Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama
Drama for the dinner table
IT’S JUST A (TIME, SETTING, GENRE) JUMP TO THE LEFT – ADAPTING A STORY FOR AUDIO (PART 3 and Final) One of the most interesting things about truly good stories for me is the extent to which they are independent of setting. In the previous two articles of this series I’ve been commenting on some […]
THE INFINITE TELESCOPE – ADAPTING A STORY FOR AUDIO (PART 2) Between any two scenes in a work of fiction lie an infinite number of possibilities, or maybe I should say this is true between any intention and outcome expressed in a story. Scott McLoud used to (perhaps even still does) engage in a thought […]
HOW TO ADAPT A STORY TO AUDIO DRAMA – PART 1 Some of us enjoy adapting stories for audio production… but frankly, it’s not an easy task. Today I thought I’d talk about one technique (among the many a writer might try) that I find helpful for adapting a prose piece to audio. Ready, here […]
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 […]
