Writing the Radio Serial.

 

Between nine in the morning and six in the evening, Monday through Friday, 60 radio serials are presented each day by the various networks. Some of the serials are good, but there are too many, they are built upon a false psychology, and they are too much alike. If a serial would end now and then and a new one start the broadcasting day would be somewhat improved. The "do -listen -tomorrow" suspense ending to every program grows tiresome, but it gives the sponsor an opportunity to call attention to his product tomorrow and tomorrow until sales resistance has been broken down. These dramatic pieces are not planned as literature or drama or entertainment or education. They are strictly advertising-nothing else. The 15 -minute period allotted to the daily presentation contains an average of 2% minutes of commercial copy-not excessive in itself but when repeated hour after hour, day after day, it gives a bad taste to radio entertainment. Approximately 3% minutes of each program are devoted to theme, tie-up with the preceding episode, and a "come-on " for tomorrow. The average dramatic time is 8% minutes to a 15 -minute program. The plots are not objectionable, only monotonous in their sameness. One motif does stand out throughout the day, one against which listeners cry out most insistently, domestic unfaithfulness. Heard as the theme of one serial it would go unchallenged. Splattered through two dozen it becomes an unhealthy overdose. The beginning student in radio writing, however, must not ignore this specific and specialized kind of writing so popular as an advertising medium. It is the object of any advertising scheme to arouse in the public an awareness of a product which the sponsor wishes to sell. The radio serial, more than any other advertising means, makes this possible, because the story's running over a period of months or years has the cumulative effect of renewing or refreshing the appeal of the sponsored commodity. A successful serial will increase its circle of listeners, thus widening the potential consumer market. Because the increase of the market is in direct proportion to the increase of the popularity of the radio program, sponsors and agents are on the lookout for scripts which indicate that they will appeal to the radio audience. Radio serials are designed for three separate audiences. The morning and early -afternoon programs are written for women who are busy about their solitary household tasks or who are lonesome shut-ins. The sponsors are manufacturers of products which housewives buy in large quantities -food, clothing, and domestic supplies, particularly soap, which has given the name "soap opera" to this type of entertainment. Each program is built around some one lovable character (usually an older woman with whom the listener can identify herself), who is in a position close to Trouble. The troubles may be her own or those afflicting her loved ones and neighbors, but she must be kept in continuous difficulties. From the time the children are out of school until their bedtime, the airways pulse with serials designed to snare the juvenile listener and make him coax his mother to buy so that a box top and 10 cents may be sent in for the current premium offer. These tales center about some hero or heroine with whom the young listener can identify himself, or else they are written around a superior, adventurous adult who fills the role of an idol to be worshiped and emulated. As twilight falls and the family gathers at home, the serials for children slide over into dramas written with an eye on the whole family "Amos 'n' Andy" must have an enormous audience of tired businessmen, because so many of their adventures poke affectionate fun at their ineptitude in financial matters. "One Man's Family" has a range of character which takes in the whole household, from grandma down to the youngest child who is likely to be awake at that time of night. And as the hands of the clock swing around, these homey adventures are replaced with the more harrowing scripts aimed entirely at adult audiences-the "episodic serials" built around several familiar characters who have a different, complete adventure in each installment. Listen to the programs on the air and select the type of program you think you are best fitted to write. If you are a woman, the chances are that you are more familiar with the experiences and daydreams which appeal chiefly to the feminine audience. As a rule men write more convincingly the scripts of exciting adventure. When you have decided on the audience you wish to entertain, choose your chief character and put him or her in a setting which is familiar to you, one which allows for the introduction of a variety of minor characters and an infinite succession of troubles. Let us assume that you have already learned that a radio drama is a story told in dialogue with appropriate music and sound effects to aid the listener in imagining the action. It should have a beginning designed to catch immediate attention, a build-up of suspense leading to a climax, a denouement, and a close. The principle ingredients are characters, setting, and plot, carefully sifted and creamed together, with a liberal proportion of emotion worked in to keep it from being flat and a nice flavoring of humor if you are good at that sort of thing. 

In a single drama written for radio, the emphasis is on plot. There is not time in half an hour to work out more than a sketchy characterization of the actors, and the play must be kept moving every minute with action or laughter if it is to hold the attention of the listener. In a serial, however, the important thing is characterization. No radio -wise sponsor expects to get a heavy response from the first 13 weeks of a new serial, and calculations have been made that it takes two years to work up to maximum pulling power. One of the most successful radio programs is an episodic serial in which the plots are so slight that they can hardly be outlined; the setting is invariably the cottage across the street but the characters are sufficiently appealing to be held in affection by most of the radio families in the country. Take time in choosing leading characters and become thoroughly familiar with them before writing a word of dialogue. Some writers find it useful to make a dossier of each one-name, age, physical description, likes, dislikes, traits of character, favorite expressions, and attitude toward other actors in the story. Once you begin working with your personnel you can add to this outline as the characterizations grow. Naturally a personality from the middle classes has the heaviest appeal because the bulk of the radio audience is most readily identified with such people. Experience has proved that if the hero is to be a benevolent Mr. Fix -it, he had better be elderly or at least middle-aged. A homemaker will take advice from Ma Perkins that she would not take from her own mother. If you prefer a younger leading actor, then plan to make him strive against odds, fail, pick himself up with courage and determination until he has achieved success in a venture which only draws him on to another striving against odds and failures. The listener cannot keep track of many invisible actors; consequently the number in any given scene is limited to five or six important people -two or three is even better. In the course of time, however, radio serials can introduce a great variety of people who have some connection with the central characters, and these can be picked up or dropped at will. The balance of character in the standard legitimate drama is perfectly good for radio-a juvenile lead and an ingénue, a "heavy," and a couple of character parts. This provides a scattering of appeal to different ages in the audience and also takes care of voice contrast, which is very important over the air. A fan who follows any given program expects to know who is talking almost the instant the sound begins to register, and a newcomer can tell a motherly, middle-aged voice from a young girl's, even without the name tags which must be thickly sprinkled through all radio dialogue. One popular serial which features the adventures of three young men differentiates the characters by making one a drawling Texan, the second a crisp -speaking Englishman, and the third an average American voice without localized accent. Dialect, however, should be handled with discretion lest it become burlesque or be quite unintelligible when produced over the air. The setting is best when it is familiar to the author; however, a different, unique, or unshopworn one would attract attention. Cottages and palaces, hospitals and orphanages, boardinghouses and theaters, newspaper offices and airplane cockpits-these are ordinary. It costs no money to build a new set for a radio drama. However, if you cannot produce a novelty along that line, pick the one you know best. Familiar material can be handled more efficiently and plenty of material will be required. If you can write clever, realistic dialogue, preferably of a whimsical nature, or if you have a neat hand with good clean humor, start on an episodic serial in which each installment is complete by itself. These have the advantage of entertaining the occasional listener as well as the regular dialer -in, but they are tricky to handle. Radio men have made a long and exhaustive search for script writers who can do another " Vic and Sade " (only different). The episodic serial is not very different from the single radio drama, except that it concerns itself with one or more main characters who appear in a series of shows, and a large part of its appeal lies in the creation of people so distinctively human that the fans want to hear more about them. If the fan misses one show, the next episode will be a complete story in itself. It is easier, however, to write a serial which carries its suspense over from day to day. For the first installment it is better not to get deeply involved in plot, because it is going to take a while to pick up an audience and you will only have to repeat later. Arouse curiosity about your characters and the situation in which they find themselves, so that at the sign -off listeners will be eager to know more about them and what is going to happen to them. It is best to start each program, after the series is well started, on a relatively high note, relax the tension somewhat, and then climb up to a high point before the program goes off the air for the day. It is not at all necessary that episodes follow a day-by-day relationship. Thus two or three scripts appearing on three successive days may deal with action that takes place in the space of a few hours. Do not allow the story to become so complex that a great deal of exposition is essential. The second and subsequent installments will start with what is known as a "leadin "-a brief reference to the previous broadcasts. Authorities agree that no attempt should be made to summarize the story to date, since this would grow increasingly difficult in the allotted time. Most scripts have a few sentences to reveal what is going on during the current sequence or to tell where the protagonists were left yesterday. If you have any doubt as to how this is done, turn on your radio and listen. 

One of radio's most serious limitations is the time element. Most of the daily serials are 15 -minute spots, with nearly a third of the time allotment taken by station breaks and commercial announcements. Nearly all serials are sponsored programs and those that are sustaining are only being nursed along until they have sufficient pull to interest a sponsor. The average 15 -minute serial should have from two to twelve lines of leadin, be about 2,000 words long, and end with a "closing tag" which poses the what -will -happen -next formula in from one to six lines. It is wise to write 1 minute more of continuity than the time allotment permits. It is always easier to cut than to fill. Most authorities suggest that in submitting a proposed serial to an advertising agency or script department, two or three installments should be written, with a synapsis of additional material sufficient to make up a 13 -week series. It might be wise to write the whole first sequence before you venture to submit anything, even though the extra installments are laid away until they are needed. It takes more time, ingenuity, and energy to write five scripts a week than you realize until you have tried it. Furthermore, do not submit a synopsis, for not even a common-law copyright protects an idea. In the serials written for children it is customary to leave the actors in some perilous situation at the clóse of each installment so as to be sure of holding interest over till tomorrow, but the usual five -a -week or threj-a-week serial for adults can take more time to work up to a climax, although the tempo should be quickened for the Friday installment, keeping the listener in sufficient suspense to come back for more on Monday. The experienced serial writer is usually working with two threads of suspense in his story a major suspense, which will build up to the nearest climax, and a minor suspense, which will become the major as soon as the current pressing problem is solved. This is valuable because radio serials differ from every other form of writing in one important respect. If they are good they may go on for years and years without an ending. Since this is true, a radio serial is built on sequences, rather than on individual, distinct plots, and it is a good idea to let the sequences overlap. It may be true that there is no substitute for good writing, but in the concoction of radio serials good writing does not mean fine writing. Reluctant though you may be to face it, a beautiful, poetic flow of language is not appreciated by the average soap -opera fan. Commercial radio does not seem to concern itself with minorities; mass appeal is its creed. The masses are drawn to the program by the commonplace in style, diction, story, and characterization. Radio serials are the etheric counterpart of the pulp literature which burdens the newsstands, and the devotees want to know in advance that 7everything is going to come out all right for their favorite characters. They like to identify promptly the hero, the heroine, and the villain; they want the proper people to triumph and the wrong ones to get their comeuppance. Further, it gives them pleasure to be so familiar with the language of these people that they can almost say the words themselves. Interest is aroused in the serial through the suspense that develops in how the problem is solved, and the interest is held by a flow of perpetual emotion. If you have listened carefully to many programs, you have come to the conclusion that the chief qualification of an actress for soap opera is to be able to sob frequently and effectively into the microphone. Probably the reason Mrs. Housewife would rather weep into her dishpan over the imaginary troubles of "Pretty Kitty Kelley" than over the real troubles of Polish refugees is that she knows, from long and comfortable experience, that Kitty's difficulties will come out all right at the end of the sequence. Remember, too, that the radio audience is more interested in people than in ideas. If you have any pet propaganda about social uplift or intellectual development, couch these ideas in homely language and let some sweet character already admired by your listeners receive the credit for having said something. The theme, then, should have a tremendous appeal to the emotions of the multitude, but should be written in a way to hold the solitary listener. While millions of people may be tuned in, they are listening in small units of not more than five individuals, usually less. You may be as cozy as you please with them. There is no use trying to be subtle, because the average fan will not get it. You should be careful that the whole point of your installment does not hang on one sentence, because perhaps the telephone rang at the moment that sentence was uttered and when the listener returned from answering the phone she was baffled about the story, which she doesn't like being. Be as sentimental as you can without gagging, and you may ladle out tragedy with a trowel, provided it is clean dirt and will all come out in the wash. 

Juvenile Serials. 

In serials for children there has been a campaign directed toward more wholesome broadcasts. Cheap melodrama playing upon fear is frowned upon, but continuous action is necessary to hold the attention of children and it must be used in larger proportions than are encountered in real life. The story of the experiences of a pioneering family has received the approbation of parents and educators because it teaches many facts of history, nature study, and character development, while maintaining a thread of steady adventure. Care must be used not to talk down to the child, and the use of bad grammar to characterize juveniles is rarely successful. If you know what children like, there is a great demand today for good scripts aimed at the juvenile audience. The broadcasting companies are eager to keep the parents pacified, provided the script actually interests the young people enough to give the sponsor the reaction he demands. Children are able to transport themselves without any embarrassment to any setting to which the radio may direct them. Imagination knows no limits. This very fact has given rise to problems in writing the children's radio story. It has become necessary to exercise the greatest amount of control and caution. In the early days of radio for children, writers literally ran away with themselves and failed to realize the power of the medium with which they were working. Children's programs took on the color of the macabre, and nightmares instead of peaceful sleep resulted for many too impressionable but normal children. Finally protests began to flood the studios. Mothers all over the country demanded less violent and disturbing stories. The networks established a list of policies that were to govern any future writing. "The exalting, as modern heroes, of gangsters, criminals, and racketeers will not be allowed . . . cruelty, greed and selfishness must not be presented as worthy motivations." Actually, the establishment of the list of policies had little effect on the writing, because script writers had seldom been guilty of the violations that the policies warned against. Gradually writers did become aware of at least one thing; scenes of cruelty which might be acceptable in print became too vivid over the radio. Efforts were made to subdue scenes that might offend or disturb. The youngster's love of adventure had to be catered to, but it was not necessary to inject horror to meet the demands of action. As far as the structure of the children's serial is concerned, there is little difference between it and the regular daytime serial for women. Daily, end -of -the -week, and sequence climaxes are all part and parcel of children's radio writing, but there is this exception. Long sequences are best avoided. Especially is this true where young children constitute the major portion of the audience. As the audience age increases, the sequence length may grow. Dilemmas in children's serials are without exception less mental than those designed for women. A children's serial must provide the young listener with hazard -studded adventures. A writer very easily can work problems into his story that in being solved teach a lesson in any one of several educational fields. Natural history, geography, first aid, and many others may at some time in the story become the pivot around which an entire sequence revolves. It has been found that information is best retanned when learned against an emotional background. In this way radio serials can be educational as well as entertaining. The protagonist in a child's serial is usually one of two types. He is either a youngster of the same age as the oldest of the child listeners, or else he is an older man with the reputation for infallibility. Because the age of the listeners seems to be related to the age of the child hero, it is wise not to make the hero too young. Fourteen would seem to be a reasonably safe age. The sponsors of a children's program discovered that they were losing the patronage of thousands of potential listeners and purchasers because the hero was too childish. Care should also be taken to avoid excessive realism. For example, in a western serial the ranch went broke and the place was converted into a dude ranch in order to recoup some of the losses. Letters started coming in asking how much it would cost to go to the ranch. This was proof of the effectiveness of the story. It was real to thousands of children and apparently to many parents. But when the answers to these inquiries were sent out and it was learned that the ranch was a fake, many loyal fans were alienated. The writer of the radio serial for children should cater to boys' interests, for girls will listen to stories for boys but boys refuse to listen to stories about girls. If there are any girl characters they should be tomboys, and adults should retain their youthful interests and attitudes as much as possible. The real solving of any problems or difficulties should always be done by a youthful character. The characters should never be given a definite age as children prefer to believe that their heroes are but slightly older than they are themselves. The characters' action should be consistent throughout the series. Plenty of action and a good plot are demanded by children, as they revel in experiences and adventures of all kinds, but the young mind insists that truth be accurate and that fiction be consistent. One of the faults of radio serials for children is oversimplification. Surveys show that children listen to and prefer serials prepared for adults to those expressly written for the child listener. The elements of the adult serial should be modified only slightly for youth. Children have to look to the adult program for humor, for amusing family experiences, for the realism of childhood problems, for character interest rather that a continued series of thrills. Allow the child listener to visualize himself in place of the radio character; make him a part of "The Aldrich Family" or of "One Man's Family." The secret of writing for the radio child is to put the child listener into the play rather than in the audience. Boys from eight to fourteen years prefer plots that are exciting, filled with adventure, action, and travel. Comedy also has its appeal but wild - west and cowboy tales fit into their games. Girls like excitement but they will listen to sentimental plays; the slightest mention of love scares off the boys. Mystery, crime, and detective stories maintain their appeal but gangster and horror dramas no longer hold high favor with children or their parents. Highly rated juvenile serials by both the children and their parents include "Robinson Crusoe, Jr.," in which there were no battles, no criminals, no bloodshed, and humor predominated over melodrama. In "Wilderness Road" there was plenty of action but the conflict was with nature, storms, floods, etc. Actual historical characters were introduced and geography, natural history, and zoology were skillfully worked into an exciting series of events. "The Lone Ranger" has a mysterious masked rider whose life is one of adventures in which virtue triumphs. Older children have expressed interest in travelogues; a serial could be written about a boy who accompanies Commander Byrd or Roy Chapman Andrews. However, it is not vital that adventures be about pearl (living, jungle exploration, or sea voyages, for there is plenty of adventure upon our rivers, lakes, railroads, and mountains. The N.A.B. code states that writers need not remove the "vigor and vitality common to a child's imagination but rather base programs on sound social concepts, presented with a superior degree of craftsmanship." Possibly there is the real problem in improving programs for children-stop considering from the viewpoint of childless psychologists and enjoy yourself as you live and 'play with the kids. When you have finished your first draft of the script, it is a good rule, as in all writing, to lay it away for a time to "jell." You will see it in a clearer perspective after a brief absence from it. In the meantime, read more scripts or listen to another round of serial broadcasts and you will probably get fresh ideas which will improve your own copy. Do not try to write a sample commercial to go with your script. The advertising agency can do that better than you can. Besides, you do not know who the sponsor may be. Of course some serials are written with a tie-up to the sponsor's product, but they are written on order, under contract. Next to writing gag continuity for radio's big comedians, the pay in radio writing goes to those who turn out serial scripts; serial dramas are remunerative because they go on the air from three to five times weekly and because they go on forever. From the writer's viewpoint, this perpetuity demands the constitution of an ox and the fertility of a guinea pig. The chief qualification is endurance, rather than artistry. It is true that Archibald MacLiesh and Maxwell Anderson have written some fine dramas for radio, but they do not write them every day, nor even every week. A creative worker, be he painter, composer, or writer, has a limited amount of original material stored up within himself which he pours out into his creations, and when he has emptied himself he must rest until his reservoirs fill up again. If he doesn't rest he has a nervous breakdown, which ends his output tempo- rarily at least, or else he drifts into producing machine -made drivel. Furthermore, as has been already pointed out, the radio audience prefers factory -made fiction, and that is something else you have to take into consideration if you have cast your eye on the commercial profits to be made in this sort of writing, rather than on the artistic side of it. Excepting a few top-flight writers, most of the acclaimed scripts don't earn much money for the man who grinds them out. Very few listeners give undivided attention to these serial programs, so pace your script slowly enough and make it simple enough to be readily understood by such divided minds. However, you must also take into consideration that someone somewhere is probably paying attention at any given moment, and, if his pet prejudices are offended, he is more apt to voice his condemnation than he ever would be to write his appreciation. For this reason there are many strict taboos in radio. Profanity is carefully censored, even when it might realistically belong in a story. Guard against political, racial, moral, or religious controversies, since the vast audience is touchy about these things and unfavorable reactions are promptly registered with the sponsor. In spite of the many restrictions which have been stressed, there are compensations in the writing of serial scripts. A writer who has only average ability and who is equipped chiefly with determination and good health can make a very decent living by writing for radio. While his name will rarely be published abroad, there are other rewards. It is sweet to know that 10 million people may become interested in the welfare of the characters he created, and if they do become so interested, his material rewards are not inconsiderable. When Dr. and Mrs. John Wayne, leads of "Big Sister," were married, the Columbia Broadcasting Studios received three truckloads of wedding gifts for the fictitious bride and groom. Irna Phillips (who turns out four serial scripts daily and has learned to dictate at a speed of 1000 words an hour) earns about $4000 a week. The broadcasting companies and the sponsors invest an enormous amount in these programs, and they will be happy to grab what you write if you can do a better show with an appeal to the masses. Styles change constantly, giving opportunities to newcomers.