July 20,
July 20th,
20 July,
20th July.
I challenge you, and be honest with yourself when you do, how would you say the dates at the start of this paragraph.
July the 20th and July 20 are cool, but then 20 July is just not on, this is the way its written not spoken. “The 20th of July” is the long way in word count but still the way people speak.
Communication with the listener is what we do, NOT communicate at them.
We write things in the “Glossy Magazine Style”, the third person. (Then more frustratingly announcers read them the same way). Thing is, when the announcer reads it in a way that sounds natural and not quite way the script is written, I do not remember any time when the script came back or sent back to the announcer to be re-read.
Yes, it’s the script, we read the script, it’s what the client wants. The sales executive and the client have to allow the writer to write for the first person, the one, and to speak to the listener, not at them.
In a voice session when you hear something “that line sounded a little read” you’ll find that it is not written for the spoken word. Or not the spoken word of the person reading the script. (It’s that “Glossy Magazine Style” scripting thing again..).
That is the other point, write for the reader and give them a small amount of flexibility to give you the read you cast them to give you.
Most writers can do this, they are just not allowed to…
