Episode 3 Joan and the Savvy podcaster. Writing Part 1

 

Episode 3: Joan and the Savvy Podcaster: Writing Part 1 (Pre-production)

Series 2 of The Arc of Joan takes a non-fiction detour. I am "playing" a dry witted narrator for an audio tour guide into creating podcast fiction in this 10 part series. This series gives independent producers a step by step guide and a few important hacks to help develop and create their own audio drama series. Episode 3 covers the pre-production writing for an Audio Drama.

Below you will find the script to this podcast. There will be a test afterward. Jay Kay. This tour is a basic overview of the steps involved with creating an Audio Drama Series, whether it be a comedy or drama or horror show. It is not an opus or the be all and end all of how to create an Audio Drama. But, hopefully it will help give someone a general idea of what they are getting into before they start creating and producing.

This podcast was created on Audacity software, using the helpful resources from freesound.org and freemusicarchive.org and John Bartmann did the music from JohnBartmann.com

 

EPISODE 3: Writing Part 1
Hey y'all, welcome back to: Joan and the savvy podcaster. Episode 3: Writing Part 1. My name is Saylor Billings and I created the Audio Sitcom, The Arc of Joan. But this next 10-part series is dedicated to creating and producing Audio Drama Podcasts without breaking the bank. The blog associated with this podcast is located at: https://thearcofjoan.blogspot.com/ 

In this episode I’m going to talk about preproduction writing.

Remembering Betty’s Day Out example; a 12-part series with 30-minute episodes from Episode 2? I’m going to just carry that over as an example here. First off let me just put in a disclaimer here: I cannot teach you to write a compelling character driven audio drama with a crazy twist ending that will get the whole world talking. But what I can do is tell you what has worked for me and what my writing process is like. If you’ve already got your series plotted out and all the character’s roles done, then you might want to skip over this and go to Writing part 2 where I get into the technical parts of writing the audio script.
Still here? Good, ‘cause I’ve got some plot tricks you can use for writing for audio. I’m just going to brush over some subjects here and if you need to you can stop and do a deeper dive on something with a quick web search, because there are some really great sites that’ll teach you to write a script. But experience really is the best teacher. 

If you’re just starting to get together a story idea and you’ve not written anything before then just write. Write again and write more. Carry a small notebook with you and when an idea hits you write it down. I have about 6 notebooks. In the car, in my backpack, in the kitchen, my office, back porch and the napkins and envelopes I inevitably collect with weird dialogue and character sayings and thought vomit scrawled on them are tucked unceremoniously in a pile under my computer keyboard. I think most fiction writers have a secret fear that someday someone is going to find our notebook “stashes” and look through our computer search history and think we are absolutely stark raving mad. “Why would you search: can you kill someone with frozen butter?” and “who says thought vomit?” ew. There is a little bit of a loosening on that tight rope with reality, that as a writer, you have to release to write in different character’s voices. It can seem like a fob off to tell someone to just write. “It’s easy just write.” That’s a bit annoying, isn’t it? But what people are saying is for you to find your writing voice as opposed to the stories voice. You can also always tell the difference between the writing of say, Wes Anderson and Diablo Cody.  
Also, you can give yourself writing exercises. If you are just really stuck and have no idea how to begin or you are really unhappy with how your script is turning out then another trick would be to find a story online that you like and think, I want my story to be like that - then dissect it. Just write that other story out as you listen to it. Stop and start. This might sound like a waste of time but it’s not. It’s how a lot of musicians have learned their instrument. Like Steve Martin learned how to play the banjo by listening to a record and repeating the chords. It can be a very effective teaching tool.
Let’s say for another example using our Betty, for a writing exercise put Betty in a pharmacy. What happens? From her point of view what does she see? Who does she talk to? Is it someone who she secretly hates? Or secretly admires and wants to get closer to? When you’re preparing to write your 30-minute scripts you don’t have time to do a character exploration. So when your flushing out the story that’s your time to write and explore the characters. When you start writing your scripts and before you commit to formatting them that’s when your writing looks a bit more like this: Betty walks in (the door-bell tinkles), she knocks over a display, she looks for the cough drops and grabs a bag, she ducks down when she catches sight of her ex-husband. And so on. Or if you’re not used to writing dialogue you can put Betty in situations with another character. How does she speak when she’s with her boss? Her child? Her partner? Her brother? And write them with the same goal like she has to deliver bad news? Or she wants to gloat about winning a prize.
One of my favorite two character scenes to write is when they absolutely hate each other either outwardly or they have a seething hatred inwardly for the other character and then put them in a situation where they have to work together to both move the plot forward and achieve something together.
Before you get too far into the script writing, you’ll also want to decide some things like what view point is your story. Will you have a lead character with whose point of view the story will unfold? Like a Detective story. Or is it an ensemble? How many characters per episode do you think you’ll need? Remember, you absolutely don’t have to stick with any of these choices but it’s all a starting point. But you’ll want to keep a wary eye out for how many characters you are writing into the episode.  
There are certain universal truths to fiction writing. The story arc, the 3 acts, Point of View, the roles of protagonist and antagonist. Sure, they get shifted around a bit and there are always twists and turns but it’s all just basic story-telling, even in audio drama.

In order to avoid over exposition in your dialogue, your sound effects should always tell the where, when, of the story and possibly the how. (like in a car or walking) The voices will be the who. And the action that occurs is the what, again possibly the how, and why. When you break down your scripts this way, it becomes a lot easier to get Betty from A to Z in your scripts. But you can’t get there until you flush out that story and the character’s obstacles first, which is where that constant writing comes in.
You have a lot, A LOT, of choices on how you’ll write your series. I’ll let you dig deeper into plot structures on your own but don’t get trapped into a simple story structure. Like an episodic series. What I mean by that is like a television sit-com where each episode could simple stand on its own and not connected to other episodes or running plot lines. It’s fine, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that but I have listened to some audio fiction’s that just fall flat using that story structure. Sometimes in the middle of your series it’s good to insert a single plot structure. Like you know how in some series they’ll have a Holiday themed episode? They’re timely and fun but it’s weird to listen to one in the middle of the summer. Because these are podcasts, people may discover your show anytime. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them, I just mean be aware of any type of topical themed plot lines. Except for Halloween plot lines, honestly, those are always fun and you can plop one of them down in February and they’re still fun.
Once you’ve got all your character’s voice’s down pretty pat and what your story is basically going to be it’s time to start an outline of the episodes. It can be as simple as this: Ep. 1 Betty goes to the pharmacy. Ep. 2 Betty goes to work. Ep. 10 Betty gets a pedicure.
I never write my last two episodes until I’m half way through recording the series. And the reason is because when I write a character I only can “hear” my voice saying the words. When you add the element of an actor acting the words something different happens. Suddenly, the character is no longer your voice and for better or worse it is “live”. The actor may have a certain timber to their voice that makes delivering good news seem ridiculous or a shrill to it that makes something that should be sad seem really funny. And I find so many more possibilities for the characters will come to me once I hear them read aloud. I might originally write that in Ep. 11 Betty goes for a walk and Ep. 12 Betty finds a rock. Then after I hear someone else playing Betty I will think in Ep 11 Betty should stroll and then in Ep 12 Betty doesn’t find a rock she IS a rock and she’s been in someone’s pocket this whole time! Plot twist! Whatever, you get my point. That being said, and I always encourage the trying and testing new things, but still remember that the you, the actors, the sound effects, everything is in service to the story being told. Don’t get too wrapped up in anything that doesn’t move the story forward.

When you are in pre-production and you’re outlining and writing the episodes the only thing I leave written in stone are the first 2 episodes. Those are the ones where you’re still establishing the characters and the plot lines. The other 10 get more flexible as I go so that when I’m in production I can be more flexible in the story telling. But once I’ve gotten the outline for the series and the first 2 episodes written I invite everyone for a table read. Because I want the other actors to know how to react to what is being said and by whom? I send over the scripts about a week before hand as well as any notes to each actor I think they may need for the characters. I always write a back story for the characters, who they are, what they want, where they come from, their favorite color and why. Just a whole page of backstory information on this person. Now, the actors may not ask for this or even know to ask for it but just in case I even need it I have it to give. This is especially necessary, I think, when you’re recording in isolation; that is if the actors are recording from home and sending you files.  I’ll get more into all that in the casting episode. Obviously, the last series “The Arc of Joan” was done virtually and the table read was done over Zoom. Anyway, moving on with the script writing. After the table read, I finish writing the next 2 scripts. So before I even go into production I have a whole series outlined and the first 4 scripts finished.
In Episode 4, Writing Part 2 I’m going to go over the technical aspects of your script formatting. But for right now, I always have 2 separate scripts of the same episode. I try to write the first one in as clear a way for the actors as I can including “stage directions” like (whispers), (talking loud over party and dance music), or (while walking). This will give them the audio ques they need to alter their speech. You can’t have two characters who are supposed to be jogging giving their lines as if they are sitting in a quiet café.  Also related both to scripts and editing; I always start with sound then voices. It’s almost like giving a clue to where you are and what’s going to happen. Like the two people jogging example, I would start with an outdoor atmospheric then the pounding of jogging feet sound effect then add some heavy breathing for just a beat then Person X speaks. So when you write out the Actors script you’d give them the audio ques of where they are, what they’re doing and then their lines. This will also keep you, as you write, from adding the dreaded exposition. Another little trick to use, is to use a question. So instead of a character saying, “Look at that tiny dog that very large man is carrying.” The character can say, “Where is Big Nick taking that chihuahua?” Exposition is an annoying and drab necessity in audio drama, so it’s best to dress it up and hide it as best you can.

Also, as a side note here, all the pre-writing you did before you start churning out the scripts needs to be saved. Do not throw out those scraps of paper tucked under your keyboard. Because when you are in the publishing phase you are going to have to come up with things like titles, and summaries, and one sentence break downs. You don’t just upload your file here. You have to come up with hashtags and subtitles and discovery keywords and show notes. It would be a good practice for you, after you finish your script, to write out all the actors and who they play, a one sentence summary, a one paragraph summary and the working title. These might change they might not but at least you’ll have it done because once you get to the publishing phase you just really can run out of words. 

That’s it for now. Next weeks episode will go through the formatting your actors scripts, the editing script and the editing spreadsheet.
And if you haven’t been told yet, I hope you have a great rest of your day!