

The format was a simulated live newscast of what were perceived as developing events.

Koch changed the primary setting of the novel from 19th-century England to the contemporary United States, with the invasion beginning over the rural Grover's Mill, an unincorporated village in West Windsor Township, New Jersey.īut this was no simple radio drama. Well's novel The War of the Worlds, which tells the story of a Martian invasion of Earth. The radio script was written by Howard Koch, who would go on to win an Oscar for co-writing Casablanca. On October 30th, 1938, Orson Welles captivated the country with a radio drama adaptation of H.G. But before we do that, what the heck is a fiction podcast, anyway? Fiction podcasts are rooted in radio dramas So let's explore what can be found about this new medium and break down three simple formats that writers can follow.
#STORYTELLING PODCASTS MOVIE#
These days, if a budding screenwriter wants to learn from the best, they can Google a movie title-along with the keywords " script PDF"-and they have the script right there on their screen.īut if a budding fiction podcast writer wants to find a fiction podcast script, they're not going to find much in the way of a podcast script. How do you format and write a fiction podcast script?īack before the internet, screenwriters had to get their hands on hard copies of produced screenplays to learn the craft of screenwriting.


#STORYTELLING PODCASTS HOW TO#
Here's a deep dive into how to write for fiction podcasts, how you should format your fiction podcast script, and a few ways you can enhance your fiction podcast scriptwriting to take advantage of the explosion of interest in fiction podcasts over the next few years. And the exciting thing about these fiction podcasts is that even though they've been around for decades (and were inspired by much older legacy audio formats like radio dramas), there aren't that many established rules that writers need to abide by. The biggest difference between the success of the fiction and non-fiction podcast genres isn't just the subject matter-it's the script. ( Limetown was recently made into a series as was the hit fiction podcast Homecoming, among others.) And screenwriters are starting to explore this fresh new space-especially as more and more Hollywood decision-makers flock to well-crafted fiction podcasts to hunt for hot new intellectual property. So while non-fiction podcasts still outnumber fiction podcasts, fiction podcasts are still a rare "undiscovered country" in the entertainment landscape.
#STORYTELLING PODCASTS SERIAL#
In fact, the number one podcast on iTunes in 2015 (the same year Serial launched), was actually a fiction podcast called, Limetown-written and directed by Zack Akers and produced by Skip Bronkie. And while you're probably more familiar with non-fiction podcasts-like the 2015 true-crime sensation, Serial with over 80 million downloads within their first year-there are hundreds of fiction podcasts that have gained fame and pushed the audio storytelling format to new heights in recent years. Believe it or not, podcasts have been around for nearly two decades.
