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Write a character

By the end of this page the station has a new presenter, written by the model from one sentence of yours, heard in rehearsal and on air. The same steps write a caller for phone-ins, a guest who drops by, or the newsreader.

Characters explains what each part of the sheet does.

You need a station with a model (Give the station a model). Model for writing a character under Settings → Words can name a bigger model than the one writing breaks: nothing is waiting on it.

In the console​

1. Describe them​

  1. Open Voice → Characters.
  2. Press New host. For somebody who rings in, drops by or reads the news, open New caller or guest… and choose New caller, New guest or New newsreader instead.
  3. Under Start from a description, write one sentence about who they are. Be specific about the place, the era and the attitude: a 1970s northern soul DJ who broadcasts from the back of a chip shop gives the model more to work with than a friendly DJ.
  4. Press Write me one.

After a few seconds the fields below fill in: who they are, how they talk, the lines they fall back on, sample lines and the words that prove a break came back in character. Nothing is saved yet.

The lines they fall back on are Their own phrasings, what the character says when no model writes the break. The model writes six: what just played and what is next, only what is next, the station's name, only what just played, one with the hour and one with the part of the day, such as You're with {{station.name}} {{clock.daypart}}. Writing phrasings lists every {{placeholder}} they can use.

2. Read it, then save​

Read the sheet before saving it. Change anything that is not right: it is yours now.

If a box titled Some of it was dropped appears, the model wrote something the station could not use (a catchphrase it never said, or a phrasing naming something the station cannot fill in) and it was left out. You do not need to do anything about it.

Pick a Voice if you have one in mind (empty means the speech plugin's default), then press Save.

3. Hear a rehearsal​

Open the character again and press Hear a rehearsal (or Rehearse on its card). The station writes and speaks one break in this character, against two invented records. Nothing airs and nothing is stored. A rehearsal speaks the character as it was last saved, so save before rehearsing an edit.

4. Audition it over an hour​

A single rehearsal shows the voice. An audition shows whether the character stays interesting.

  1. Open Voice → Auditions.
  2. Choose the Character, a playlist or chart under Records from, and how many Breaks. Ten is about an hour of radio.
  3. Press Start.

The run fills in over a few minutes, from Waiting for the model to Writing to Finished. Read the breaks as they land, and play any of them. Nothing airs and nothing is spent from the character's notebook or stories.

If the breaks repeat themselves, go back to the sheet: add sample lines, subjects they return to, and things they never do. Save and audition again.

5. Put them on air​

On the character's card, press Make station host. The next break is in the new character, and any breaks the outgoing host had written but not aired are rewritten.

To give the character only some shows rather than the whole station, leave the host as it is and name the character in a show's Hosted by instead. See Make a show.

A caller or a guest does not go on air by itself. On their sheet, under Who they ring or Whose shows they drop by, choose the hosts they belong to. They are cast into phone-ins and visits from there; see Produce a segment.

With Claude​

With Claude connected and allowed to Read and manage (how), you can ask for the same thing in a conversation:

Write a new host for my station: a retired ship's radio operator who talks about the sea between records and has opinions about Morse code. Show me the sheet before you save it.

Claude finds the station's operation for writing a character, shows you the result, and saves it when you agree. Asking it to show you first matters: it is told to check with you before anything that deletes, but creating is not deleting. Then rehearse and audition the character in the console as above, or ask Claude to put them on air.

Claude can also work on characters you already have: "give the late-night host three more sample lines about the city at 3am" edits the sheet in place.

Reference: placeholders for their phrasings​

Their own phrasings are what the character says when the model declines, one per line. These are every placeholder a character's phrasing can use:

PlaceholderFills with
{{previous.title}}the record that just played
{{previous.artist}}who made it
{{previous.chart.rank}}its position on the chart it came from
{{previous.chart.name}}that chart's name
{{next.title}}the record coming up
{{next.artist}}who made it
{{next.chart.rank}}its position on the chart it came from
{{next.chart.name}}that chart's name
{{station.name}}the station's name
{{dj.name}}the character's On-air name, else the station's presenter name
{{clock.rough}}the time in words, such as "just after nine", on a break placed to give the time

{{previous.name}} and {{next.name}} mean the same as .title, and {{previous.artist.name}} and {{next.artist.name}} the same as .artist.

Wrap a part in [[double brackets]] to have it dropped when a placeholder inside has nothing to fill it; a placeholder outside them with nothing to fill it rules the whole line out for that break. Start a line with # to turn it off.

That was {{previous.title}}, from {{previous.artist}}.[[ Next up, {{next.title}}.]]
[[At number {{next.chart.rank}}, ]]here's {{next.artist}}.

After a record has played, only lines naming it are used, so write most lines around {{previous.…}}. The station's own boxes under Voice → Phrasings (the welcome, the news, the weather and the rest) have placeholders of their own, and writing phrasings lists those and every rule above. Tags such as [laugh] and [sfx:airhorn] are for the model, not for phrasings: see what a script can carry.

If it goes wrong​

  • Nothing was written. No model is answering. Check Give the station a model and that Model for writing a character names a model your provider has.
  • The rehearsal says nothing writes a talk break. Let a model write the talk breaks is off.
  • Every auditioned break sounds the same. The sheet is too thin. Give the model more to work with: sample lines, subjects, what they always and never do.
  • It speaks in the wrong voice. The Voice is empty or names a voice the speech plugin has no row for. Make a voice covers the three names that have to agree.

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