Unfortunately I had to split this into multiple parts because of Reddit's post limit. Find the other parts here: Part 1 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6.1 Part 6.2 Part 6.3

Double Space Your Scripts

Trust me, this makes them so much easier to read.

Don’t Start with a Series or Multiple VA Script

When I first started writing, my first script was going to be the start of a series. But as I kept writing the series I realized that it wasn’t very good. I never ended up posting any of those scripts. Instead what I was more proud of were my solo VA one-off scripts. This is the simplest way to start and allows you to better focus on improving your script writing rather than juggling the more complicated aspects of planning a series/figuring out how to format multiple VAs. Of course, if you start your script as a one-off and later decide that you want it to be a series, that’s perfectly fine! I’d just aim to make your first few scripts more simple than that.

100 Words = About 1 Minute

This is a rule of thumb in script writing. For every 100 words you write approximately 1 minute will pass in the audio. Now, that will change depending on things like sound effects, how fast the VA talks, ect. For example, I’ve had the same script be as short as 8 minutes or as long as 30 minutes. Granted, this is an extreme example. That script is a little over 1,100 words and it averages to about 10-11 minutes per fill overall.

Don’t Force Yourself to Adhere to the Outline

Having an outline (either physical or mental) for how your script will go is good. How detailed the outline is is up to you. I usually have just a few key moments thought up when I go to write my scripts and I fill in the blanks as I go. But some might find it easier to plan out everything before going in. Neither is the “correct” way to have an outline. Just keep in mind that if you feel like deviating from your plan, feel free to! For example, the speaker’s character in this script was super shy in my outline. But when I went to put pen to paper, their personality became loud, chaotic, and attention-grabbing. Because of that, this became one of my personal favorite scripts to write. If I forced myself to stick to the outline I never would’ve done that.

The Listener is a Character Too

The listener doesn’t have to be a complete blank slate! Sure they can be, but they don’t have to be. They can have their own established personalities, likes, dislikes, ect. just like the speaker does. In my opinion one of the fun parts about listening to ASMR is being able to “act” out the story along with the VA.

Don’t Make the Speaker Repeat the Listener’s Responses

One of the unique challenges about writing ASMR scripts is that the listener doesn’t speak, at least not audibly. So you have to work around that in your writing. As an example, the speaker could ask “How are you doing today?” The listener responds, and then the speaker says “You’re doing good? I’m glad.” Now, most people don’t respond like that in conversations. There is another way to write this to more subtly imply the listener’s answer. 

Let’s start that over. The speaker says “How are you doing today?” The listener responds, and then the speaker says “I’m glad.” or “I’m happy to hear that.” That is a more subtle and natural way to imply the listener’s response. Granted, sometimes the listener’s response can be so complicated that you have no choice to fall back on the earlier example, but you should always look for a way to imply responses rather than state them outright.

Don’t Over-Explain the Obvious

It’s hard to know when you’re over-explaining, but for example if you list a sound effect for a person running, you probably don’t need to add a note that the speaker’s character is running. Also in scripts with multiple voices, you don’t always need to specify which character is talking to who. Most of the time it’s easy to tell. Only add in that note if what they’re saying is super ambiguous. Even then, consider if listeners might have a hard time telling who the character is talking to and maybe rewrite the line to make it more obvious.

Clichés are Tools

A cliché in terms of writing is an element of an artistic work that has been overused to the point of being predictable and boring. A common example would be “love at first sight.” It can be easy to try and avoid clichés as much as possible. After all, you want to be original, right? But the thing is that clichés are subjective. What’s cliché to one person might not be to another. There’s also the fact that clichés have been used so much because they’re good elements, either in terms of popularity, simplicity, marketability, or some combination of the three. Just the fact that a story has a cliché doesn’t make it bad. Think about your favorite movies, books, ect. And I guarantee you’ll find a cliché somewhere in there. My point is that clichés are not inherently good or bad. They’re just another tool a writer has the option to use in their story.