Behind the scenes of scary story radio writing

I had a basis of a story swimming in my head for a while, so I was intrigued when asked if I would like to participate in local radio station KWVH’s “Tales from the Backbone,” a series of spooky stories to be broadcast on Halloween. “I will participate next year,” was my answer.

Whew, a whole year to think about it, but I was apprehensive, as I haven’t written fiction since high school or college. Just the facts. That is what I was interested in – no conjecture. Journalism will do that to you. In July, I was contacted again and said yes, I’d write up a story.

I was given a few books to get an idea of some of the spooky things that has happened around the Backbone. I did not open even one. I set out to write my story, and as usual the hardest part was just sitting down and doing it. Soon, the writing became fun.

Radio has always intrigued me. It is partly my father’s fault as I was in the car for long rides and there were still a few short radio programs back in the early sixties, local stuff. The theater of the mind is far more intense than just watching a video.

Your mind can make a villain more scary than what Hollywood can produce, and evil is more villainous when it continues to roll around between the ears. In the 70s, the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre would run at night, and I would tape episodes on cassettes to play on long travels in the car.

The love of radio plays was inherent, but so was writing just facts.

It comes with ethics. Make things up? I think not. Write the truth. As a teacher and professor of media, this has been my mantra. Teaching that, the truth would always come back to bite you, as the truth is always there just waiting to be discovered.

The trust of your readers, something sacred, would be reduced to naught, nada, nothing. But going against the grain has always been my nature, and I knew it was worth a try.

Hoping that an old dog could learn new tricks, the process was underway.

I had to work with the truth, but bend it a little. Remembering every English professor and teacher I ever had, “write about what you know, and use the people and the things in your life to make it believable.”

And basing it on familiar places and roads gave the story a familiar tone, something that the local audience could identify with. I had a basis of a good story that spooked the heck out of me when I was going through it, but the ending of the tale was kind of dull and seemed unfinished.

This is what happened in the end, in reality, nothing. An unnatural fog freaked me out. That was it. But it happened at the Backbone – it really did – and hearing local stories about the ’Bone I had to come up with a worthwhile ending.

Having heard tales about the Backbone: ghostly outlaws like Jesse James on the run, a Native American with a white wolf, lost Confederate soldiers and a Spanish Padre, I could use local myths.

But breaking old habits is very hard. Making stuff up was not in my writing nature.

You don’t want to make it unbelievable, but something very close to reality. The characters in the play would be based on reality, as would the plot.

So the writing began. I had to have quiet time to concentrate on how each line would fit each character’s dialogue. Once that came into my thoughts, writing began to flow. I knew how the characters, my wife, granddaughter and myself would converse and react in this story.

Since a lot of it was true, it was easy to write. As a play, it was fun to put words into other’s mouths. The dialogue was believable, due to the relationships. Having a wife who is an English teacher helped, and reading a draft, punctuation was corrected. Thinking punctuation was something that I could correct later, but nope; an argument ensued with the English teacher part of my wife, and I was made to correct the grammar, but the ending was still lacking.

Remembering the myths I have heard the past twenty years or so, I decided to utilize the padre myth. The mist part was truth, but adding the padre and the fiery crash at the end, made it whole. It fit together and gave purpose to the mist.

It was fun to write and I started to look forward to Sunday afternoons and play writing. I was sorry when I had finished.

Then it was time to turn the play over to Mike August and Laura Haygood of the Wimberley Players. Trying to keep the play’s reception out of mind and how it would be received had me very anxious.

Would they like it? I waited nervously for a couple days. Was I in store for some heavy edits? Would it even be good enough for the broadcast? Just how would it be received was the big question, as writers can have a thin skin. This one does.

Finally, after a few days, word came back that they liked it and would use it for this year’s edition of “Tales from the Backbone” radio show on Halloween. Wow. I was even invited to the first read-through by the Wimberley Radio Players.

It was so weird the first time other people read my dialogue. The radio players were professional as they delivered the lines. The play was edited a little for time, but it was edited with no changes to the story. The actors were magnificent even in the first read through!

I went home and walked on air for a couple days. Leaving your story in the hands of others is sort of like taking your kid to kindergarten on the first day of school. You have to leave your baby with someone else.

As it got closer to the airdate, I received an mp3 of what would be broadcast. I resisted listening to it all, and waited until it was on the radio on Halloween. Trying to be just a listener, it did flow, and it came out better than I expected due to the professional actors giving life to it.

So I have another year to think about a new story and hope to have a good one by Halloween 2020.

Maybe, old dogs can learn new tricks.

To listen to the broadcast, visit wimberleyvalleyradio.org/show-archives/ and scroll down to the show archives.