A Guide to African Performance Fiona Ledger offers the following thoughts on writing for radio. Nobody can teach you how to write a good play. Good radio plays result from a mixture of inspiration, talent and craftsmanship. These guidelines are about the craft of writing for radio - we leave the talent and inspiration to you. Rules of the African Performance Competition and an entry form are also included.
Radio is an extraordinary medium.
A radio play can travel through time and space, between centuries and continents. All this can be done for a fraction of what it would cost to do the same in film. But in every case the audience has to be attracted, and its attention held, by the means of sound alone. Good dialogue is not simply a matter of stringing together different conversations - every bit of speech must help the plot move in some direction, increasingly involving the listener as it does. In addition to speech, the writer needs to think about sound effects, music, and, something rarely appreciated by the inexperienced writer, silence.