Writing for screen vs Writing for voice

I'm currently reading Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. That, combined with new job duties that require that I go back into the realm of writing for Web sites has sort of highlighted the issue of writing for screen vs writing for voice in my mind.

Back when I did Technical Writing, Lyn, my co-tech writer, and I, coined the expression "Writing is a privilege, not a right." and I think it applies to writing for voice, too. Perhaps more so. You have to be extra careful when you're writing for voice, since you don't have the advantage of persistence, so the listener cannot go back and re-read, or even dwell too long on what you've said. You have to also be very careful not to distance the "How to do it" from the "What it is" with supplementary explanatory text. When I write for screen, I generally think in terms of "small words, large font" - layout and typescript (bolding, italics, spacing) can go a long way toward clarifying what you're saying. When I write for voice, I favour a "terse but clear" model - how can I say this as clearly as possible in a few words as possible.

Writing for voice brings about its own challenges. I'm Canadian, but my audience is American (since AOL by Phone is not advertised as being available in Canada, but, well, it is), which many people might not think might not be an issue, and, well, it might not, but you have to be aware of it. Am I using too Canadian a terminology without knowing it? I was once scolded in personal conversation for referring to the US as, well, "The U.S.", but I've seen us do it in text. I'm still kind of timid about referring to it in any scripts I write - I've always favoured the "When in doubt, word around it." means of avoiding possible grammatical mistakes in both written and spoken language. I'm also without the luxury of being able to be at the studio with our voice talent, so how something is worded in my head might not be how it is recorded, but that's a topic for a future post.

As I said, it's a recent thing that I'm writing for screen again. I'm feeling rather retro having to ask how we're spelling "e-mail" these days, and how do you phrase the concept "voicemailbox" - voicemail box, voice mailbox, voicemail mailbox, etc - mostly because these issues are still unresolved from when I did it several years ago. We'd have huge discussions over it, only to have someone overhear, and shake their heads, wondering what it matters. I guess it's not that big a departure from the last years of arguing over how things should be worded for voice. I still have people shaking their heads, and wondering why I am so adamant things should be worded as concisely as they can be.