6    Conversational writing

 

‘Write like you talk. Tell me the story as though you were telling it to a friend. Remember talk to only one person at a time and try using the word “you.” Describe details visually for radio as though you were telling it to a blind person.’

– VALERIE GELLER, AUTHOR, CREATING POWERFUL RADIO creatingpowerfulradio.comgellermedia.com

When writing for broadcast, you often need to forget your literary aspirations. Unless you are writing a script for a considered and perhaps lengthy feature piece, such as ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ on BBC Radio 4 (www.bbc.co.uk/fromourowncorrespondent) you need to get the point of the story over quickly and crisply.

What may be clear and sparkling to the eye may be confused and ...

Get Broadcast Journalism, 6th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.