Pleroma

Pleroma

Richard Moss MossRC
Found this — The 10 Rules of Writing for Television — while going through some papers. This is mainly about TV news, but also relevant to current affairs and docos. Writing for radio/podcast is similar, too, but that requires lots of describing things that can't be heard.
Handout - The 10 rules of writing for TV 1. Use the present tense. 2. Write the way you talk. Read what you write out loud. If you think you would never speak like that, don't use that sentence. 3. Keep your sentences short and simple and stick, as often as possible, to S-V-O structure (subject-verb-object). 4. Limit a sentence to one idea. 5. Use active voice and action verbs to activate your script. "A dog bit him" is much more direct than "He was bitten by a dog." 6. Attribution goes at the beginning of a sentence ("The government says" or "According to police sources, the man...") 7. Avoid starting a sentence with a quote, a question or names of unknown and ordinary people. 8. Start strong. Whether it is a powerful image or a powerful sentence, you have to try and grab your viewer's attention right from the start. 9. Avoid using adjectives and adverbs. By using adjectives such as "tragic," "amazing" etc, is like trying to tell your viewer how to feel about something. Feelings should be conveyed through your story and the way you approach it. 10. On TV you can see what is happening, so try not to describe the picture but rather write slightly off of it. For example, you have the shot of a demonstration, with thousands of students marching in the streets of Kabul, holding banners and chanting slogans against the goverment. DON'T write "Thousands of young people took to the streets of Kabul holding banners and chanting slogans against the goverment ..." since we can see that. "Afghan youth vented out their anger towards their government in a big demonstration..." sounds a lot better.
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