Capstone Research #1

When researching how to write for radio, I had to look for a resource that would give me tips on how to improve on what I had already done before. I looked no further than Writing Comedy: A Guide to Scriptwriting for TV, Radio, Film and Stage by Ronald Wolfe. Wolfe, best known in the UK for creating/writing shows like The Rag Trade and On the Buses, wrote this book based of experiences he had with the various mediums throughout his life. For this project, I looked to the radio portion of his book. He mentions the advantages/disadvantages of radio. He says that it is easier to write for radio, but it has the drawback of not having a lot of money in it. The other part of the book I focused the most on was on the chapter involving writing with a partner, since I was co-writing this with someone. Wolfe says that it helps if both writers have certain strengths between the two (example: one writer should be really good at the construction/set-up of the jokes, the other should be good at writing the dialogue). This really helped when it came to work on the situations and jokes of my project. I would give my partner a set-up and he would come up with the jokes. I believe this is a good way of going about anything that involves a partnership. It doesn't put all the pressure on one person to come up with the entire script and the jokes. Overall, this book gave me some really good insight on how to work/write for radio from someone who has worked within the business.