radio is a great jumping off point for any writer

Writing for radio can be daunting to begin with. I first studied radio writing when I was 18, it wasn’t until I was 20 that I’d written the first one of several that I was actually fairly content with and felt like I’d got a grasp of the medium.

I think the first step towards this is to remove ignorance of it… I often found at the beginning my mindset would focus on, “I’m not after writing for radio in the future anyway…” so I wouldn’t put my best efforts into it.

Then I took this thought and put it into reverse.

Why NOT write for radio?

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF WRITING FOR RADIO?

I looked more into radio, it’s advantages and disadvantages, to find there’s more good aspects to it than bad. For writers, it’s probably the better jumping off point rather than other platforms (TV, Film, Stage etc.) due to it’s lack of complexity on the production side of things. So why write for radio? Here it is...

• LOW BUDGET
• HIGH VOLUME - MAKE MORE EPISODES FOR LESS MONEY
• CREATIVE FREEDOM - HAVE AS MANY CHARACTERS, SPECIAL EFFECT NOISES AND MORE AS YOU WANT
• HIGHER COMMISSIONING RATE
• RELATIVELY RISK FREE
• EASY TO SHARE WITH THE PUBLIC - SHARE A LINK TO YOUR EPISODES, NO NEED FOR BIG LAUNCH EVENTS
• EASY TO EDIT
• OPPORTUNITIES TO SERIALISE
• BROADCAST CREDITS ARE GREAT FOR NEW WRITERS

LOW BUDGET COST

All of the recording is done in a sound studio- no need to find locations, rent locations etc.

There are no props- Actors don’t have to wear specific outfits bought for production.

Actors for multiple characters- as long as it’s easy to distinguish that the actor of a previous character is clearly voicing a different character then this works perfectly. They could be using a different pitch or applying an accent, but it saves budget to do this rather than hire another actor!

a playground for the IMAGINATION

Another beautiful factor of radio that gets overlooked is the ability to transport your mind ANYWHERE for a story.

When it comes to writing TV and Film, I often set them in modern day in generic locations like schools, workplaces… places in my mind I know are practical to film.

So it was a leap allowing my imagination the freedom to take a story anywhere it wanted. I thought, “If I’m doing this, then I’m fully going to take advantage.”

SET YOUR PIECE IN ANY TIME PERIOD, NO SPECIAL EFFECTS OR BUDGET NEEDED.

I wrote a radio play titled ‘THE WAKE UP CALL’ about a sexist man in present day suffering with insomnia, given a sleep podcast to help, unknowing that it’s targeted for women. He get’s to sleep… where he’s sent into a dream in the 1920’s- The peak of sexism for a housewife.

That’s the beauty of radio. It allows you to explore any time period and in this case, a man playing a woman. The audience can’t see that the character’s a man, but if they hear the other characters referring to them as a woman, it helps them believe it as they’re relying purely on their imagination and sound.

If you feel you have absolutely no idea where to start, then I suggest you read the other articles and actually have a go at listening to other radio plays.

You can find some at:

it's a very old and trusted industry

Radio has been the writers playground for decades. People would turn to the radio during the war for stories and entertainment. The power you can weald as a writer over the air waves is truly limitless.

Need an example how of powerful this medium can be? How about people actually believing aliens are taking over the world? Thats right. In 1938 the Columbia Broadcasting Network aired an adaption of H.G wells War of the Worlds as a special Halloween episode only for people to be totally caught off guard by Orson Wells very convincing narration and in effect cause a nation wide panic with people actually thinking the live broadcast was real and aliens were at that very moment destroying the city and taking over the world. If thats not powerful storytelling I don't know what is

You can check out this story on wikipedia HERE

the scope is limitless

Once you gather some inspiration, it creates motivation and you feel excited to get stuck in. So go, take advantage of the freedom!