Many Satori Reader users wonder what the process of creating a story is like. The reality is it often takes over a year to complete one. A lot more goes into it than just writing something and then uploading the text. From researching, to voice acting, to incorporating sound effects, to annotating and proofreading, there’s so much more involved in the process.
In this article, you’ll learn everything about how the Satori Reader team crafts a story from start to finish.
The Research Stage
The first step of the story creation process is the research stage. Rika Nakajima, the lead writer on the team, thinks about how she can incorporate news, current events, and Japanese culture into an interesting story. After lots of brainstorming, Rika decides on a topic and proposes her idea to Hiroe Noma, another key writer/editor, and Brian Rak, the founder.
Together, the team decides whether the topic would be a good fit. The ideal story is one that will introduce a new aspect of Japanese life and culture, and the vocabulary that goes along with it, thus providing growth opportunities for readers. The team also decides on a target difficulty level and story length at this stage, taking into account the stories that are already available. The goal is to ensure that the variety of content available is always growing.
After settling on a topic, Rika does more research by interviewing people who can give deeper insights into the topic. For example, if the story is about someone in a certain profession, she might research more about that profession and what such a person’s daily life is like.
Writing The Story
The writers on the team develop an outline based on the research, and Brian gives the greenlight to start writing the story if he thinks the outline works.
After the writers create a draft of the story they are happy with, Brian makes an editing pass to ensure it’s appropriate for Japanese learners. He tries to put himself in the shoes of a learner and suggests using simpler vocabulary or grammar if necessary to keep the story accessible.
The two main writers on the team complement each other during this process, as well. Hiroe keeps her finger on the pulse of current events and trends, and together, they work to create a story that feels timely and fresh.
Since there are only so many episodes in each story, Rika and Hiroe have to be creative to develop the characters efficiently. They ensure that each character has depth to them so that readers can connect with them.
Recording The Audio
Since audio is a crucial component of Satori Reader stories, picking the right voice actors has an important place in the process.
Rika hosts the auditions for voice actors. Sometimes auditions take place in a production studio in Japan, but a few voice actors for Satori Reader are based in the state of Washington, too.
During the recording process, Rika acts as the director, guiding the voice actors to give the performance she wants. Just like in a movie, the feeling of a scene can change dramatically based on the emotional coloration that the actor brings. The team primarily uses native-speaking actors based in the Seattle and Tokyo areas. Once the recordings are done, Rika edits the audio. She ensures there’s proper spacing between sentences, which is necessary for the audio to fit properly into the Satori Reader playback system.
Another important aspect of the audio is sound effects. Rika instructs the production studio where to put sound effects and what kind of sounds should be there. The Satori Reader team has recently started adding music to stories. Two of the first stories to include music are “Spring” and “Summer.”
Crafting The Artwork
Every story has a tile that serves as a cover image, and each episode has an image that suggests what happens at that point of the story. The Satori Reader team works with their longtime design partners, Studio Rendezvous, to create this artwork.
Adding Annotations To The Story
Last but certainly not least, Brian and Kenny go into the system and add annotations. First, they manually attach the correct dictionary entry and sense for every word in the story, and then they create notes that help readers understand potentially difficult words and phrases.
Annotations are what make Satori Reader so special. Whenever you feel stuck on a tricky sentence, word, or grammar point, you’ll invariably find that Brian has embedded a note into the story so that you can comprehend what’s going on and learn something new about the Japanese language.
Brian also responds to readers’ questions in the discussion section below each episode, so you’ll have lots of support while you learn and never feel alone.
Conclusion
A story on Satori Reader isn’t your average story. With voice actors delivering performances that resonate emotionally, sound effects that bring the stories to life, and annotations that help you deeply comprehend the Japanese, each story brings readers into a whole new universe.
The immersive experience the stories provide makes learning Japanese so much more fun, and you’ll acquire a wealth of new vocabulary words and grammar points along the way.
Click the button below to get started reading Japanese stories on Satori Reader!