Visual medium writing

Writing for a visual medium is a skill that takes careful practice in order to fully develop. It is much different, and in many cases, more difficult to do than writing for print, simply because of the time constraint involved. Many times the visual package will only have :30 to 2:00 in order to tell a story when the same story can fill up to four or five columns in the newspaper.

So, choosing and crafting words for the visual package must be done carefully and effectively in order to get the most out of them. Also, it is helpful to write out not only the voice-over soundbites, but also the format of the package (order of shots, order of clips from interviews, etc) so you get a good idea that all of the time is used effectively and none of the interviews are stepped on by poorly written voice-overs. This style of writing is something I’m still working on, but these past two assignments have helped me with trial and error as I learn what works and what doesn’t.