10 Tips for Telling a Story Without Video
Once upon a time, families used to gather in the living room after dinner, not to watch television but to listen to their favorite radio programs. Fibber Magee and Molly, Terry and the Pirates, The Shadow, Gunsmoke, Amos ‘n’ Andy and The Baby Snooks Show are just a handful of productions which called upon faithful listeners to use their imaginations and picture the settings and characters painted for them with nothing but dialogue, sound effects and music.
While many entrepreneurs in our current environment of COVID and social distancing are relying on Zoom sessions to emulate what they’re missing in live performances, it’s a medium which is limiting at best. When you only have faces and occasional backdrops, the finished product too often looks like the flat opening credits of The Brady Bunch. With radio, however, there’s an entire spectrum of opportunity which eliminates the need for—and expense of—costumes, makeup, props, backdrops, lighting and special effects. In fact, you could launch an entire podcast series with a few friends in your kitchen or basement and your listeners would be none the wiser.
Let’s take a look (and a listen!) at how it works.
1. What’s the Plot?
Whether you’re penning a standalone story or a series, you need to have a clearly defined sense of what it’s going to be about. Is it a slice of life comedy about freshman year at college? Is it a detective’s quest to find a serial killer? Is it an adventure about treasure seekers in South America? While a standalone story generally involves the pursuit and resolution of a single goal, a series will require enough “episodes” to make the show sustainable for listeners.
2. What’s the Setting?
In a play or movie, we can easily tell where a story is unfolding because we can see it. In radio, we must rely on a narrator to set the stage and scene transitions (“Somewhere in the Amazonian jungle…”), evocative music (a Strauss waltz to suggest a ballroom), and/or character dialogue (“I swear Manhattan gets more crowded every day”). If you download vintage radio programs (https://oldradioprograms.us/), you’ll recognize that they typically have only 1-3 locations which makes it easier for listeners to keep track of.
3. How Many Characters?
Less is more in radio. Since your listeners only have voices and verbal name tags to go on, a large cast (with the exception of ambient crowd noises) will only make things confusing to follow. Additionally, more than four characters in any given scene can be problematic. When casting your radio play, strive for vocal variety to differentiate your players. Accents always work well for this purpose along with a mix of high and low tonality.
4. Sound Effects
What sounds do you typically associate with the following settings: a newspaper office, a busy restaurant, a forest, an ocean, a playground, a grocery store, a haunted mansion, a crowded stadium, a hospital, an airport, a Spring morning? There’s no shortage of creative sound effects that you can download from sites such as Free Sound Effects, Sound Bible, and Zap Splat. Likewise, there are subscription services such as www.audiojungle.net/ which can help you find just the right background music to create mood (suspenseful, romantic, comedic) and help set the aural stage.
5. Character Descriptions
In a stage play, we find short descriptors such as “Emily—30s, slender, red hair.” In radio, we don’t know these specifics unless they’re referred to in dialogue. Further, a character’s physical attributes are often irrelevant, allowing listeners to do their own casting based on the voices they hear; i.e., sexy, curmudgeonly, bossy, nervous, etc. Not surprisingly, while some radio shows in the past were able to successfully make the transition to television, not all of their actors were as warmly received, especially if the fans had already formed strong impressions of who these characters looked like.
6. Scene Length and Pacing
Introduce variation in the length of your scenes. For example, a radio play which alternates between locations and uses short and long segments will feel livelier than one which transpires in only one setting. Whether the characters engage in speeches vs. snappy banter also influences the physical pace of the production.
7. Comings and Goings
“Rhonda slips into the room unnoticed.” “Joe turns quickly and strides out the door.” “The burglar enters through the open bedroom window.” These stage directions are fine in a visual medium. In radio, however, these arrivals and departures have to be handled via dialogue and sound effects; i.e., doorbells, the opening/closing of doors, the patter of footsteps, car ignitions, etc. In crafting your script(s), pay attention to how you can orchestrate entrances and exits your audience can’t see.
8. Beware the Wrylies
In plays and film, stage directions encased in parentheses (known as wrylies) are not only used to indicate how a line should be delivered (angrily, snidely, plaintively) but also whether there are facial expressions involved (glaring, smirking, blinking back tears) or small gestures (an accusatory finger, folded arms, wringing of hands). My own assessment of wrylies is that the words themselves and the context of a scene make them superfluous unless the spoken line is actually contrary to the intention; i.e., “Of course you’re smart” (sarcastically). A radio script is actually good practice for you to wean yourself from the excessive use of wrylies. Your listeners won’t know that Stanley is scowling or Rosalind is on the verge of tears unless one of the other characters points it out; i.e., “Oh, wipe that stupid scowl off your face,” “Rosalind, is something wrong? You look like the floodgates are about to open.”
9. Transitions
When you change the location of the action or time has passed, your best bet is often a narrator. Examples: “Meanwhile, out at Uncle Manen’s ranch,” “Three days later, Lucy still hadn’t made up her mind.” You can use character dialogue as well for scene transitions. Examples: “Do you think that diner on Mission is still serving breakfast?” “What’s that light doing on in the Henderson’s guest house?” You can also experiment with sound effects (i.e., a train whistle, a galloping horse, an ambulance siren) and instrumental segues such as a harp glissando, tinkling chimes, a whimsical flute or even a Chinese gong.
10. The Sounds of Silence
There’s nothing wrong with inserting dramatic pauses in scripted conversations. It’s a device which is effective in creating tension, adding suspense and teasing audiences to “wait for the other shoe to drop.” In radio, however, a stretch of silence could make someone who is channel-surfing assume that s/he has reached a station which isn’t available. For listeners already tuned in, they may wonder if their WiFi has suddenly gone wonky. Accordingly, it’s imperative to use silence sparingly. Even if there’s a moment when your characters aren’t talking, there still needs to be some sort of sound going on underneath.
Meet the Author, Christina Hamlett
Former actress and theatre director Christina Hamlett is an award-winning author whose credits to date include 43 books, 209 stage plays, and squillions of articles and interviews. She is also a script consultant for stage and screen and a professional ghostwriter.