When I look at scripts, I pay attention to the description to get a sense of what the script is about. I also look at the word count. As a rough estimate, I divide the word count by 100 and add 3 or 4 minutes to get an estimate of how long the final recording will be. A 1200 word script will end up being 15 – 16 minutes typically. I prefer scripts that are under 22 – 24 minutes. I find that it’s hard to be in character for much longer than that. It’s also a bit tiring. I’ve seen posts where people talk about feeling lightheaded from the moaning involved in longer scripts. I like to include sound effects whenever possible, so I skim the script to see what sound effect it suggests. “Footsteps on concrete” might be a lot easier to find than something like “gentle hum of a lightbulb” or something. I like scripts where the lines have been spaced out to make for easier reading. And I’ll skim the script and say a few lines out loud to make sure they feel natural. I don’t really read every line of a script before recordings, but some people will go through it a few times to make sure it feels comfortable.
http://www.gwasi.com is a site that is incredibly useful for finding new things to record. It is a vastly superior search than the usual reddit search and it can search multiple subreddits at once. Some details of the site are found here. If you search the site for “M4 offer” or “F4 offer” (without quotes) and then add some tags that you like, you’ll be able to quickly find several script offers. Don’t be deterred if a script has already been filled. Most people appreciate having multiple fills of a script. Sometimes if it’s a newer script and has recieved a few fills, I’ll wait a little bit until it’s not as “fresh”, so that my fill can stand out a bit more. If lots of VA’s are filling the same script around the same time, there’s a tendancy for them to drown each other out. I like picking scripts that are maybe at least six months old since those tend to be off people’s radars. Even if they’ve already been filled, it’s not like the script would be on most people’s radars.
When I started out, I was (more) naive about how scriptwriters feel about their scripts and the importance of staying true to what they’ve written. I have never written a script myself, but my experiences are that scriptwriting is a deeply personal process. Often what I see as the final version of a script has spent a lot of time evolving from the fragments of an idea, to something more fleshed out, to initial drafts of a script, re-writes and edits, and may have been read through by multiple people. It’s a lot. So, it’s important to avoid making any major changes without first asking the scriptwriter. Many are ok with changes, but many are not. And it’s better to ask. Some of the things that I’ve seen scriptwriters not be ok with are:
Changes to the title
Changes from a F4F script to a F4M script
Changing what petnames are used
The addition of certain kinks that the scriptwriter finds off-putting
The use of words of a foreign language
It’s a lot of stuff that I can understand and appreciate now, but that I wouldn’t have realized when I began. So, if there any major changes (perhaps beyond just adjusting a word so that a line sounds more natural or adding another line), I’d err on the side of checking first.
Some other considerations when reading a script are that any lines that reference a person’s physical attributes (“curvy body”, “pale skin”) will have the effect of turning off people who do not have those attributes. I’ll try to avoid lines like that if I can.
When you post your recording it’s important to tag the script writer in the comments. Tagging them means including /u/[their username] which will send them an alert. I also tend to post a comment in the orignal script offer so that others who find the script offer later on will quickly be able to find that someone has filled it.
One thing to avoid is finding a script you like and then posting in the script offer thread something like “oh this is great, I’m going to fill this right away!”. When you do that, it comes across as though you’re “calling dibs” on it and it deters other VA’s from filling it. Which isn’t great for the other VA’s or for the scriptwriter (who would probably love to have multiple fills). It’s also not great because sometimes people will enthusiastically post that they’re going to fill a script and then life gets in the way and it doesn’t materialize. This can be disappointing and frustrating to someone looking forward to hearing your fill.
When posting, I’ve seen people suggest listing what pet names are used and any descriptors about the person. Some pet names may turn people off (“daddy” for example) and some descriptors may ruin the listener’s immersion if they aren’t applicable to a particular listener (if you imply or reference that the listener is smaller than you, for example). I haven’t been so great about doing this myself, but it’s something I want to improve in the future.