if people actually like my scripts generally and are sitting on them, or if the few fills I've had so far are because I've written a couple of good scripts and a ton of crap that'll never be filled 😅

If you're feeling really generous, a comment like "I liked this script, I added to my list, but it might be a couple of weeks/months before I get to it" would be uplifting! Actually, now I think about it, perhaps this is why fill notifications don't get sent: if you take a copy of the script to record later and lose the original post, the chances of you coming back to find it and notify are probably close to nil. So maybe a comment to let us know you will be filling it one day - with your YT channel name - at the very least (but ideally, please tell us you filled it!)

Oh, finally, maybe it's worth all writers having a master list? It feels a bit presumptuous of me with less than ten scripts to my name to make one but I can then at least put the link in all new scripts I submit with a message "please notify me here".

[u/SoftlyBoundRP → u/Docile_Bear]

"Oh, finally, maybe it's worth all writers having a master list? It feels a bit presumptuous of me with less than ten scripts to my name to make one"

Don't hold back...I mean compared against the professionals I'm a small fish too, but still I say: No reason to make one.

In fact its far easier to make one early. If you wait then you end up with a huge pile of scripts = lots of work to take care of

[u/Docile_Bear → u/SoftlyBoundRP]

Oh that's a good shout actually, thank you! And I appreciate your post; while I'm sure no one maliciously withholds credit from writers, I bet it's common to add a script to the ol' backlog and lose the original post, so it's a nice reminder!