What You’ll Find In This Post
- The Open Sketchbook is a small-scale podcast about creativity from Rooster High Productions.
- Odd-numbered seasons contain short audio fictions by me, Zach Armstrong.
- Even-numbered seasons contain interviews with accomplished creatives.
- Season One is live now with fifteen episodes in the science fiction genre.
- Season Two launches September 5, 2025, and features interviews with Reese Hopper, Lauren Shippen, Meghan Fitzmartin, and Cass Morris.
- You can listen to the show on Spotify↗️, Apple Podcasts↗️, YouTube↗️, the website, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.
The Open Sketchbook is a podcast for anyone who wants to be a little more creative, hosted by me, Zach Armstrong. Odd-numbered seasons contain short audio fictions, each created in under one hour as a creative exercise. Even-numbered seasons contain interviews with accomplished creatives, where we discuss the realities of the creative process.
Season One contains fifteen episodes of short audio fiction and is availabe in full now, on Apple Podcats, Spotify, and YouTube.
Season Two contains four interviews with acocmplished creatives. Our first interview with author and creative professional Reese Hopper is live now, and the remaining interviews will release once a week on Fridays.
The Open Sketchbook Trailer
The Story Behind The Open Sketchbook
These short audio fictions were created as a part of Reese Hopper’s Creative Consistency Challenge↗️. Each member of our group who signed up selected a small, achievable daily deliverable: some small piece of art that we could complete, and post to the group for accountability, inside of 45 minutes. The community aspect kept us accountable to each other and provided no end of encouragement.
My History With Creating: Marked By Analysis Paralysis
It was an immensely rewarding experience, and one that was targeted at exactly the creative blocks I’ve experienced over the year. Like many others, I struggle with “analysis paralysis” where I become stuck in the planning stage in both personal and professional projects. I often bite off more than I can chew, and don’t make a plan for small, regular, achievable victories along the way.
I have created a few pieces of larger art: I have tens of thousands of words of a fantasy novel hidden away, and approximately one-third of a bad singer/songerwriter album from my college years. None of them reached full maturity. None of them were placed in front of an audience.
Audio Found Me: The Medium I Stumbled Into
My senior year of college approached, and I was short a few practicum credits in my Theater degree. A practicum credit is a project you take on in one of the school productions, like a performance, being a stage manager, or a designer.
I signed up for a sound design class to satisfy the design requirement for my major, and for my practicum credit I signed up as the sound designer for an upcoming production of Eugene Ionesco’s The Rhinoceros. In short, it’s a play about the French capitulation to the Nazis, except each person’s ascent to complicity for Nazism is represented by a sudden and violent transformation into a wild rhinoceros.
The play has many off-the-wall, reality-bending elements to it, placing it firmly in the “Absurdist” camp of theater. Now imagine how sound effects might play into this. It was a huge challenge on many levels, and I am certain that I was remembered primarily as a terrible collaborator with half-baked artist ideas.
Podcasting Is Where Anyone Can Have A Show
In the following years I became fascinated with podcasting. Anyone could have a show. The barrier to entry was inconceivably low, and still is. That doesn’t mean anything would be an automatic commercial succes (far from it: it’s so easy to make a show that most fail for lack of planning, effort, and/or strategy). But I was enamored with the idea of creating a show to share what I love with others.
I never launched my first idea: Roll For It, a show about running tabletop roleplaying games↗️. But I did launch the second idea: The Mandalorian Union↗️, where my wife Meghan and I discussed episodes of The Mandalorian. Then I signed on as a co-host and producer on a card game hobby podcast called Call of Discovery↗️, and more than 60,000 downloads later my fate as a podcaster was sealed.
And, yes, I happened to start this content marketing agency as a part of this journey.
Improving The Craft Through Bite-Sized Accomplishments
After many other creative pursuits and large life changes, I was looking for an appropriately sized method of creating again. It couldn’t be something all-consuming during a season in which I was a full-time parent.
After I made some jokes in Reese Hopper’s Instagram comments, he made an entire Reel because of me ↗️ (which briefly features me). When he launched the Creative Consistency challenge, I knew it made sense to participate.
Season One: Mechs and Pilots
When I selected my deliverable for the Creative Consistency Challenge, I picked audio fictions. Each deliverable would be around one minute or less in length, and would be a short scene involving a classic science fiction pairing: a human pilot, and their artificially intelligent mech suit.
When I submitted my first deliverable to the group, I was informed that tears were shed. That episode is called “Play the Song.”
Season Two: People Smarter Than Me
I have a deep-seated need to discuss with people topics that we mutually love. Creating art is a wide and worthy topic for discussion, and I am fortunate to have many people in my life who are successful creatives. The gracious interviewees for Season Two are as follows:
Reese Hopper – author, freelancer, and accomplished videography professional
Lauren Shippen – audio fiction creator of The Bright Sessions among many others
Meghan Fitzmartin – multi-medium writer across comic books, TV, movies, and podcasts
Cass Morris – author, The Aven Cycle
Listen to The Open Sketchbook Wherever You Get Your Podcasts
Thank you for your interest in the story behind The Open Sketchbook. Find the show on Spotify↗️, Apple Podcasts↗️, YouTube↗️, the website, or anywhere else you get your podcasts!