I'm going to be writing a couple of half hour radio plays for script frenzy and I've noticed a lack of books offering advice on writing for radio. Any suggestions? It's usually worthwhile to learn from others advice.

Hi Tony,

I'm also going to be trying my hand at a radio play. Before they cleared all the forums I'd found a bunch of links (none of which I saved ::headdeskslam::). However, I found this on the web http://www.irdp.co.uk/scripts.htm

Best of luck with your script hon :D

Hiya,

I'll have a dig around in my book collection - but in the mean time, there is quite a lot of info (and sample scripts) on the BBC writersroom site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom

Particularly, you can follow this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/writing_for_radio.shtml

Dave

J. Michael Straczynski wrote a book on scriptwriting that includes a section on radio dramas.

It's called The Complete Book of Scriptwriting.

Was at a scriptwriting conference this week, and one of the speakers recommended "Writing for Radio: A Practical Guide" by Annie Caulfield. However, its not released until the 23rd of march (amazon are taking pre-orders).

Other than that, I've got a copy of "Writing for Radio" by Shaun MacLoughlin somewhere (can't lay my hands on it at the moment) - but remember that being quite useful. The book also reproduces the hilarious play "the gun I have in my right hand is loaded", by Timothy West - a play written to show how NOT to write radio drama.

I think the William Ash book "The Way to Write Radio Drama" is OK too (its a while since I read it).

But then most books written specifically about radio drama are probably OK. They will be mostly British books, of course, as radio drama seems to have died out throughout the rest of the English speaking world.

David

Thanks to all of you who have so kindly replied to my enquiry. I'll be ordering some books from Amazon and doing a bit of web surfing.
Thanks.
Tony