ADWIT: The Audio Drama Writers' Independent Toolkit

Character Breakdowns That Jump Off the Page


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Sarah and Lindsay explore how to craft character breakdowns that genuinely serve audio drama production, focusing on vocal qualities and core characteristics rather than irrelevant physical attributes and other animals. 

• Character breakdowns serve many key purposes including concisely guiding actors/casting directors, showing character relationships, and informing technical production choices if deftly employed.
• Effective breakdowns include vocal qualities, status, relationships, and intentions rather than physical appearance
• Consider what "singing voice part" might match your character (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone) or orchestral instrument a character might be to instantly convey vocal quality
• Script clues like sentence length, punctuation, vocabulary choices, and verbal tics help create distinctive character voices
• Characters are distinguished by what they want and how they pursue it— objectives - some are direct "blunt instruments," others subtle and calculating
• Great characters may have internal conflicts between their public and private selves
• A character web showing relationships and conflicts helps visualize how characters interact 
• Focus on what drives characters, their objectives, and the barriers they face

Links for ADWIT EP 303

John Yorke Into the woods - a five act journey into story

Hamlet to Hamilton - Emily C A Snyder

WASTELAND - The Dex Legacy

TUMBLR page - F**k yeah character development - worksheets a plenty

Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid - oxygen food shelter sleep...

Join our Discord community! Find the link in the show notes. Write to us at [email protected] with your thoughts and examples of effective character breakdowns.

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Want to get in touch? You can send us a text message with the link at the top, email us at [email protected], join our Discord server, or visit our website at adwit.org.

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Thank you!

Sarah and Lindsay


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ADWIT: The Audio Drama Writers' Independent ToolkitBy 6630 Productions

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