How do I write a podcast script?
Scriptwriting step one: clarify story elements
Scriptwriting step two: set a timer and write your draft
Scriptwriting step three: edit your draft
Scriptwriting step four: read & get feedback
Writing a podcast script? It’s not easy, but it’s not complicated:
When you listen to a great narrative podcast like This American Life, 99% Invisible, or Shelter in Place, you can tell that they are using a script, because each word is carefully chosen, each section of the show fits into a coherent whole — and most of all, there is a clear sense that the episode is going someplace, as with any great story. But how do you write a good podcast script, especially if you don’t come from a writing background?
In our podcasting course, we have multiple modules on storytelling and scriptwriting, each with multiple exercises, examples, and templates, but to get you started, we’re going to outline the basic process here.
Note: in this discussion of podcast scriptwriting, our approach includes editing and feedback activities as well, since for almost every writer, those two latter phases are as crucial as the planning and draft-writing phases.
The four basic steps of writing a good podcast script:
Clarify your four key story elements: character, setting, conflict, and resolution
Just set a timer (we do 15 minutes) and sit down and start writing. Repeat!
When your draft is done, now go back and edit!
Finally, read it to someone else and get feedback.
Let’s look at each of these scriptwriting steps in a little more detail:
Podcast scriptwriting step one: clarifying story elements
Let’s start with a distinction many beginning writers don’t know about: a topic is not the same thing as a story. For example, “the mullet hairstyle” is a topic. But who came up with the term “mullet”? That’s a character. When and where did the hairstyle and term originate? That’s our setting. Why did this hairstyle go from rad to reviled? That’s a conflict. And how do we answer these questions? That’s our resolution. All of these together are a story, which make this episode of Decoder Ring so engaging.
To comment a bit further on the feeling a story like “Mystery of the Mullet” gives a listener, a story goes somewhere, changes someone, pulls you in and makes you want to know how it’s going to turn out. Stories have direction — which is a key difference from unscripted or interview podcasts, for example: interviews and unscripted shows can be interesting, they can dive into a topic, they can convey valuable information and the speaker’s personality — but that’s not the same as a story. (And yes, if you’re asking, interview clips can be part of the story in your narrative podcast — but they will be edited so they contribute to one of your key story elements, as we discuss in the course.) Drilling into these core story elements is a critical part of the course.
Podcast scriptwriting step two: set a 15-minute timer and write a draft
In a way, that first step (finding your story elements) can be easier — it’s the actual sitting down and writing part that can be hard. Facing the blank page, or the “white bull” as Hemingway called it, can feel intimidating. We do a lot of scriptwriting exercises in the course, and approach it a lot of different ways, because it’s true: writing can be hard. It’s time-consuming to do well, which is why so many podcasters don’t do it. It does, however, get easier with practice, and with a few key mental hacks, which we’re going to give you right now.
But where do you start? Here’s a valuable tip: just start anywhere! You can always go back and revise it later; unless you’re working on a vintage typewriter, cutting and pasting and moving sections around is easy. (And we highly recommend you do — it’s not often a story gets born looking exactly the way it will when it grows up.)
We’ll also pass along one of the other great pieces of writing advice, from Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird: give yourself permission to write shitty first drafts. (See more about Anne Lamott and the rest of our course curriculum here.) Feeling like their first draft has to be National Book Award-worthy has stopped countless writers from ever completing a draft in the first place. It’s like showing up for high school track and field practice and thinking you have to pole vault twenty feet your first try. But that’s not how it works. Just set a timer (we like 15 minutes) and put words on a page.
The beauty of the 15-minute timer is that it’s enough time to get something done, but not so much time that it feels unattainable. Then, whether it’s immediately after that first 15 minutes, or the next morning, just repeat that process until you have what feels like a complete first draft! (How do you know it’s complete? Because your draft has all those four story elements: character, setting, conflict, and resolution.)
Podcast scriptwriting step three: edit your draft
Now that you’ve figured out your key story elements and wrung a draft out onto the page, the real work begins: editing your script. Countless successful writers, including Pulitzer winner Anthony Doerr, say things like “I’m not a great writer, but I’m a great editor.” That’s how important it is. But how do you edit? The first step is usually just making it shorter. It might be anywhere from 10% to 50% shorter, and sometimes looking at word counts can be helpful. But the famous Rule 17 from Strunk & White’s Elements of Style is probably the best way to frame it:
”Rule 17: omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”
Another really handy editing practice? Reading aloud. Remember, your script isn’t going to be living on a page: a host (you or someone else) has to read it! This is important because sometimes a phrase or sentence looks good, but sounds awkward. So if you find yourself stumbling over certain bits, revise them! Or if your attention wanders or you can feel the energy slowing, cut that part!
Editing can be tedious, grueling, and frustrating — but whether you’re talking about a podcast, a blog post, or a film, it’s the step that separates average writing from great writing. So after you’ve edited your draft script at least once, you’re ready to move on to the final step: getting feedback.
Podcast scriptwriting step four: get feedback
Determining your story elements takes careful analysis; sitting your butt in the chair and writing takes discipline; editing your script takes commitment and emotional detachment, but getting feedback on your script takes trust and bravery. Remember: critiques are about your script, not about you! (Emotionally separating yourself from your work is a skill you build over time, like many others in the creative process.)
There is no better test run for a podcast script that actually reading it to another person, so that’s why we do this every time. But let’s talk about choosing a feedback partner or listener real quick. Sure, it’s nice if they are a writing or podcasting expert, but we’d say these other things are more important:
They believe in what you’re doing. (Someone who doesn’t value podcasts won’t bring much value to the process of creating one.)
They’re not blocked in their own creative work or vocation themselves. (They’ll bring that negativity to their critiques.)
They too value giving and getting advice (basically what creative collaboration is).
If your feedback partner is new to giving script feedback, this one simple question can be very helpful to guide their comments: “Where were you most interested, and where did your mind wander?” (We have a whole module on collaboration and critique in the course, since giving and receiving feedback is such a crucial aspect of good creative work.)
Depending on whether or not you’re trying to hit the PRX/broadcast time slots with your script, you may want to time your read-through. But either way, it will probably be hard to hear some of the comments! But the insights will be valuable, ones you never could’ve gotten on your own. And even beyond podcasting, it’s a chance to strengthen your relationship with your listener, because you will have shared something important.
So you may be thinking, “Wait, I haven’t even written a podcast script and I’m already tired just thinking about all this! What makes narrative podcasting worth it?“
Well, as screenwriting guru Robert McKee talks about (one of the many experts we refer to in the curriculum),
A great story lifts us outside of time.
So much of our lives are scheduled, constrained, and boxed in, so this is one of the special gifts we can give people as audio storytellers. (And, we’d say, unscripted or interview podcasts don’t do this in the same way.) That’s why we spend a lot of time, expanding on everything we’ve summarized here, on scriptwriting and editing in the course. But in a larger sense, as we talk about in the course FAQs, making a podcast can help you find, and embrace, your literal and figurative voice. And doing any sort of creative writing can help you make sense of the world, connect with others, understand your past, process old trauma, earn money, get famous, or touch on any of the myriad motivations for doing creative work (we get into this more in module 1 of the course, Why create?).
We hope this has been a helpful overview of the podcast scriptwriting process, and if you’re ready to work through these things in a lot more detail (including a half-hour personal consultation with us about your podcast script), sign up for the course!
So what do our podcast scripts sound like brought to life? Here are two great places to start: the season three trailer, and “Dancing Saved My Life,” which won a silver for scriptwriting at the 2022 W3 awards.