Maybe six months or so ago, I started listening to old radio dramas/plays — there are a lot freely available on Archive.org via the Old Time Radio Researchers group. I haven’t been listening to any of the big ongoing series, just the one-offs. Some of them are really excellent — program-wise, I’ve so far been listening mostly to Escape! (adventure/suspense); Quiet, Please (horror); Lights Out (horror); Suspense! (suspense/horror); and X-Minus One (science fiction). If people want recommendations of specific episodes, I might do a blog post on that another time.
After listening to quite a few of these, I started to think that it was a pretty cool format for stories, and that — with the rise of podcasts — it was something that there was still potentially a market for. I already listen to a few ongoing story podcasts, like Welcome to Night Vale (also highly recommended), so I started looking around for something more in the style of the programs I’ve been listening to. What I found was The Truth. It’s a pretty excellent podcast, and I’m going to continue listening to the stories on a regular basis.
I’ve already had some thoughts about writing screenplays, and it occurs to me that writing a radio play might be a lot of fun. I don’t have a lot of time to spend on it at the moment, but when I do I’ve started knocking out the basics of a script. The way I’m writing it, I think it’d work equally well as a short film as well as a radio play. If and when I’ve got it into workable condition, I’m thinking about sussing out The Truth’s submission guidelines and seeing if they’re interested.
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Today’s goal for my draft manuscript has been met. I’ve got just over 1,000 words down now, which was the goal for the weekend. By next weekend, I should be up to at least 3,500.
