I know some brilliant writers, people whose prose stops me mid-sentence.

Ask them to write for audio and something breaks.

The sentences stay too long, the ideas arrive in the wrong order, the logic is built for eyes, not ears. A reader can pause, reread, skip back, a listener can’t.

Writing for readers and writing for listeners are different crafts, not variations on the same skill, but different crafts.

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Short sentences now. Rhythm matters. You can’t rely on a heading. You have to say where you are. Repetition isn’t a flaw, but a tool. The full stop does more work than the comma. You heard that differently, didn’t you?

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That gap between the two halves of this post?

That’s the gap I’m talking about. It’s real. It’s underestimated. And great writers fall into it because they assume the skill transfers.

It doesn’t. Not automatically.

If you’re producing podcasts, voiceovers, scripted audio, treat it as its own discipline. Brief it differently. Commission it differently, and don’t assume your best writer is your best audio writer.

They might be, but don’t assume it.