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

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60 Chapter Four: Blending Story and Message in the Drama Plot they agree—after many years of hesitation—to adopt family planning. This is illogical and virtually impossible. Moreover, it is misleading, because it suggests that, no matter how many children a couple has, as soon as they agree to plan their family, everything will work out all right. Another frequent mistake in social dramas is suggesting that a character becomes perfect in every respect once he or she adopts the recommended new behavior. Consider a husband who is portrayed as a business failure, a spendthrift, and a drunkard, and who has insisted that his wife continue to give birth until she presents him with a son. During the course of the drama, he learns from the health worker that the male is responsible for the sex of the children and agrees to accept his daughters and practice contraception. At the same time, miraculously, his business becomes a success, he starts saving his money, and he gives up alcohol. While this outcome is theoretically possible, it is neither logical nor believable! Even fiction must be logical. 6. Keep to one setting. Each plot should have its own unique, established setting; this is referred to as unity of place. While characters can visit a new location whenever the plot demands, it is easier for the audience to follow the story if most of the action in each plot takes place in an established setting. 7. Reflect a predominant or characteristic emotion. In a serial of limited duration (that is, 52 episodes or fewer), each plot should evoke one predominant emotion rather than try to cover a range of emotions. The major character of each plot, and his or her actions, must evoke some degree of recognition and response from audience members, even if they dislike the character. The aim is for the audience to experience emotional involvement with the developing crisis in the character’s life. The emotional response of the audience can be negative or positive—anger or fear, pity or love—but a plot that fails to arouse a particular emotional reaction in the audience will fail to hold their interest or influence their behavior. 8. Maintain cultural and linguistic integrity. Each plot is different from all the rest. While the characters in some plots may share similar backgrounds and life styles, the characters in other plots may live under quite different circumstances. The writer must ensure that the characters in each plot remain true to their circumstances, speaking and acting in accordance with their background and life style. Maintaining the cultural and linguistic integrity of each plot heightens the reality of the story. In a serial designed to convey the value and accessibility of higher education, for example, one plot might be set in a city university. To make this plot believable, the writer should ensure that the characters use language appropriate to urban university students. The writer must also provide clear word pictures to enable a rural audience to experience the city university and its personnel in a believable way. (Some guidelines on the creation and use of word pictures are included in Chapter 7.) Once the various plots have been established and approved in treatment form, writing of individual episodes can begin. Here again, the process is
Chapter Four: Blending Story and Message in the Drama Plot 61 more complicated and needs closer monitoring when the serial has a social development purpose than when it is pure entertainment. The writer should create, at least for the early episodes, an episode treatment to ensure that the story is developing logically and that the message is being presented at the right speed and in the correct sequence. 4
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How To Write a Radio Serial Drama f
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Using This Book This book is a prac
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vi Contents Chapter Two 13 Writing
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viii Contents Chapter Seven 99 Writ
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x Contents Chapter Thirteen 181 The
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xii Prologue 1. Individual-level co
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xiv Prologue Source factors are the
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xvi Prologue perform a particular d
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xviii Prologue aware that it is pos
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Chapter One Introduction to the Use
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Chapter One: Introduction to the Us
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Chapter Nine Interactivity and Ente
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148 Chapter Ten: Testing the Pilot
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Chapter Eleven Script Presentation
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Chapter Eleven: Script Presentation
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Chapter Thirteen The Value of Editi
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Chapter Thirteen: The Value of Edit
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Glossary This list defines the word
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Glossary 211 Four Ts of Teaching FX
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Glossary 213 scene script script he
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Index of Script Excerpts and Other
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Bibliography/references 217 Bibliog
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