Unfortunately I had to split this into multiple parts because of Reddit's post limit. Find the other parts here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6.1 Part 6.2 Part 6.3

Editing

Editing your script can be a tricky beast. Things you should look for when editing are misspelled words, incorrect grammar, awkwardly worded dialogue, dialogue that sounds out-of-character, and formatting mistakes. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s hard to notice those little mistakes yourself. Of course you can ask for beta readers (and you can even post early drafts in this subreddit asking for advice), but that’s not always an option for people. One thing that always helped me is stepping away from the script for a day or so and then coming back. Every time that fresh headspace helped me notice issues I can fix.

Give a Little Backstory/Insight

At the top of all of my scripts I include a little paragraph or two explaining what the speaker and listener’s characters are like (as seen here). This is to help explain their personalities, goals, and what’s happening right before the audio begins. I do this to help VAs get more in character. As for the listener’s side, I noticed some VAs like to include summaries for the listener in the descriptions of their audios, so I thought I’d write one just in case the VA doesn’t want to write one of their own. They don’t have to be super long or detailed, just enough to give some insight. This is also one of the last things I do when writing my scripts. I do this last so that I feel more free to change aspects of my scripts without worrying about if the backstory still makes sense.

When to Stop Editing

Sometimes it’s hard to know when to stop editing and just post your story. It can be tempting to try and endlessly tweak your writing to make it “perfect,” but don’t. If you edit a script too much you’ll end up changing things not because there’s something wrong with it or something better to put there, but simply for the sake of changing things. If you ever worry about editing too much, ask yourself if the last few edits you made were substantial. Did they fix spelling, grammar, or formatting? Did they replace a bad line with a good one? Did they replace a good line with an even better one? If the answer to all of those is “no” then that’s probably a good sign to stop editing.

Make Your Usage Rules BEFORE Posting

This is SUPER important. One of the great things about this subreddit is that the scripts are all free to use, provided the VA follows the writer’s rules. Now, this is YOUR script we are talking about, so you can make the rules about what is and isn’t allowed. For some starter rules I would say VAs need to give credit to the writer (you), they shouldn’t add in anything offensive, and they should notify you when they fill your script. Those are just the basics, but you get the idea. 

You can choose to allow monetizing (earning money from their audios) and/or paywalling (for example: posting audios on Patreon for paying members) or not, what types of edits VAs are allowed to make, and so on. There is no one correct set of rules, just think about what you would or wouldn’t want to see someone do with your writing. Making ASMR in this way is a collaborative effort, and think of these rules as guidelines for what your collab partner can and can’t do.

Titles

Titles can be hard. One thing you’ll notice from browsing this sub is that there are 2 main types of titles: The longer descriptive ones and the shorter, more artful ones. Personally, I’d recommend using the descriptive titles in your posts. This is because often when VAs browse this sub they’re “shopping” for scripts in a sense. Having a descriptive title is more likely to get them interested enough to read your script through. For example, this script of mine has a more descriptive title in the reddit post. But in the google doc, it has a more artful title that I like to use. If I put “Coils of Love” as the title of my reddit post, it wouldn’t have described the full scope of what this script is about. Of course, that’s just my way of doing it. If you want to only use artful titles or only descriptive titles then you can do that!

If you want to make a descriptive title, make it short and concise. It doesn’t have to explain literally everything about your script, just the main points. Here and here are some examples. Anything that isn’t explained by the title can be explained by the tags. Also, try to keep in mind that you’re writing these from the perspective of the listener, not the speaker.

If you want to make a more artful title, that has more room for creative freedom. It can really be anything you want: A quote from the script, something summarizing the theme of the story, anything. But that amount of freedom can make it hard to come up with something that you like. When in doubt, RAP. Rhyming, Alliteration, or Puns.