Writing for the most part is such a solitary venture. You sit down and write down your thoughts, most of which will never be heard out loud. To me, this seems so pointless. Writing has such a musical quality. It should be read and listened to. It should be heard because the meaning can change with every inflection. After all, suspense and humor are in the voice, not in the head. Today you will be embarking on a journey of writing as sound. You will be creating your own radio dramas within groups of four. In a moment I will let you hear exactly what this means, but let me introduce you to the resources you will need for this project. You will need the Radio Drama Writer's template in the Discovery server folder. You will also need the hints, tips, and tricks of the trade. These can be found in the following links. Feel free to explore these sites for information on crafting the best and most dramatic pieces. On these sites you should be looking ways to make your writing pop in an audible way.

Writing For Audio Theatre (Self-explanitory)
Do It Yourself Radio Drama (This site has many cool links)
Generic Radio (Examples of good Radio Dramas)
Good Sound FX Resources

Here are some more good tips from "The Principles of writing radio drama" website:

Get your listener inside the world of your play. How?

a. Sympathy or empathy with the main character.
b. A bloody good set up.
c. A big, nasty antagonist or villain.
d. Great Plot...Great Story....twists and turns.
e. Crisis at the beginning is dramatic and a great start.
f. Emotional intensity. Hit some high points.
g. Escalating conflict so the structure climbs with tension and humour.
h. Strike the colours with detail so there's an atmosphere, mood...ambience.
I. Modulate charm with alarm...humour with tension...tension with humour...funny policeman nasty policeman.
j. Surprise, surprise...that's what you do to the listener, through the plot.

The principle of developing scenes

1. Introduction.
2. Character one...goal and objective.
3. Character two...goal and objective.
4. Purpose of scene in overall plot.
5. One of the characters achieves a goal.
6. Link to the next scene by introducing or pointing to location of next scene or presence of character in next scene.

Question marks in the mind of the listener. Always keep one, better two or three

The Principle of Character

1. Believable and recognisable.
2. Purpose within the plot.
3. Characters have to have function. Character has to be consistent with function.
4. Characters have to be intentional.
5. Start with a stereotype to ensure rapid recognition, then twist the stereotype. Challenge the homily that there is nothing new under the sun by making it new under the moon.
6. Give each character a dominant physical or behavioural characteristic. Make the dominant characteristic purposeful. Make it extreme.
7. Your main character must be active.
8. Active character / urgent plot. The character's energy has to fight the urgency of the plot and the urgency of the plot makes the character more energetic.

The principle of Hero / Heroine

1. Listeners look up to main characters, want to admire them because we all want heroes and heroines in our lives. Life's eternal fantasy that transcendent people and transcendent moments conquer adversity.
2. If you are very clever you can transfer the hero from the obvious to the humble and make great the inferior or character who has greater potential for human dignity.
3. Charisma. Characters need intensity and conviction. They may not be perfect but they are attractive. You cannot identify with people who are unlike ourselves...too perfect, no beliefs...take themselves too seriously...lack a sense of humour..
4. Give your characters private moments when they drop their guards and allow us into their minds and hearts. Make the listener privileged. Use this moment for revelation.
5. The main character has to change and has to be changed by the plot.
6. You must have a main character and secondary characters. Your main character changes. Your secondary characters are probably more singular in their characteristics. Your secondary characters are already committed. Your main character is still weighing up the options.
7. You must have characters who are extreme in relation to each other...characters that are different make drama.

Where are we now?

Well, we should be here....
a. The main character is in the middle of the story.
b. You've used dominant characteristics.
c. The listener likes the main character.
d. The listener cares what happens to the main character.
e. The listener hates the antagonist.
f. The main character is developing.

Principles of Dialogue

a. Dialogue must be a response to a situation, plot or action.
b. Dialogue must be a response to each character in the scene.
c. Dialogue must be comic relief.
d. Dialogue must connect to the next scene.
e. Avoid reflective, passive and neutral. Go for active, and direct and emotional.
f. Dialogue must be believable by being specific...by being specific to the character's background and emotional state.
g. If dialogue is reacting to action or situation then it must be dramatic and poised on polarities. The goals of the characters in each scene should be different.
h. Dialogue should be continuous. Tip...characters often take a tag by repeating the last word spoken by the first character.
i. Dialogue must relate to function.
j. You can mix direct with indirect between two characters because they have different goals.
k. Humorous dialogue is not a character telling a joke but a line or lines responding to the dramatic situation.
l. Heightened dialogue vs naturalistic dialogue. Heightened language is the language of the theatre...high octane communication...poetic, philosophical...charged..the expression of the playwright...It serves not only the development of the plot and character, but it also presents the view of the writer. Works well in radio. But there is now a tendency for more naturalism. Radio producers like to go out on location and explore realism. In these situations you must stick to natural dialogue.

Principles peculiar to Radio

1. The inner existence.
2. The tension and conflict between the interior and exterior.
3. More psychological.
4. Easier to explore the real and the surreal and to delineate the line between the two.
5. Have to work in the fifth dimension...the energy of the listener's imaginative participation.
6. The interior existence offers exploration of personal thoughts, fantasies, emotions and conflicts.
7. All levels of external conflict can be explored.
8. The precipitating event through plot has to threaten the inner life of the main character. This is the kick-off in radio drama.
9. The end or resolution in radio drama is more deeply rooted in the emotional equilibrium and insight of the main character. Changes are internal as well as external.
10. Time transposition and translocation are faster and more rapid and more complicated. Flashbacks...flashforwards... different ages.
11. Radio requires less rather than more characters. Characterisation needs to be strong and fascinating.
12. Maintain the focus of the main character and plot.
13. Economy of words underlines subtextual surprise and engagement with the listener's imagination.
14. Wit is vital because language is so important...cleverness with words...energy with words..humour with words...Wit is advanced by surprising the listener...being aggressive with the listener..being fast, short and clever with the listener.

Framing a debate is essential to winning it. To me, framing is the ultimate expression of word choice. By framing you are declaring yourself to have sole ownership of the truth. Your opponent knows nothing of righteousness, at least that is what all others will believe because you have used just the right words to conjure up images aligning you with good and your adversary with evil. If you dictate the terms of the argument, you have created a contract with the people. This contract binds the minds of all who are caught within the frame. No one will be able to destroy it. It is powerful and it is yours. Enjoy it.

Today you will be discovering how the 19th century framed the debate on women's suffrage. This debate was heated and sometimes ugly. It was also recorded for all time in the words of both sides. You will read these words in their original contexts in order to understand just how the battle for women's rights was won. You will also be boiling down the pro- and anti-suffrage message into bullet points that you think were most effective in order to figure out how these women and men framed the issue. Make sure you read carefully; some of these pieces may seem to be for suffrage but really be against it. Support the municipality.

Suffrage Article #1 (Objections to women's suffrage)
Suffrage Article #2 (Should female school teachers be able to vote?)
Suffrage Article #3 (Women in the house)
Suffrage Article #4 (The case for suffrage)
Suffrage ARticle #5 (What can women control)
Timeline of women's rights
Suffrage article #6 (A biblical view of Suffrage)
Are women people
This site is the motherload. Go here first for all of the primary documents on suffrage.
The broadest view of women's suffrage. There is a lot of info here, but you have to know what you are looking for
A timeline of Women's Suffrage
Important people in the Suffrage debate
An Anti-Suffrage manual written by a prominant female Anti-Suffragette
An essay on how the issue of home and motherhood
The First woman cantidate for president (far before women's suffrage)
Quotes for and against Suffrage

Most of you probably have some vague understanding that the 19th century was a while ago. You may believe that dead presidents served (some of whom are now on money), wars happened, people wrote stuff, and nothing cool existed because there wasn't any TV, Ipods, or the NFL. In fact, you may see the 19th century as so far removed from relevancy that it is hardly worth your time. This is the conception I would like to change. Even if you don't hold fast to the idea that the past is boring, you may not realize just how big of a connection we have to our olden days. In order to find this connection, today you will become anthropologists of the 19th century. You will be looking for the themes/strands of thought that permeated the century and still hold validity to this day. You will look at a variety of timelines with a myriad of information regarding the events, people, places, and entertainment (literature, music, etc.) of the 19th century. You will find the most defining moments of the 19th century and write them on our master timeline. If you find something that is vitally important to us understanding this century, I would like you to boldly write it on our ridiculously long sheet of paper. Once we have completed this and we seem to have most of the events recorded, we will begin our work in looking for patterns and thematic elements that guide the century from start to finish. Our final result from this anthropological exercise will be the "-isms" of the 19th century and how they were developed. Here are your resources on the Internet.

Link 1: The first timeline: a comprehensive look at the events and the literature that shaped them.
Link 2: A good look at literature in the middle of the century
Link 3: Inventions of the 19th century Part 1
Link 4: Inventions of the 19th century Part 2
Link 5: A timeline of African-American history in the 19th century part 1
Link 6: A timeline of African-American history in the 19th century part 2
Link 7: The most incredibly extensive look at the 19th century (There too much information here. It is well organized, so don't get lost in it. Know what you are looking for.)
Link 8: A simple timeline. Well organized.
Link 9: A resource for the literature of the 19th century. You can read the actual texts from these books. You don't need to spend too much time here, but it can be cool to look at.
Link 10: 3 poets from the 19th century. They influenced a few -isms of the day.
Link 11: A resource for the last decade of the century, including the music and movies of the time.

This is your portal for experiencing Soul-less Shakespeare. Here you will find summaries and commentaries that lack the passion and precision of a Shakespearian play. They will let you know what happened when, but they do not reveal the true meaning and importance of Shakespeare’s words. With this said, the following sites will allow you to understand Shakespeare in a much more real sense. In doing so, you should be able to appreciate The Merchant of Venice more fully. Please use the links below as resources to create notes, an outline or timeline of events in the play, and character sketches for the main characters (both written and drawn if you like). Whatever you create today, you will be able to use during quizzes and classroom discussion. During our reading of this play you will be responsible for a lot more than the plot and characters, so I thought that this heads up would allow you to concentrate on the things that are truly important. I hope you take full advantage of your time and create things that will give you insight into the foundations of this great play.
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
Link 5
Link 6
Link 7
Link 8
Link 9
Link 10