Writing scripts

A script is markdown. The prompter reads a small, deliberate subset of it — four marks that mean something about delivery, and a heading that divides the script into sections.

The four marks

These are the product, not decoration. The colours are consistent everywhere, so reading them becomes a skill you build while presenting.

• **bold**Vocal stress. Punch this word.

  One to three per slide. Everything emphasised is nothing emphasised.

• *italic*A wry aside, a tone shift.

  One or two per slide.

• `code`An identifier, read as a token.

  Lets you write the real symbol instead of spelling it out.

• "quoted"Something a real person actually said.

  Only for real quotes. Wrap the complete quote, not just its tail.

Sections and slides

A [SLIDE NN — label] heading starts a new section. Crossing that heading broadcasts the slide number to a deck listening on the same browser, so ordinary slide changes need no tokens at all.

[SLIDE 01 — title]

Hello world, and here's what happened this week.

[SLIDE 02 — the first story]

Voting opened on Friday.

A script with no headings at all still works — it scrolls as one section and simply drives no deck.

Why word count matters

Scroll speed is derived from each section's own density rather than a fixed pixel rate, so 140 words per minute means the same reading pace in a sparse section and a dense one. Markup characters and control tokens are excluded from the count — they are never spoken, so they must not push the scroll along.

The practical consequence: don't pad a script with anything you won't say. Pronunciation notes in particular belong somewhere else.