Audio Script Writing
Parent: Writing and Documentation · researched 2026-05-29T19:22:14.820Z· 7 sources · 9 concepts · skill audio-script-writing
Reference for writing that will be heard, not read. The eye can re-scan a sentence; the ear gets one pass.
Audio Script Writing
- Reference for writing that will be heard, not read. The eye can re-scan a sentence; the ear gets one pass. [source]
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: [source]
- Subordinate clauses stacked more than one deep [source]
- Parentheticals (the ear has no parens) [source]
- Lists longer than three items without explicit numbering [source]
- Numbers and proper nouns delivered without a beat of silence after [source]
Core concept 1 — The one-idea-per-sentence rule
- Eye version (fine on the page): [source]
- > 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. [source]
- > 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. [source]
Core concept 2 — Signposting
Core concept 3 — No parentheticals, no em-dashed asides
Core concept 5 — The cold open
- Three patterns that work: [source]
- Pattern A - Drop into a scene: [source]
- > It's 2 a.m. The paging system goes off. Marcus rolls over, reads the alert, and the alert is wrong. [source]
- Pattern B - A question with stakes: [source]
- > What would you do if your entire backup tier disappeared in the middle of a restore? [source]
- Pattern C - A single startling fact: [source]
- > Last year, 47% of incident retrospectives never produced a single action item. [source]
- Anti-pattern - The throat-clear: [source]
- > Hi everyone, welcome to the podcast. Today we're going to be talking about... [source]
Core concept 7 — Voice-UI prompts (Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri)
- Three constraints beyond "writing for the ear": [source]
- The prompt must end with an explicit prompt-for-input. [source]
- 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. [source]
- Three-option ceiling. Lists of more than three options exceed working memory. [source]
Core concept 8 — IVR scripts
- Most-likely path first. Order by call-volume share, not alphabetical. [source]
- Always offer a human escape. "Press 0 at any time to reach an agent." [source]
- Confirm critical inputs. Read back at the cadence a person can write down. [source]
- Re-prompt twice, then escalate. Caller silence twice in a row = route to agent. [source]
Core concept 10 — Podcast show notes craft
- Required sections: [source]
- Episode title - keep under 60 characters; concrete, specific [source]
- One-paragraph summary - 50–80 words; uses the episode keyword once [source]
- Chapter timestamps - 4–8 chapters; [12:15] How to find your first sponsor [source]
- Guest bio - 1 paragraph, links to guest sites [source]
- Mentioned resources - every link spoken aloud [source]
- Transcript - full or summary [source]
- Call to action [source]
References
Children
- Cold-Open Pattern (frontier)
- One Idea Per Sentence Rule (frontier)
- Pacing Markers (commas, ellipses, line breaks) (frontier)
- IVR Pause Budgets (100/250/500ms) (frontier)
- Transcription-Friendly Writing (frontier)
- Podcast Show Notes with Chapter Timestamps (frontier)
- Ad-Break Placement (frontier)
- Sample-Dialog for Voice Conversation Design (frontier)
- Broadcast Copy Conventions (frontier)
Frontier under this node: Ad-Break Placement, Broadcast Copy Conventions, Cold-Open Pattern, IVR Pause Budgets (100/250/500ms), One Idea Per Sentence Rule, Pacing Markers (commas, ellipses, line breaks), Podcast Show Notes with Chapter Timestamps, Sample-Dialog for Voice Conversation Design, Transcription-Friendly Writing