The Beautiful Inspiration of Form.

Formatting can set your words and imagination free.

I’ve written hundreds of radio ads. I can tell you 75 words is all you have for thirty seconds. 138 for sixty. It’s a highly restrictive writing environment and within that restriction lays inspiration.

Writing radio ads is where I began to understand form. I spent quite a lot of time experimenting with different radio script forms. I wanted one that expresses visually the ‘radio ear’ — a form that reflects the medium.

In Hollywood, format is king. The wrong font gets your script tossed. When I was a young writer those bridles chaffed. But as I gained experienced, I’ve learned to love the flow of the traditional Hollywood script form.

In radio scripts, word counts shape the form. In film scripts, it’s page count. I also use word counts in short stories, and even novels. It’s the quickest and easiest check I have to understand where I am in the story. It’s a reminder to move along, it’s a reminder to wrap things up.

I’ve gotten a lot of push back about word count. I once spoke at a marketing conference and mentioned word counts in radio ads. People objected to writing that way. I was used to those objections.