Writing for Visuals

Published by Emil Abraham,


Writing for television is different from writing for print, radio or the internet. This is because television is an audio-visual medium, and television writing must maximize the possibilities and avoid the limitations of the medium. In print, writing is the main element, and is supported by photographs. In television, one writes to be heard, not read, and the language used is only one of the elements of television. Language is used along with visuals and sound, which are the main elements, and must therefore support them rather than the other way round.
Everybody has heard the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. Visual writing means making images stand for words.
A clock face tells you that time is passing. It is a visual idea that communicates the importance of time in the plot. It is a functional visual idea. An image communicates both by logical deduction and emotional implication. A visual medium makes demands on both by using signs, symbols, and icons. You can tell the bad guys from the good guys in a Western without subtitles. Their hats, style of gun belt, clothes, and whether they are shaven or unshaven all let the audience know how to understand the character. Visual writing means writing and thinking with images that the audience will see rather than words they will read.
"Writing for films was a new craft, having little to do with established literary forms. An elegant turn of phrase was of no use in a silent-movie script (unless it appeared as an intertitle). The plot and the visual ideas were what mattered."1
It is highly impractical to reproduce all of the visual images found in a descriptive prose, even in a montage. A scriptwriter cannot assume the freedom that the novelist has. A lot of descriptive imagery is irrelevant to the visual medium.
Principles of writing for visuals
The following principles must be kept in mind when writing for visuals.
  1. One must write simply and eloquently, so that the language is understood the very first time it is heard. The language must be simple and understandable. But simple does not mean that it must resemble the language of kindergarten-school children. Rather, it means that it must be clear and understandable. The listener should know exactly what you wish to say the first time he hears it. It is also a myth that simple language cannot be beautiful, as some of the best writers, scriptwriters and broadcasters in the world have been admired for the simplicity as well as the beauty of their language. Therefore, one must aim at writing both simply and beautifully. The beauty of language does not derive from difficult words or phrases but in expressing complex thoughts and ideas clearly and with the use of thought provoking comparisons and metaphors.
  1. Write in order to complement the visuals, so that one does add to rather than repeat what is being shown in the visuals, to supply some further information to them. It is also known as writing off the visuals. This means that one must write something related to the shots but without describing them. For example, if there are shots of butterflies on the screen, the voice-over could mention how butterflies have traditionally been admired for their beauty.
  1. Numbers and quantities must be mentioned, wherever justified, with comparison to something the mind can grasp clearly. For example, rather than say ‘three feet high’, it is better to say ‘waist-high’. Large numbers must be written in a combination of numerals and words. For example, 36,000,000 is better written as 36-million. This makes it easier for the person recording the voice-over.
  2. Scripts should ideally be neatly typed out, and if written by hand, they must be carefully written with no mistakes or corrections. This is necessary to make it easier for the person recording the VO. Scripts should be written or typed on only one side of the page, since turning the page during recording can create a rustle which may get recorded. For the same reason, the different pages of a script should not be stapled together. However, they must be correctly numbered. The last line on any page must end on that page and must not run onto the next page, as this will lead to a rustling of paper during the recording.
  3. While the script for a film, programme or television serial consists of the split-page format two columns – one mentions the VO or dialogues, and the other mentions the visuals, a news script does not follow this format, since it is usually written after, and not before the shoot, and is also written under severe time constraints. The format of a news script consists simply of text, and does not usually indicate visuals in a separate column.


  1. Eileen Bowser, "The Transformation of Cinema 1907–1915," in History of the American Cinema, vol. 2, ed. Charles Harpole (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1990).