How to Write a Radio Serial Drama for Social Development- PDF

82 Chapter Five: Character Development
EXAMPLE
1. NARRATOR: There are times in the life of every nation when change is born.
Those living at the time may not recognize the birth of the changes,
but historians can trace the exact dates, places, and ways in which
the changes began. In the nation of Brattville, for example, in the
year 1912, something was happening; something that would change
the nation and its people for ever. It started in a tiny village where
two young men were talking...
2. MUSIC. VILLAGE THEME MUSIC.
(Scene A followed, in which two young men discussed their concerns about work and food and
talked of a dream of a different type of world where everyone had a small family, enough food,
a good job and access to health services.)
23. NARRATOR: And that’s how the changes in Brattville began all those years ago.
And look how far Brattville has come today. It is now one of the
world’s most powerful countries.
24. Perhaps something similar is beginning in our nation even now, in
small villages all across the country. Village workshops are being
held everywhere, village workshops that are showing people how
they can run their own small businesses. Is it possible that this is the
beginning of a bigger change The change to a nation that no longer
knows poverty
(Scene B followed, in which community members at a village workshop talk about much the
same subjects as those discussed by the two young men in Scene A.)
3. The descriptive narrator. Writers turn to a descriptive narrator when
they cannot find any other way to “fill in the blanks.” The narrator
might indicate a change in setting, for example, by announcing at the
end of a scene, “Meanwhile, at the home of Ben and Belle, there is an
argument taking place.” The drama then shifts to the scene with Ben and
Belle. A descriptive narrator also might explain the passage of time by
remarking, “It is now three weeks later, and we find the people of the
township still discussing their need for a clinic. There is a meeting taking
place at the town center.”
Descriptive narration should be avoided in a serial because it slows
down the action and detracts from the reality of the story. It is always
better to indicate changes in place and time through dialogue, as is
discussed and demonstrated in Chapter 6.