Secrets to Writing High-Retention YouTube Scripts Quickly and for Free
Learn how a 17-year-old YouTuber crafts viral video scripts efficiently. Discover tips on intros, outlines, and using AI tools without spending a dime.
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How to Write Scripts for YouTube Videos
Added on 10/02/2024
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Speaker 1: I'm a 17 year old professional youtuber and freelance scriptwriter with years of experience writing viral video scripts for myself and other youtubers. Here are my secrets to writing high-quality retention boosting video scripts as fast as possible without spending any money. First you'll need to figure out where you're actually going to write your script. I personally use Google Docs because it's free and allows multiple people to collaborate on a script at the same time but do whatever you want I guess. Then when you're ready to start create a new document and start writing your intro. The intro is by far the most important part of your script because for YouTube to count somebody watching your video as a view they must watch at least the first 30 seconds of the video. This means that it's essential to cut out all of the fluff in your intros and just get straight to the point so that your viewers don't get bored and click off. This is especially important if your video is tailored to a younger audience because they tend to have lower attention spans than older people. So many videos especially educational videos like I make start off with something

Speaker 2: like. Hey guys welcome back to killer videos where we teach you about making money on YouTube the killer way. In this video we're going to show you how to

Speaker 1: make killer editing. And guess what nobody cares. My intros are usually about one to two sentences long simple and straight to the point and as a result the retention in my intros is really good. Literally just take a quick second to say what the video is about and then include something to hook the viewer and or give you credibility. Then just get straight into the video and please please please don't tell people to like and subscribe or go buy your course. Save that for the end because if a viewer doesn't like what you're saying you're not going to be able to trust them. If your viewers never seen your content before then they have no reason to trust that you're credible or actually know what you're talking about. So why would they subscribe or buy your course or whatever you're asking them to do. However if you've gotten your viewer to watch most or all of the video then they've likely learned something and as a result trust you and then will subscribe or like your video or buy your course or whatever. The type of content that I make credibility is another huge contributor to having a good intro. For example if the title of my video is called how to edit viral videos. I'm a viewer that I actually know what I'm talking about and can teach them how to edit viral videos. So for example in this intro I'm a 17 year old YouTuber and professional video editor with millions of views and years of experience to my name. I said first off that I was a 17 year old professional video editor that knows how to make viral videos based on the view counts of my previous videos. This gave me credibility because it shows my viewers that I'm for one a professional and two know what I'm doing and have the results to back up what I'm saying. This also provides the video with a bit of a hook if viewers are young and want to figure out how I've gotten to this point. Also in general just make sure you keep swear words out of the first 30 seconds of your video to avoid possible demonetization. If you really need them there just censor them in the edit but honestly just try not to include them if possible. Next once you're done with your intro you're gonna outline the rest of your video. I find this way easier and less overwhelming than just writing everything sequentially because it allows me to break up my work and see how much stuff I have left to write at any given moment. Which is a great strategy honestly for just anything that's as boring as writing video scripts. For educational content literally just split up your video into headers like you would in for example an article or an essay and just go from there. Here's an example from my last video about recording high quality voiceovers for YouTube. For other types of content like entertainment videos based on a story think of a simple story arc with an exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution and just outline your video from that. If that all sounded like nonsense to you and you're not familiar with basic story structure literally just google what is the story arc and you'll be enlightened. It's a really useful thing to know. If you get it it's also really easy just to ask chat GPT what should I talk about in a video about whatever if you're making an educational video. I do this all the time when I need more content or just don't know how to split up my script and it works pretty well. However on the topic of chat GPT I would not recommend using it to write your script from scratch even if you change a lot of it after the fact but more on that later. Then once your outline's finished you'll be ready to add content to your script. There's unfortunately no set formula to writing the actual content of your script. You sort of just have to you know write. Really try not to overthink this because having like anything on the paper is so much better than having nothing. So just get to writing and remember that you can always revise and edit later if you need to. So you don't really have an excuse not to start right now. Like I said before chat GPT is a really useful tool for writing scripts but through my experience creating a ton of viral videos across a few different channels it's really not that great at script writing. I had chat GPT generate a script for my video about affiliate marketing and even after changing a considerable amount of it later it has by far been the editing is is good. It's also my worst performing video by far although part of this is the fact that the topic probably just isn't as appealing to my audience. But in general through my experience I found that just the script was not that good and I was way better off just creating it myself. However this doesn't mean that I don't use AI to help me write out the content of my scripts. vidIQ a company I'm now partnering with long term has just come out with this super cool AI tailored to your channel trained on a bunch of YouTube data with the help of GPT-4 making it so much more advanced than you. I personally use the AI for all sorts of things but in this case it's really useful if I want for example help writing part of an intro just another part of the video or literally anything related to my scripts to be honest. In fact I wrote the intro for this video with vidIQ's AI and it's so good. The best part is it's only a dollar to sign up for their boost plan that includes the AI with my link in the description. I've used vidIQ every single day since I started this channel and that was even before I partnered with them. Regardless of if you're writing a script with AI or just by yourself there are a few things you'll want to keep in mind. Actually scratch that there are a few things that you can't ignore throughout this whole process. This is where I can't really help you and you have to know your target audience better than I do. In contrast if your videos are like mine and meant to appeal to a younger adult demographic then you'll want to keep it pretty informal and conversational and should use relatively simple vocabulary. In general I tend to think a conversational tone is best for most types of content as small human errors in your speech and grammar creates a level of personability and authenticity with your audience. Another thing to consider is the transition language that you use throughout your writing. You'll have to utilize transition language between your outlines headers to keep the script flowing smoothly or it's just not going to sound natural. Length is another important contributor to a good video script that you really can't ignore. This is because YouTube allows creators to place mid-roll ads on videos longer than eight minutes which has a significant impact on increasing your RPM which is the amount of money that you earn per thousand views on your videos. With a 12 point font and double spacing one page of a script usually ends up to last about one minute. You'll have to do this over if you give or take a little bit. Once you've written out your entire script you may notice that it's not long enough which obviously means that you'll have to add more to it. However this doesn't mean you should pull the goofy kids do in school and

Speaker 2: they have to hit a word limit. I'm talking about the what's up YouTube today we'll be reviewing the brand new iPhone 16 and I really really really really really really really really really really

Speaker 1: really like this iPhone. Instead of just adding more words to your script add more value instead. And the video with telling them some like common mistakes or things that they shouldn't do. Possibilities are endless and really up to your creativity. Then after you're finished with the main body of your script it's time to script your outro. Thanks guys for tuning in to this

Speaker 2: killer video. In the next killer video I might continue working on this killer project but if I don't keep working on this killer project then next week there might not be a killer video. But I will actually publish a killer video because I'm going on vacation. Which leads to a retention

Speaker 1: graph that dips off a lot at the end which in turn is harmful to your video. Instead keep your outro one to two seconds long or just don't include one at all. Also the very end of your video is the time where you should make a call to action. For example asking your viewers to subscribe. Personally though I like to take a different approach. Instead of asking my viewers to like and subscribe I'll say something like congratulations on finishing your first video script. Now all you need is a high quality voiceover to go along with it. And if you're interested in learning how to do that from a professional YouTuber and voiceover artist then click this video. See what I did there? That's actually also the outro of this video.

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