Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama
Drama for the dinner table
HOW TO CHOOSE THE OPTIMAL CAST SIZE FOR YOUR SCRIPTS… WRITING FOR INFINITE VOICES Ultimately, the cast you need is the cast necessary to tell your story. That said, there are a number of practical considerations that should be taken into account when writing for audio. MANAGING MEMORY This week I’m throwing in some quick […]
NINE GREAT TECHNIQUES FOR SCENE TRANSITIONS The scene is written. Your characters pursued their goal, encountered obstacles, faced a dilemma, and settled on a course of action to take in order to move forward. The scene is over and it is time to move into next the scene. So how do you do this? This […]
FIVE COMMON TWISTS Twist endings are the result of a sudden reversal that thwarts the outcome a character has been working towards. There are five common types, three that depend on a surprising revelation and two that depend on the intervention of a surprising event. In the first three, the desired outcome is thwarted because […]
THE CONVENTIONS OF SCRIPT PRESENTATION At the outset I should acknowledge that there are numerous conventions in use for script production and presentation. The ones I am writing about here are the conventions that I, personally, use most frequently. They are not original to me, having come by way of the very talented Tony Palermo […]
What is Subtext Subtext is the message beneath the message. The meaning beneath the surface that, indirectly communicated, either amplifies, modifies, or contradicts the words that are spoken. It can either be subtractive (where you remove explicit dialog to hint at meaning) or additive (where you add extra meaning to the text). The aim is […]
ARCHETYPES CAN (BELIEVE IT OR NOT) HELP US WRITE A while ago I took some heavy fire in a conversation because I like using archetypes in my fiction… and while I’m happy to take it on the chin for not using them well, I remain pretty committed to the idea that they constitute a useful […]
CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT – A MODE OF TRAVEL, NOT A DESTINATION Wow, now there’s an arrogant headline. Or at least it would be if I thought I’d arrived at the destination rather than saw myself as a fellow traveller on the path. This article is my own take on the mindset and character traits necessary to improve […]
THE COUNTER-INTUITIVE WAY WE ACHIEVE IMMERSION I’m unlikely to make any friends with this week’s comments… and they probably belong more properly to a discussion of production rather than scripting – though I think writers need to understand some of these production issues in order to write effectively for the medium. To give them […]
Tips for Planning the Action I’m not particularly good at doing action scenes so a while back I did a bit of research and thinking in order to improve what I do. Here are some general principles for designing action scenes that I arrived at. They help me to be a bit more deliberate about […]
The Elements of Pacing Here’s some general advice I’ve pulled together from a variety of sources to help me manage the pacing in my scripts. Pacing is concerned with the way we control time in a narrative (both time as it passes in the story, but also the way we control the audience’s time as […]
The Elements of a Good Beginning How we begin matters. The beginning of the story needs to establish two essential things. Firstly, we must introduce our protagonist/s in terms of the life they experience as normal (I’ll explain that in a minute). Secondly, we must introduce an event that upsets and overturns that sense of […]
Using Anticipation to Increase Drama Remember when you were a kid and you knew you were going to visit the local fair or carnival or circus and you just couldn’t wait and you’d speculate on all the things you’d do there and what kind of day you’d have and what the weather was going to […]
