The Anatomy of an ASMR Script
It’s a weird kind of thing…
Writing something meant to be ASMR. I mean, it’s not like a normal script, or a poem or even a novel or some form of abstract poetry. Depending on the type of ASMR you’re writing, it can be a one sided roleplay, or an accumulation of every kind of soothing phrase you can think of, affirmations or dedications.
Writing phrases like, “[Hand Sounds Here]” or figuring out the world’s longest one sided conversation can be challenging, even more so when you’re trying to tell a story. These videos are like watching a TV show and hearing the dialogue from only one of the main characters, with your eyes closed.
Imagine how confusing that would be?
On top of that, you have to work to soothe the listener in some way, or to make them smile or laugh or fall asleep.
So we have to adapt our writing, figuring out how to accomplish what we want, with only one speaker, in a way that isn’t confusing, and which can be done in a reasonable amount of time. We have to figure out: How do we write an ASMR script?
I’ve had a lot of people ask me how I’ve done it, and so today I am going to walk you thought my process and the anatomy of an ASMR script, specifically an ASMR Voice or Roleplay script. However, the information is adaptable to scripts for standard ASMR as well.
We’ll cover a couple of topics: formatting, content, and paying attention to your listener!
There is obviously more to these scripts than just those three things, but these are some of the most confusing and unreported on parts of these scripts, so I thought I would start there and delve deep into these topics.
If you’ve landed here looking for scripts to record, I have a whole archive of scripts people can record over on my Patreon! I know it can be hard to locate new scripts sometimes, and I have a whole archive of more than 46 audios you can record, plus new Patreon exclusive ones being released monthly!
For supplemental information, I recommend checking out Cardlin Audio’s video on writing a roleplay script here, which he co-wrote with the lovely writer Rhianna. We cover some of the same topics, and some different topics. He also has some full script examples in the description of the video. Obviously his video is Cardlin-Specific, so some of the information may not apply in each case.
As far as I know, that video and this blog post are the only guidance out there for ASMR scripts, so if you have any questions, please leave them down below! I’m happy to help.
First, a disclaimer.
As always when I give advice of any kind, please take it with a grain of salt! You’ll have to decide for yourself if this advice is useful for you, but I hope it does provide you with some guidance, especially if you’re new to writing ASMR Scripts. It really is so different from other forms of writing, that I feel as if there is not a lot of help for people who are are just getting into it.
All I can tell you is how I write ASMR scripts, I cannot tell you how you’ll write one.
At this point, you may be asking, “But what makes you qualified to give help? Why do this at all, who the fuck are you?”
Well, as it so happens, I have written a butt-ton of scripts for ASMR, both for traditional ASMR and ASMR Roleplays, and recently I exceeded the landmark of fifty ASMR scripts being released onto the world.
I have accumulated a small body of work, and to date videos I’ve written have accumulated a couple hundred thousand views, and a whole host of nice comments. If you found your way here because you are one of those commenters, thank you!
Truly nice comments keep me going sometimes, and I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to listen to or read something I have written. The sheer amount of people who have said nice things about my writing frequently blows me away.
In addition to my own work, I’ve also helped a number of other writers with the editing and finessing their own scrips. Through this, I’ve seen a wide range of formats, topics, ways of writing and notating, and can attest that there is no single right way to do any of this, but rather the marker of a good ASMR script is the feeling it invokes in the listener.
So let’s get into it! Together we’re gonna make people feel things, relaxation, excitement, swoon-y, all of it!
The Formatting
“But Alodia! You just said there is no one right way to do this!”
Did you just think that? I bet you did.
I promise, I didn’t lie to you or betray you, however just because there is no one right way doesn’t mean it’s a free for all. There are some things I believe all ASMR scripts should have to make them understandable, and more importantly, actually usable. How you choose to accomplish these things is what’s up to you.
You must always keep in mind that the goal of one of these scripts is to be read aloud, and that means a performer is going to be reading your script, and that reader needs to be able to understand your intent, and to appropriately process and translate what you worked hard on creating into the spoken word.
Even if you’re reading your own scripts, it’s good habit to do this anyway. Down the line you may forget how you meant a line to be read, or in the middle of recording you may have your mind go blank, and all you will have is what you wrote to guide you. Improv can be great, but a clear script and plan can be better.
If you read my post covering common writing errors, you might already be familiar with my love of goals, and I think it applies double in this case.
Your first goal - Make a script which the performer can read and understand easily.
That’s it, just make it readable! So how do we make sure we check this one off?
First, to open the script, I recommend including a summary, description of a setting, and if you like, a word count, and a list of tags or categories this script embodies.
This gives the performer, who is an actor, the information needed to make the script believable for the listener. You should be cluing them into what emotions they will be conveying, and give them a general sense of the plot of the script. Let them know what they’re in for.
And don’t forget to put your by-line on there too! You wrote this, make sure you take credit for it!
For example, say you’re writing a romantic ASMR roleplay script which is set in the Renaissance Era, and at the end of the script, the listener kisses Leonardo da Vinci (stick with me here, I promise I just needed an example). The heading on your script might look like this—
Love in Italia
By - Alodia Thaliel
Summary: Leonardo da Vinci is at the top of his game. Youthful and talented, he is the darling of every noble house and the world’s most sought after artist. He’s smart as a whip, and dedicated entirely to his pursuits and inventions. Nothing could distract him from his work, until one day a young woman comes to his shop to sit for one of his paintings, and his whole world is thrown akimbo.
Setting: 1471, Italy. It’s the middle of summer, and throughout the country, birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and the wine is flowing. All of Italy is caught up in the romance of the Renaissance painters, and the landscape of art is evolving and changing rapidly.
Word Count: 1,820
Tags: Historical, Romance
Aside from my facetious and out-there premise, you get what I mean, right? With this information at the very start of the script, the title, summary, setting, word count, and tags, the performer has a good idea of what this script is about. Plus, it lets them know who wrote it!
A well informed performer will directly translate to a more satisfied listener.
Moving onto the actual meat of the script, there are a couple of key things every script should have formatting wise:
Indications of the emotions you intend to be portrayed.
Any applicable stage directions.
These can be conveyed in any way which is most comfortable to you. Sometimes people put emotions in italics before a phrase, sometimes people use brackets or parenthesis on their own lines, but the key is to remember to include these without being over-bearing. You want to give the actor an idea for what you want, while still leaving room for them to interpret the role as their own.
Additionally, you want to make sure that however you choose to convey this, that you are doing so in a way which isn’t confusing, and won’t get lost among the actual spoken lines. For this, I recommend putting any directions or notations on their own line.
It might look a little something like this —
Leonardo: I had no clue what I was missing with my head buried in my paintings. The vital things I was sacrificing so that I could paint more or sculpt more. The time I wasted with my head buried in paper. All this time I could have been spending with you. Wonderful, beautiful you. You matter more than any painting could, any sculpture could. My greatest work, my magnum opus, is being with you.
[Leonardo grows emotional, his voice thick.]
Leonardo: I want to spend the rest of my life trying to capture your essence on canvas. I want to show the world how beautiful you are, that my darling is beautiful. I want to spend every second of each day trying to comprehend your essence, to capture the image of your soul so that I can keep you with me always. So that we can be together, always. As it is meant to be.
[He kisses them.]
Get you a man like Leonardo.
In this flowery example, you can see stage direction (the kiss), as well as the general emotion the actor should be displaying (overcome with love). But there is a lot of room for interpretation within it, which lets the actor have fun and flex their acting skills!
You will also notice that I started each line with ‘Leonardo:’ this is not spoken aloud, but I do make a habit of putting the actor’s name at the start of each line. This is a harkening back to more traditional scripts or stage plays, and you can leave this off if you wish.
And that covers the basics of formatting!
Content
So now we have an idea of how one of these scripts is written, let’s talk about what to write!
This is the fun part, that part that makes writing these so rewarding. We can provide comfort to a listener with positive affirmations and soothing hand sounds, or we can play with the listener’s imagination, creating city-scapes or fantasy scenes. We can boost their confidence with compliments galore, or give them a little spook around Halloween.
It’s all up to you! However, so your script can be as successful as possible, there are some guidelines I recommend you try and stick by when writing your idea, and some things I keep in mind when I’m writing that might help you too!
To be clear: this segment is written with the assumption that you already have an idea for what to write, or what topic you want to cover. Unfortunately, that part of the process is different person to person, so it’s hard for me to help with that. All I can say is, what works best is to write things I want to listen to. Write about things you’re passionate about and the ideas will flow easier. I cover a little bit of this in a different post.
With that said, let’s cover some guidelines and reminders for the meat of the story! The stuff you need to cover and keep in mind after your setting and general theme has been decided upon.
Not every script makes for a good ASMR video.
This can be hard to recognize, even for me! We all have good ideas, and sometimes we have great ideas! But how we choose to share those ideas with the world is important. The format in which we communicate is important.
For example— We can write the most amazingly epic fight scene ever, but few words of dialogue are said. These types of scenes are great in movies or in books! But if it was an audio, all you would hear would be the occasional insult and the impacts of blows. It would be amazing in a movie! But not an amazing audio.
Or perhaps the idea is too complicated, with elaborate backstory suited to a series of novels. Maybe the scene is very tense, but very silent, something you could make a horror movie from.
None of these would make a good roleplay script. You need something simple, but effective, something with a clear destination that won’t get bogged down with too much information or complication.
If you’re struggling with a script idea, or don’t know if it’s a good idea at all, ask yourself first: Is this best as a script? Or should I be making something else? Make sure your idea is simple enough to be conveyed in 10-20 minutes, and with only one speaker (or two, if you’re writing a collab).
It’s happened to me before a number of times, so don’t be discouraged if this happens to you! Sometimes the best thing you can do is to move onto a different idea, and cut your losses.
The listener can’t respond.
So don’t write their responses!
I’ve seen some people write scripts where the listener responds, and I feel like this can take a script in the wrong direction. While well meaning, it can create too much confusion in a narrative and it can make the writing and recording process more complicated than needed. Additionally, If you write out the listener responses then you might miss including something vital in the speaking parts.
The listener has to understand what is going on with only the spoken parts, they don’t have responses or elaborate backstory to rely on, so try to not rely on it either! Write your scripts with the speaking parts only and infer a listener response. Don’t even write out the responses and delete them later, because this can lead to some of the confusion I mentioned above.
This is part of what makes these kinds of scripts so challenging, but there are a couple of ways we can make this easier.
Have the speaker say something like, “Hm, that’s a good point I never thought of going to the movies before. Maybe we can go together!” or “Did you just tell me to leave?” This repeating lets the listener know what the response was, but it’s still a line spoken by the actor. This is a good way to infer information, and there’s a whole host of ways to do this, just be careful not to over-use it!
Make sure the speaker reacts to things, the world around them, and anything the listener might respond with. If you’re writing to comfort, the speaker might ask what’s wrong, but respond after a pause with, “Aw, that really sucks. I’m sorry.” This implies that there was a response, and leaves the listener free to insert their own reply, making it an open ended fill-in-the blank segment in the script.
These are the most basic ways we can imply information from a response in a script, but do play around and figure out what works best for you! This process should be fun and allow you to work out creative ways to storytell.
Make sure something happens!
ASMR scripts for sleep aides usually have very little going on action-wise, but often times there is still a focal point to the video, and something happens. Be it hand movements, mouth sounds, whatever!
For ASMR voice projects intended for entertainment, we need to think a little bigger. If a listener isn’t trying to fall asleep, then they’re looking to be entertained or distracted in some way.
So be that for them! Have something funny happen in the script, throw in some action to really draw the listener in. Make them blush with some romance or take them out on a good date.
What you don’t want is to give the listener something unsatisfying. Because of this, I will often refer to action or plot point's as ‘meat’, make sure your story has meat! Would you want to devote 10 to 15 minutes listening to an audio where nothing happens?
So give the listener something to chew on, have them receive a kiss or go on an adventure. Whatever you want, just make sure it’s got substance, and perhaps a little style.
Pay Attention to Your Listener
This last point ties a little into my notions in, “Make sure something happens!” but it’s perhaps the most important consideration, so I’ve given it it’s own section.
Pay attention to your listener.
How are you making them feel? If you’re discussing sensitive topics, are you treating them with respect? Are you considering their feelings as important as your own?
Make sure your writing conveys the emotion you want to convey, and guide the listener where you want them to be. Use your writing to tell the story you want to tell, but pay attention to how you tell that story.
For a period of time, these listeners are yours to care for. You can nurture them and make them feel good, but you can also make them upset.
Good writing and a good performance makes people feel things, and perhaps you’ll make someone feel sad or heighten their emotions, but you should always be treating them with respect and dignity.
Be a good steward for their emotional well-being. Don’t beat people down or be dismissive of their feelings. Be caring, be kind.
And that’s it! This was a bit, huh? If you made it to the end, congrats! I commend you. I wish you all of the luck when writing, and I am sure you will do an amazing job! All writing takes practice and dedication, but I know with time you’ll get there, and along the way I hope you have so much fun with what you create!
This has been: How to write an ASMR script.
Have any questions for me? Let me know down below!
Thanks for reading!