Script Writing for Narrative Podcasts

I have previously talked about how the script is the mostimportant part of a narrative podcast; that it’s where the heavy lifting takesplace. It doesn’t matter how good your sound quality, music, and productionvalues are if you don’t ultimately have an interesting and well-written storyto tell. Knowing this, today I will focus on some important aspects of narrativepodcast script writing: points that can help you ensure that you have written ascript that will translate well to the audio medium and be capable of grabbing andkeeping listeners’ attention.

Script timing

Before you focus on your story, it is helpful to have anidea of how the length of a written script will translate when transferred toan audio recording. You need to understand how long you want your podcast tolast prior to writing the script, so having an approximate word-count-to-timeestimate can be quite helpful. Obviously, the timing of a podcast can varydepending on how your story is structured, how quickly actors speak, the use ofmusic breaks, and so on, but these word count examples can help give you arough idea of how long what you have written will take to listen to:

• Fifteen minutes: 2,700 words
• Thirty minutes: 5,500 words
• Sixty minutes: 9,500 words

These are merely estimates, but on the whole, you can expectone minute of recorded audio to encompass approximately 170 words.

Narrative structure

Since a narrative podcast is telling a story, writing yourscript with basic narrative elements is important. It’s often easiest to planout the spine of your narrative and then fill in content around your story.Focus on including the basic elements of dramatic structure:

• Story arc: beginning, middle, and end to yourstory
• Exposition: the introduction of backgroundinformation, such as setting and backstories
• Conflict: situations where characters arechallenged or must overcome some adversity
• Climax: turning point for the characters’ story;beginning of overcoming the conflict
• Denouement: resolution to conflict

Characters

The richness of a narrative podcast’s characters is a wayyou can connect with your audience and get them invested in your story. Makesure you know your characters before you start writing. Who are they? Whatmotivates them? It can be helpful to sketch out a profile for each character priorto writing. You don’t have to use all their background in your script, butdeveloping your characters will give them a level of depth that can help youraudience to care about and connect with them.

Conversationaldialogue

You want your audience to forge an emotional connection withyour characters. In order to do this, your characters need to feel like realpeople, which means they need to talklike real people.

Conversational writing needs to flow naturally, not soundartificial or like a voiceover. Use the active voice and simple, easy-to-understandwords. Have characters say “you” and “I.” Keep dialogue short and succinct. Thebest way to determine if your script is conversational is to read it out loud.If you have to stop to take a breath in the middle of a sentence, then yoursentence is too long. If you stumble over words, then your idea or wording isn’tclear.

Focus on keeping dialogue simple, natural, and short. If acharacter’s dialogue doesn’t sound to you like something a real person mightsay, then it won’t sound like a real person to your listeners, either.

Don’t be afraid to make your audience part of the story aswell. If you have a narrator, have the narrator use “we” and “us.” Talk to theaudience like they are involved in what is happening, like they are also a partof the team. This allows you to forge a more personal connection with yourlisteners, which in turn leads to better information retention.

Setting thescene

In order to make your story more real, you need to devotesome time to helping the listener visualize the scenes you have created. Usedescriptive terms to set your scenes and inform the audience where events aretaking place. This can be done either by a narrator or in the way that yourcharacters speak or think.

You can also use audio clues to help set your scenes, thingssuch as background noises and sound effects. Since podcasts are an audio-onlymedium, you need to write scripts for the ear, not the eye. Unlike reading abook, listeners cannot linger over text until they understand what you’resaying. Scripts written for the ear literally move at the speed of sound, andthus you need to be able to build your scenes quickly and in simple terms.

Take thetime to plan your stories

Don’t be afraid to spend a good deal of time planningyour stories and script writing. As I have said, the script is the star of yourproduction. Write it, read it out loud, write it again … whatever it takes foryou to feel comfortable with the story you are telling and the way it is beingtold. Ultimately, if you don’t like your story, it’s likely that your audience won’t,either.