Writing a Short Story for Radio

A guide for the Commonwealth Short Story Competition

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Writing a Short Story for Radio

1. Setting your sights

Before you start writing, its worth thinking about the opportunities, pleasures and challenges the short story form offers a writer. If youre feeling a little uncertain or inhibited, take heart! There are plenty of reasons to feel excited about the task and drawn to the form.

The openness of the short story form is exciting, and so is its focus on language, and its availability to experimentation. Also, there is an end in sight! It is good to finish writing projects, and short stories are more easily completed than novels.
Emily Perkins

I love how short they are. I started with short stories when I began writing, while typing for a living as a temp in law offices in London. It seemed like stories would be easier to encompass (ie hide on my computer screen) and easier to write than a novel, but I was wrong. Its an incredibly dense form that needs to have air through it, like lacy stone. Since my own writing is always too long, I admire short story writers for their economy and distillation. A story is a way to say something that cant be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. Flannery OConnor
Marina Endicott

One of the more enjoyable aspects of writing short stories is the sense of freedom the form offers by virtue of its size. Its relative brevity emboldens the writer to take risks with subject matter, style and form that might be too risky for the writer (and for the reader) in a novel. Certain things that may be charming in a short story could be, for example, grating in a novel. Additionally, with short stories the writer doesnt need to research the subject matter to anywhere near the same extent as he or she might for a novel. Finally, the pay-off must, by definition, come sooner in the writing and in the reading of a short story.
Elliot Perlman

As someone who is still relatively new to creative writing, short stories have given me the opportunity to experiment with different styles and points of view. Theyve helped me to improve my craft and, from a more practical perspective, theyve allowed me to build some writing credentials. I love the challenge of telling a story - a complete story with a beginning, middle and end - within the confines of a very limited number of words.
Julie Curwin

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Writing a Short Story for Radio

I am addicted to writing, and reading, short stories - in ten pages or just one page, a short story can shock and dazzle you, leaving an imprint on your brain that lasts for weeks, sometimes years. Writing short stories means that I am always meeting new characters and hearing about their lives. Constantly curious, I can visit new places daily in my imagination, exploring different situations. I relish the challenge of saying everything necessary in the minimum amount of words. All a short story has to be is short. The rest is up to you.
Tania Hershman

I think the qualities you need are: a strong story, short but vivid pen-pictures and characters that come to life.
Jaishree Misra

For me, its all about character, an engaging character that can remain with a reader after the end of a story.
Kachi Ozumba

An element of surprise - achieved via humour, a narrative twist, a new perspective, or wordplay - was a signal feature of all the 2009 winning stories.
Jolisa Gracewood

Remember, successful short stories achieve their impact in many different ways.

And whatever ingredients you choose, make them strong and meaningful. Its also important to make them work together.

There is no one perfect form a memorable short story should take. A short story could be a glimpse of life, a snap-shot captured on the page, an acute observation without plot that focuses on a turning point in someones life. It could show us in fine detail something we all know but have never before seen with such clarity. Alternatively, it could have a plot every bit as gripping as that of a page-turning novel. Its unlikely to have all these characteristics and perhaps its not possible for one short story to contain all of these attributes.
Elliot Perlman

As a reader, heres my list of imperatives for short stories: They must be compelling, credible, and have their own particular climate. I ask, do the characters stand up at once? Were they convincing? Then, lastly, whats the point? Whats it about?
Penelope Lively

Short stories are, and always have been, one of my favourite things to read. I think I like the completeness of them: the way that plot and image and character all have to work together. You should be able to reread a short story many times.
Kate Clanchy

And reading short stories is the perhaps the best way to prepare yourself to write one.

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Writing a Short Story for Radio

Read a lot of stories, and start writing Sometimes the humblest material stories like the ones you admire. Don't makes for the strongest and most be afraid to start by, for example, memorable stories. updating or transposing a classic story. Jolisa Gracewood Your own ideas will come soon enough. Another approach is to follow your passion - write on
Kate Clanchy

Read the best stories you can find, from people like Alice Munro and Flannery OConnor to Lorrie Moore and Lisa Moore, Chris Adrian and George Saunders, Uwem Akpan, A.L. Kennedy, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Sherman Alexie, to expand and explode your idea of what successful might mean.
Marina Endicott

a theme you feel passionate about, or write a passionate depiction of life in your country. Or attempt something new - be bold in your choice of subject or in the way you use language.

Successful short stories are usually about things we feel excited or strongly about. It is usually a joy writing such stories.
Kachi Ozumba

2. Getting started
What to write about? Many people worry about finding something to write about. Your story might come from a dream, a conversation, a photograph, a place, a story from your family. You might not have to look very far for a subject - it could be a small incident, something ordinary, everyday.

Write what you are passionate about, but dont wait for the muse to come calling. Applying ones buttocks to ones chair day after day is the most important thing.
Julie Curwin

Write about something you feel you havent read about before, or use language in a way you havent read. This might be the way you hear language used in your family, in your street or by For me, the promptings for short stories your friends. Think of yourself as a reader are very different from those for a novel. and what kind of story you would be excited to come across in a book you've My short stories usually spring from randomly picked up in a shop, library or some aspect of lived experience someone's attic. something observed or seen or Emily Perkins overheard - and I try to make this material universal. My short story prompts are often quite mundane, such as looking at a supermarket Christmas shopping list, or returning from the dentist with a frozen jaw
Penelope Lively

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Writing a Short Story for Radio

3. Thinking about your audience

4. Thinking in sound

To write an effective short story for radio, you must consider everything you want to do in the light of how The winning stories of the Commonwealth Short Story it will sound. Competition are broadcast to an international audience. Remember that listeners to the stories when they are Be careful not to lose or confuse the listener. For used on radio will be from a range of ages and cultures. example, clarify different speakers.

You have to imagine that your listeners Try to help the listener imagine your story unfolding. They will work with you to see your characters and will include teenagers and the action, and to feel the setting and the emotion. And grandmothers, labourers and remember, as with all evocative writing, a little goes a academics. So what might be long way. acceptably explicit to one age group or Listen to stories on radio or online, and make notes on to one level of education, or to one what you learn. culture, can be unacceptable in another. To write an effective story for radio you Elizabeth Smith, Secretary-General, Commonwealth Broadcasting should listen to stories on radio. This Association way youll have an idea of what can work well and what cant. As well as showing an awareness of your intended
audience, its a good idea to try to put yourself in the Kachi Ozumba shoes of your listeners and readers. Ask yourself how are people going to feel after my story ends? What are Keep your they going to take away with them?

What one really wants from a short story is that after its been read it stays with the reader. Something about it should linger. It might be a feeling the story triggered, an emotion, a mood or a thought. The successful short story leaves the reader changed, possibly only in a tiny way and maybe only in passing, very briefly. But even if it is only fleetingly, the successful short story leaves the reader in some way changed.
Elliot Perlman

sentences short. Make the story crackle with realistic dialogue.

Jaishree Misra

A story for radio works best if there aren't too many flashbacks. If the story is linear in structure, this makes it easier to follow. Also, it's probably best not to have too many characters. Reading a story on the page, a reader can always go back to check on who's who, but this doesn't work with radio!
Tania Hershman

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Writing a Short Story for Radio

Im certainly no expert on this, but my sense is that dialogue might be a bit trickier on radio. In my own Commonwealth Short Story Competition winning story, there was a section of dialogue between two elderly female characters and if the actress who read the story hadnt done such a fantastic job of distinguishing the two voices, it may have been rather confusing as to who was speaking.
Julie Curwin

be enjoyable to listen to. Dry stories without passion, humour or incident are pretty bad on the page and off.
Marina Endicott

A strong, guiding narrative voice is important on radio. Someone who sounds like an individual - build your story round such a voice.
Kate Clanchy

I asked my dear friend Barbara Barnes (an actor who often reads for audiobooks and BBC Radio) what works. She believes characters and dialogue figure more in stories that are meant to be heard. She looks for clearly identifiable speakers - who are separate from the voice of the author. In practical editing terms, long sentences with lots of clauses can make it harder to read out loud and therefore harder for the listener. Barbara says, I've recorded Commonwealth Short Stories and they all seem to have that very particular, local voice, but dealing with a theme that is universal. People like to listen to characters - there's room for beautiful description, but the story really comes through the characters. But a good story is a good story and will read well and

Imagine an actor picking up your story How well will it read aloud? Have you done all you can to help the actor convey the mood and tone of your story, for example? The best test is to read your story aloud - it helps to reveal weaknesses. Shape is an essential aspect of any short story. Remember that shape, rhythm and voice are especially important in a short story written for radio.

A piece of writing needs to have some sort of shape or trajectory to qualify as a short story. Think about the shape of your story before you start writing it. What shape is it? Think about its shape and rhythm. There is a performative element involved here. How are you going to tell this story? Think about its voice. Once you have finished, read it aloud to yourself and listen to how it sounds in the air. If possible, tape yourself reading it and play the story back to yourself; this will be particularly useful if your story is intended for radio.
Helen Simpson

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Writing a Short Story for Radio

5. Creating characters
Make your characters vivid, human and irresistible. The reader must be able to picture characters clearly and to care what happens to them.

Character is like the vehicle in which your reader journeys through the plot of your story. He is more likely to remember and talk about a journey made in a limo or a jalopy, rather than one made in the usual nondescript taxi. Make good use of the quirks and weaknesses of your characters. Everybody has them. Observe and take note of yours for a start. Kachi Ozumba More and more as I work I become convinced that respect for the people you make up is the single most important thing. Dont make them do silly or stupid things to please your plot; take notice of their reality and allow them to be as human as you are. Once youve written a story, read it through once for each one of the characters, to see if the world makes sense through their eyes.

It's astonishing how much can be conveyed about a character very briefly. The 2009 winning story had a protagonist who came across as sparky and determined and very likeable purely through her dialogue and actions. Precious word space wasn't taken up by elaborate explanations.
Jaishree Misra

One of the greatest challenges of the short story form is to create fully developed characters - characters whom the reader cares about - without the luxury of pages and pages of description. The challenge is to find just the right detail - a physical trait, a speech pattern, a gesture - to convey a sense of who the person is in just a few words.
Julie Curwin

For me, voice is the most important part of creating a character. I hear their voice in my head, the way they speak, the words they use, their own particular language. Until I hear that, I find it very hard to write. The stories I like to read Marina Endicott aren't those which describe what a Characters don't have to be rounded - character looks like, or is wearing that they can be outrageous, and they can day. I like to imagine that for myself, but I can only do that if they are real to me, be partial, especially if the story if they come off the page. And in the expresses a partial point of view. world of written words, giving them Kate Clanchy their own voice is the quickest way to do this.
Tania Hershman

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Writing a Short Story for Radio

6. Writing dialogue
Well-crafted dialogue gives the impression of real speech. It can take the story forwards and it reveals character. Make sure the language suits the characters and the setting. And remember, characters need distinctive voices - especially in a story for radio. Writing convincing dialogue takes practice. Listen carefully to people talking to each other. And watch the things that people do while they talk - these things can be the supporting action in a dialogue. Its also valuable to recall conversations that youve heard, as this is often the way dialogue is presented in stories.

Listen, listen and listen to how people actually speak and try to be as true to this as much as is sensible when writing. Use the register appropriate for your character and setting.
Kachi Ozumba

Remember nobody talks in paragraphs!

Jaishree Misra

Ask yourself whether this particular line of dialogue is really something your character would say, and whether the words and the speech patterns youve chosen are consistent with the view of the character you want the reader to have. In short stories youre more likely to want the dialogue to achieve more than one purpose or effect at a time, for example, the one line could both advance the plot and reveal character.
Elliot Perlman

Real people rarely talk directly to each other. This is a great piece of advice I was given. If you listen to people on the street, they don't give direct, clear, wellthought-out answers in a conversation. There are unfinished sentences, one person is talking about one thing and their companion is talking about something else. If you were to transcribe real conversations word for word, this would be fairly long and tedious! But to make dialogue sound real, let your characters leave their sentences unfinished, let them not listen properly to each other!
Tania Hershman

Every word that people say in a short story has to do triple duty: to advance (or grind to a shrieking halt, or send jaggedly sideways) the story, to produce some change in the other person, and to allow the speakers hidden self to show through. That middle duty is the most important: in every exchange, each character speaking must be attempting to make the other person do something - realize his perfidy, leave that other girl, start loving me properly. But of course dialogue also has to ring true. Readers have very keen ears, and a word of false talk is worse than a paragraph of so-so prose. If you doubt

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Writing a Short Story for Radio

your own ear for conversation, get Always use your senses - touch, hearing, someone else to read your dialogue out and especially smell when creating a loud for you. Its easier to hear the scene. Kate Clanchy clunkers that way.
Marina Endicott

The challenge is to find just the right Its a good idea to read your drafts set of details to create a sense of the aloud for sound and rhythm - this place for the reader without using too applies especially for dialogue. many words. If possible, use all five Emily Perkins senses, not just visual description. Describing how a place smells is Keep dialogue crisp and natural. Avoid particularly effective in creating an having characters educate the reader. emotional connection with the reader.
Julie Curwin Julie Curwin

Dialogue is always what we remember saying, rather than what we actually say, and it is almost always remembered from a point of view, the narrators or a character's. Try writing down conversations you remember or overhear, for practice, honing them down till you are convinced by them. Dialogue can be very bald and direct are you having an affair? - and still plausible, providing the relationship of the speakers is well set up.
Kate Clanchy

Ask yourself whether the setting is interesting. It might not be intrinsically interesting but it might be necessary for the story (and the story has to be interesting). Do you know enough about the setting to depict it accurately? Even in a short story the reader has to believe you know what youre writing about. One false move and the reader can turn off. Be aware that a poorly rendered or poorly chosen setting can be the false move that loses the reader. It can be where the reader turns off.
Elliot Perlman

7. Setting
Setting is important. It can help define characters as well as give location to the action. And setting can have a metaphorical value. Place, time, sound and smell can have symbolic functions. Always ask yourself - what are the telling details which will make this setting seem real? And help the reader to conjure up a sense of place by appealing to their senses.

It certainly helps to have a clear idea of setting. And by this I don't just mean location but also landscape, community, atmosphere. An excellent example of this is in the first few pages of F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel The Great Gatsby.
Jaishree Misra

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Writing a Short Story for Radio

8. Plot and structure

The only rule I've ever been able to come up with for short stories is, Something's got to happen, but not too much. A lot of it is knowing when to linger and elaborate - and when to keep quiet. It's best not to start with an explanation, a life history, or a big leadup and filling-in of background. That's the beauty of short stories, you don't have to include the usual boring stuff, you can just skip all that and cut to the chase.
Helen Simpson

9. Point of view
Think carefully when deciding on a narrative point of view for your story. Whose viewpoint do you want to adopt? The two basic points of view are: The first person I - this reads like an autobiography, and the narrator is a character. The third person he, she or they - this is the omniscient narrator, who knows all and can move in and out of the different viewpoints of the characters. Of course, its possible to tell a story from several viewpoints and keep shifting them, but dont confuse the reader.

Drawing in the reader immediately is crucial, so construct the opening of your story with care. But you must also find ways to hold the readers attention until the whole story has been told.

Its a commonly-held rule that you have to stick with one point of view, that readers dont like to be jarred from head to head, from one persons innermost A good plot should awaken a question, thought to anothers. I dont believe it. dilemma, paradox or even simple One of the great pleasures of fiction, as curiosity in the mind of a reader and opposed to film or theatre, is that we keep him hooked till the resolution. For get to know what is going on inside structure, begin with a part that will peoples heads! Why would you want to get your reader interested or curious be stingy with that? But I think its wise immediately. to be kind to your reader, to make Kachi Ozumba delicately certain that we will know exactly whose head we are inhabiting My main piece of advice is: start in the at each moment. middle. Throw the reader right in, with Marina Endicott no preamble, no introduction, no description. Keep the reader guessing In a short story, it's worth keeping this and they will keep reading! really simple as you have less time to Tania Hershman switch points of view without confusing the reader. This may sound trite but it really is Jaishree Misra worth following that old adage of having a beginning, a middle and an end.
Jaishree Misra

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Point of view is something that every writer needs to be aware of - in great part because if you violate point of view, the reader will sense that something is off and it may well throw them out of your story. In the first person, for example, if you are in your main character's head, the story can only tell us things that the main character knows, we see the world through her or his eyes. If the reader needs to know something the main character doesn't know, then it may be better to switch to third person. When a story just isn't working, try changing point of view, sometimes this is exactly what is needed.
Tania Hershman

This is the part I enjoy most; it is revising that brings out the shine of a story. In revising, you try and address everything that does not work well in the story. For example, you identify ill-fitting words and replace them with the appropriate ones, you also delete all unnecessary words and sentences thereby making your prose crackle, and pace and plot tighter.
Kachi Ozumba

10. Revising
This is your chance to polish your writing and to prune it down. Take your time and work hard. Check every aspect of your story. And dont forget the nuts and bolts - look for any errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation. Revising will refine your story.

Do more of it. Give up being precious about your own work, its only words. And especially with short stories, remember that its just a story, not your lifes blood. You can write another story. While writing, each story can be the most important thing in the world. But once youve got all the way through, dont be protective or partisan any more. Fix it! Be as cold and heartless toward it as you once were tender.
Marina Endicott

Revising is crucial, always. It's amazing how many fabulous new thoughts can emerge during a second draft.
Jaishree Misra

Don't abandon your story at first (or And when should you tackle revising? even second) draft stage. Work at it, spend time on it; allow yourself to grow Leave a short story draft at least 24 obsessed. Pounce on any words that hours before revising, longer if you have aren't pulling their weight, and cut. When in doubt, cut. Your story should it, but not more than a week. Emily Perkins hold the essence of its subject. You want maximum power for minimum length.
Helen Simpson

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The best thing is to leave a story for a while, because I find that I am always in love with a first draft and can't view it with fresh eyes. After that, don't treat anything in the first draft as sacred. Experiment with everything - try starting your story in a completely different place and see what happens. Change the tense - if it was past, try it in the present. Try first person, third person or even second person. Do you really need all those characters? Really? Don't describe too much, just drip feed information. When you start cutting your story, you'll see how little it really takes to grab a reader's attention, how little a reader really needs to know in order to keep reading.
Tania Hershman

After the first draft is completed, put it away for a few weeks before undertaking any major revisions. Then take it out and look at it with a fresh eye, as a reader would. Revise again and again and again, and when you find yourself changing things back to the way they were in earlier drafts, give up and send your story out into the world!
Julie Curwin

intended. For other writers there is nothing more torturous than re-working the piece after the initial euphoria of the new words on the page has dissipated. Along with persistence though, a capacity for revision might well be the difference between the successful writer and the somewhat talented writer who never got anywhere. Its almost impossible to separate our intentions for the story, our view of it, our emotional attachment to it - line by line, word by word, comma by comma - from the way the story reads on the page for someone else. How do you get that necessary distance to see the story as the reader sees it? Revision. You have to read it again and again and again, being as hard on yourself as you can stand. With each reading you have to be prepared to make the necessary changes.
Elliot Perlman

11. Feedback
You may not be able to attend a creative writing course, but you can ask for constructive criticism from friends.

Remember, whether you enjoy it or not, revising will pay off.

Good luck!

Eventually you should show your work For some writers there is nothing more to kind but reflective people who share love of reading and whose opinion enjoyable than tinkering with the words, yourvalue. Ask for their considered you paragraphs and punctuation in an opinion. What worked for them in the attempt to convey precisely the meaning, the feeling and the nuances story and what didnt work? Remember

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that unless youre paying them, theyre doing you a favour. How much do you enjoy doing a favour for someone when youve got other things to do? Since reading your story is a favour, even the most considerate reader starts off, unconsciously, mildly negatively predisposed against it. Nonetheless, sooner or later, you have to get someone elses opinion. Theres no other objective way to measure your progress. Your writing has to win the reader around. Finally, remember that while the act of writing may bring you some comfort, the storys therapeutic value to its author is immaterial. For the reader its only the story that counts; the words and punctuation on the page. You need the story to stand solidly on its own once you have left the room.
Elliot Perlman

12. Further links

Story - Simply everything you could ever want to know about the short story. www.theshortstory.org.uk Short Story Radio - Listen here. Listen anywhere. www.shortstoryradio.com The Short Review - An online journal dedicated to reviewing short story collections and anthologies. www.theshortreview The Commonwealth Foundation is not responsible for the content of external sites. Written and compiled by Amber Barnfather, broadcaster and former Commonwealth Short Story Competition judge. The Commonwealth Short Story Competition is an annual scheme to promote new creative writing, funded and administered by the Commonwealth Foundation and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association. If you want to find out more about the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, visit: www.commonwealthfoundation.com/shortstory Commonwealth Foundation Marlborough House Pall Mall London SW1Y 5HY United Kingdom Tel +44 (0) 20 7930 3783 Fax +44 (0) 20 7839 8157 Email geninfo@commonwealth.int

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