Audio Script Writing

Audio Script Writing

Reference for writing that will be heard, not read. The eye can re-scan a sentence; the ear gets one pass.

The one rule: writing for the ear is single-pass

Listeners process roughly 150–160 words per minute for narration, 130–145 wpm for voice-UI prompts, and 110–125 wpm for IVR. They lose comprehension on:

1. Subordinate clauses stacked more than one deep
2. Parentheticals (the ear has no parens)
3. Lists longer than three items without explicit numbering
4. Numbers and proper nouns delivered without a beat of silence after

Core concept 1 — The one-idea-per-sentence rule

Eye version (fine on the page):

The migration, which we’d been planning since February, finally launched on Tuesday after a final round of testing that revealed two minor bugs we patched overnight.

Ear version:

We’d been planning the migration since February. It finally launched on Tuesday. The last round of testing turned up two small bugs. We patched them overnight.

Core concept 2 — Signposting

Signpost vocabulary:

• First / second / third / finally — explicit numbering
• Here’s the thing — flag a key insight
• Two reasons — set up a numbered list
• Coming up — preview before an ad break
• Back to the story — return marker after a digression

Core concept 3 — No parentheticals, no em-dashed asides

• Before: “The team (which had only formed in January) shipped on time.”
• After: “The team shipped on time. They’d only formed in January.”

Core concept 4 — Pacing markers as breath beats

Core concept 5 — The cold open

Three patterns that work:

Pattern A — Drop into a scene:

It’s 2 a.m. The paging system goes off. Marcus rolls over, reads the alert, and the alert is wrong.

Pattern B — A question with stakes:

What would you do if your entire backup tier disappeared in the middle of a restore?

Pattern C — A single startling fact:

Last year, 47% of incident retrospectives never produced a single action item.

Anti-pattern — The throat-clear:

Hi everyone, welcome to the podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about…

Core concept 7 — Voice-UI prompts (Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri)

Three constraints beyond “writing for the ear”:

1. The prompt must end with an explicit prompt-for-input.
2. Confirm without echoing. “Adding milk to your list” is good; “I heard you say milk; I will now add milk to your list” is voice-UI throat-clearing.
3. Three-option ceiling. Lists of more than three options exceed working memory.

Core concept 8 — IVR scripts

1. Most-likely path first. Order by call-volume share, not alphabetical.
2. Always offer a human escape. “Press 0 at any time to reach an agent.”
3. Confirm critical inputs. Read back at the cadence a person can write down.
4. Re-prompt twice, then escalate. Caller silence twice in a row = route to agent.

Core concept 10 — Podcast show notes craft

Required sections:

1. Episode title — keep under 60 characters; concrete, specific
2. One-paragraph summary — 50–80 words; uses the episode keyword once
3. Chapter timestamps — 4–8 chapters; [12:15] How to find your first sponsor
4. Guest bio — 1 paragraph, links to guest sites
5. Mentioned resources — every link spoken aloud
6. Transcript — full or summary
7. Call to action

Anti-patterns

References

• NPR Training: “How to write a mean script”
• Google: Conversation Design
• Amazon: Alexa Design Guide
• Buzzsprout: “How to Write Podcast Show Notes”