You might be wondering what a podcast is? And even if you know about podcasts, you might think it is relevant and prudent for you to jump into podcasting. A podcast is an audio recording of a specific topic, like, for example, general issues, travel, business or literally anything under the sun. These podcasts are available on Spotify and iTunes and are at times hosted on other websites too. So as you may think now, as podcasts are readily available to people’s access, their usage has risen exponentially too!
Podcasting is the new-age revolution, and it is gaining more traction from the public nowadays. Statistics show that more than 51 per cent of the US population listens to podcasts, and the number is on the rise too. People not only listen to podcasts for fun and entertainment but also use them to gain information and more insight about a particular topic. For example, people who run podcasts make use of podcasts to develop a greater understanding of their audience and customers. Podcasting can help one to build a reputation for themselves. If you have decided to start a podcast and brought all the necessary equipment, are you thinking about what to do next? The next step which will take you closer to your goal of podcasting is writing a podcast script.
What Are Podcast Scripts, And Are They Even Important?
If you are planning to do a podcast – be it an interview podcast, an audio drama, or a deep-dive narrative, behind every podcast’s success, there is a major link with the podcast script. This might make people question, what is so great about writing a podcast script? I cannot stress enough the importance of a podcast script. This script helps you not just during recording but also makes the hosts focused and stick to the original idea of what they had in their mind.
Writing a script for a podcast might be a fearful process for many. Podcasters think that they should be able to meet the interests of the audience as well as convey what they have in mind to their audience. Also, many podcasters worry that they might not be professional enough to write a podcast. Before you start writing a podcast script, you need to know that you don’t have to be a professional writer to write a script. All you have to do is have these thoughts in mind while writing your script, and you are good to go!
When you start a podcast, be it for your business, brand or even as a hobby, it is crucial that you include scriptwriting for your podcast in the process. One of the first steps in your podcasting journey is preparing a good podcast script. This is important because when a podcast is written in A podcast, when written the right way will definitely help you in connecting with your audience. Behind every podcast, there is a brilliant podcast script that backs its success. Many people wonder if the podcast script is even used when the conversations occurring in the podcasts are almost free-flowing. This is where the podcast script is handy for usage. The audience might not exactly know where the podcast script was used during the podcast, but it gives the hosts confidence and focus more on the recording. Having a podcast script will reduce the mistakes while editing and make your podcast recording even more effective.
Mistakes That Are Tanking Your Podcast Script
Though the process of scriptwriting might be a challenging process for those beginning their podcasting journey, it is an unavoidable step. There is no definite way of writing a podcast script to make it successful. You have to follow a few ground rules common to scriptwriting of any genre. Here are some dumb mistakes that will tank the success of the podcast’s script. Having an awareness of these common mistakes will help you overcome the hassles of podcast script writing.
- Writing formally – When writing a podcast script, you must keep in mind that the target audience you will address doesn’t have any prior knowledge or connection with you. All they were interested in was the topic and genre of your podcast. So to make a good first impression, you have to write a script as if you are talking to your friend. If you are using a very formal tone in the script, people who listen to your podcast will get bored. People usually listen to podcasts because it is like listening to your friend talk. Instead of using a friendly tone, if you use a formal, strict tone, you yourselves are shooing away your audience. To write in a conversational tone, you can use the speech to text tool. This tool will help you write a script in a way that all your thoughts are coherently put together. Also, another way this tool helps you is that it will remove all the unnecessary information in your script, thereby making your script catchy and attract the attention of the audience.
- Not writing about delivery notes – While not writing a delivery note in your podcast script may seem to be like a minuscule mistake, the effect this mistake has on your podcast is quite huge. What is a delivery note? These delivery notes are the indicators of the need to pause, laugh, sigh or add other expressions. Say, for example, you are listening to a podcast which is seemingly monotonous. Do you think you will continue listening to the podcast? Obviously not! And this is why we stress the importance of delivery notes. You jot down hints about what you want to convey to the audience, but then you forget to add the delivery notes. What do you think will happen? When you are delivering the podcast’s script, the chances are that in a rush, you will forget what emotions you should add. This will make your podcast sound monotonous. So we advise you to add various expressions to appeal to your audience.
- Not maintaining a good pace – If you are an ardent listener of popular podcasts, you might notice that they all share one thing in common – that is, they maintain a good, consistent pace. The pace should be neither fast nor slow. The reason behind the success of a podcast script is that it is written with the intention of creating a stable bond between them and the audience. If you are writing a script that goes too fast, to the point where your audience can’t even understand what you are saying, they will give up on listening to your podcast. On the other hand, writing a script which has very slow transitions, has lots of unnecessary pauses, and unexplained breaks will also make your audience tired of your podcast. The right solution is to divide the episodes into different chapters and add a transition between each chapter.
- Not giving descriptive examples – Okay, so first of all, your podcast is basically audio content. People who are listening to your podcast for the first time or even are quite regular listeners of the podcast will continue to listen to your podcast for a long time only if they like what your podcast has to offer. Since the podcast primarily focuses on only the audio part, while mentioning an event, a scenario, or even while describing someone’s personality, you have to describe it clearly so that the listener will get an image of what you are telling them. If you are not writing the descriptions of what you are saying in an excited or detailed way, it will obviously put off people from listening to your podcast as they won’t be able to catch a single clue of what you are talking about. Writing descriptively may not be easy when you start at first, but as time goes on, you will be able to ace it and become a successful podcaster. All you need is patience and practice in descriptive writing, and then you will really do well in your field.
- Not giving your personal touch – Before writing your podcast script, you need to have in mind that your audience will love you for your uniqueness. To become great at podcasting, you need to experiment using stories, news pieces or other topics that seem like your field of interest. The basic idea behind podcasting is that you share your interests with the audience, which in turn like the subject too but want to know more about it. Instead of opting to go for the regular podcast script writing, you can try different things. Many podcasters fail to give their personal touch to the script, thereby making it the same monotonous script which lacks lustre. You can try to ask for opinions and experiences from your peers and experiment by using other stories, news and articles. While going through this process, you will realise what your exact specialisation in podcasting is, and you can implement those elements in scriptwriting the next time. One thing people often advice is that you should learn to write and deliver content from the pros but never imitate them. Besides, your audience will love your podcast for your individuality too!
Other Takeaway Points To Become Better At Script Writing
Sometimes, even when you are done with the huge scriptwriting process while recording, you will notice that something feels off in your podcast. When such a situation arises, don’t worry about starting it all over again. At the beginning of your scriptwriting journey, this process might be tiresome. But then editing, and re-editing your podcast script will give even better results. So don’t get discouraged when your first attempt at podcast script writing doesn’t go well. The reason why people think writing a podcast script is good is because this will ease up your workload. Imagine if you have written all that you have to say in your podcast; it will obviously reduce your brain load and give more chances for your creativity to be revealed. Once again, you don’t have to be well-versed in writing to bring out the best of your podcast script. You can keep your podcast script simple and, at the same time, deliver clear and flawless ideas to your listeners. Try paying more attention to the intro and outro parts too of your script. People often skip this part of podcast scriptwriting because they think it is going to be of no use. But don’t get the wrong idea. Having the intro and outro written in a catchy way will keep your listeners hooked to your podcast from the start to the end.
Conclusion
Writing a podcast script may often feel like an arduous task. And in fact, it is no doubt that it is a difficult process. But one thing to be noted is that the podcast script will make your recording sessions a multitude of times easier. You will feel confident about recording your podcast and that you are acing the work you are doing. As people say, preparation is the key to success, and podcast scripts form the foundation of the success of your podcast. While it might be difficult not to get disheartened at the multiple attempts at scriptwriting, you should have in mind that your effort and hard work will never go in vain. All your efforts in podcast script writing will be paid duly in the form of your podcast’s success.
