How to Script a Viral YouTube Video in 2026

[00:02] video. What I'm about to show you works for every single script. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. All you have to do is play the YouTube game and replicate what's already working. I call this using winning formats because

[00:15] YouTube at its core runs on patterns. And once you learn what the YouTube algorithm rewards, which is by finding winning formats, you can start to write scripts effortlessly. And in this video, I'm breaking down why formats are the

[00:29] key to viral videos. The five format types that you need to master and the right ways to adapt them to your audience and content goals. Before we dive into why formats are the key to viral videos, I want to clarify what I

[00:43] mean by formats. A format is the underlying structure or the skeleton of a video. It's not the words, it's the pattern behind the words. For example, this viral video by Ryan Tran, I tested onestar drive-thrus can be broken out

[00:56] into the format I tested lowquality subject. And because he had this format go viral, he replicated it with hundreds of different subject titles. So, this became a viral title format. And you can find creators across all niches using

[01:11] viral title formats from all over YouTube. Even I do this myself. My most YouTube script writing course, 1 hour there were a bunch of videos that were titled full drop shipping course 18

[01:25] hours plus. And that video was the main inspiration by Jordan Bound, which led to this exact same title format that I used for my video. And I got views on an entirely new niche. And so why in the first place are formats the key to viral

[01:39] videos? And that's because audiences respond to proven patterns. Certain video formats perform well because human psychology is the same. If one video got a click in one niche, if you do a little yon and twist for another niche and

[01:52] change the topic, it still leverages the same human psychology. And guess what? It'll get the click. Take Mr. Beast's challenge formula. I survived 50 hours in X. It works because viewers recognize the pattern. Extreme challenge, high

[02:06] stakes, plus a satisfying payoff equals over 100 million views. And because the psychology worked with one title format, Mr. once again replicated it on his channel or what many people call doubling down on a winning idea. Now you

[02:19] see fitness channels doing the exact similar format. I trade like a this person for XX days. Then you see business channels adapting a similar I did X in X days format. Same format, different niche, the exact same

[02:33] psychology because formats equals predictable results. And really just by understanding the core idea of formats, it allows you to be dumb but still win on YouTube. And you don't need to be crazy creative in order to come up with

[02:46] great video ideas. YouTube as a platform has over 15 years of data to tell you exactly what works. And if you look at the exact data on YouTube and actually decide what video to do based on that rather than, you know, acting like

[03:00] you're Picasso and trying to figure out what video idea that you want to do, then you will actually succeed. YouTube isn't that hard if you can understand formats and how to apply formats to your very channel. Because if you're watching

[03:13] this video, if you actually sat down and counted the number of hours that [music] you actually spent researching YouTube videos or actually spent scripting YouTube videos, you probably don't spend anywhere between 40 to 60 to 100 hours

[03:26] every single week trying to make video ideas. And if you're not Mr. beast and you're not about to spend 100 hours on your video ideas. What you can do is actually look at what formats are working. Find signals for what people

[03:40] are clicking on based on these formats and then just steal those formats and put your own twist on it. Really, when many people hear me talk about what is a winning format and stealing what [music] works from other people, they get on

[03:52] YouTube has to be everything about creativity. Once again, I'm telling you to look at what works and then adapt it to yourself. I'm not telling you to steal the title and thumbnail outright. And really, the same people who demonize

[04:05] formats are the exact same people who don't succeed on YouTube. And really, videos and trying to get views is not because I'm trying to be the most flying objects flying across the screen. Editor, put it in. And really what I

[04:20] care more about is getting views and building an audience who actually likes, cares, and trusts me more so than trying to be right and trying to be [music] the most creative in the world because I don't think there's any prizes for being

[04:34] the most creative in the world. Unless once again, you're Picasso, but I'm not bit off script there, but what I just described to you is taking title formats that are working and applying it to your channel. And it's not just title

[04:47] the different types of formats that you can use for your channel. It's not just title formats. Once again, you can use editing formats. You can use hook formats. You can use script writing structure formats and apply that to your

[05:01] video. So actually if you take a winning format from a title, you take a winning format from a script structure, and you take a winning format in terms of an editing or an execution standpoint, your video is just taking bits and pieces and

[05:13] and your video actually has a pretty good chance of standing [music] out and have any doubt in that if you apply I'm about to show you. In the case of this video, we're talking about writing

[05:27] scripts. So, I want to go over script formats that are working and dig into are working and how to figure out if you should even emulate something format-wise. And before you can adapt these formats to your videos, you first

[05:40] need to understand how to find formats worth modeling. When I analyze a winning video the manual way, I will look at their number one title structure. So, the video is using. Number two, I also look at the hook. So, how do they open

[05:54] Number three, I'll look at their body structure. How many main points and how do they transition? I'm not just looking at what they said. I'm going to look at why it worked instead. What psychological principles did they use?

[06:07] What retention [music] hacks, what made viewers unable to click away. That's the real value. Understanding the why behind the format. Because all this manual analysis takes time and a lot of mental power and sometimes you just [music]

[06:19] don't have time to do it. So obviously the easier and faster way to actually find these outlier videos that [music] you can use to steal formats from is by using the subscriber tool which is an AI YouTube script writing platform that you

[06:33] can also use to find ideas. Once you log in you can just enter a prompt into the chat like give me video ideas for my channel based on the outlier formats from you know this specific YouTube channel. So let me use Dan Martell this

[06:46] structure, tone, hooks, call to actions, and much more. And in a matter of to help you craft better titles, hooks, and content strategy. And you can see here from my results, I now have an analysis of Dan Martell's YouTube

[07:00] strategy, the formats, and his outliers, and how I can adapt them for my channel. And it even gives me specific video ideas for my channel, and the core hook I can use for that specific format. And you can go ahead and scroll YouTube to

[07:13] see what videos are working, what titles are winning, what titles are not adapt it for your channel based on that. Or you can use the subscriber tool. [music] I personally like using the subscriber tool. But copying winning

[07:27] formats isn't just literal word [music] for word copying. Once again, you don't want to copy thumbnails and titles word for word. So really what I just winning title formats [music] which really is the first type of format that

[07:40] really title formats are number one And if you get it wrong you have wasted hours writing a script that no one will winning title formats that I've seen work across several niches are number

[07:55] one I tried every certain subject. Number two if you're in this situation watch this. Number three if I do X in year I do this. I've seen these titles because it just works. [music] Because these titles promise insider knowledge,

[08:10] there's urgency and it positions you as an expert without feeling like you're preaching. You can research for winning title formats manually. Just go to niche, sort their videos by most

[08:22] popular, then look for patterns in their top videos. Okay, and now that we got about number two, hook formats. The first 30 seconds will make or break your you need to know. Number one is a question hook. Number two is a shocking

[08:37] statement. Number three is a storytelling hook. Number four is a preview hook. Number five is a personal connection. Number six is a statistic or fact hook. Number seven is a challenge hook. Number eight is a quotation hook.

[08:50] Number nine is a metaphor hook. And number 10 is a proof hook. Or number 11 that I've just added to this list is just repeating the title. So, it's video. Just repeat the title. Sometimes the best hook is the simplest. But what

[09:04] matters more than the type of hook that we choose is the psychology behind why it works. Because every winning hook follows this universal structure. You confirm the click and then you spot curiosity. You establish stakes and then

[09:17] you establish your credibility. So let's look at a real winning hook. So I want to look at this video that I scripted for. The title is how I brainwashed myself to be a millionaire at 20. And you can see over here, this is a 29x

[09:29] outlier, which means that this specific video 29 times outperformed her average video on her channel with over 400,000 views in less than a month. And this is the very first video that I idiated and scripted with her on this channel. So,

[09:43] >> This is how I brainwashed myself to be a millionaire at 20 years old. Growing up money. As I got older, I realized that your brain has a specific operating system for money, just like a computer. Mine was programmed for poverty. So, I

[09:57] mindset work is just about positive thinking, but I'm going to show you why the mental programming that I used took [music] me from $20 to my name at 18 years old to building a business that generated over 13 million just 4 [music]

[10:11] years later. If I did it in such a short period of time, I believe that you can too and probably even faster today. So if you notice some of the languaging that we used within the hook is that you know she talked about her mental

[10:24] programming and how you know the title over here it says how I brainwashed myself. So she kind of talks about the mental programming that she has had from her childhood and that is a very in line with the title where I say brainwash

[10:37] over here. And you can also see that there is a story baked into it of the transformation of how she went from state A all the way to making millions of dollars at the age of 20. And over here as you're about to see we're about

[10:50] to talk about in the video. >> I'm giving you the exact steps to get techniques I [music] used aren't some secret, but it's shocking how almost nobody does them consistently enough to [music] actually see results. What most

[11:04] is that >> there you go. And that pretty much is the hook. It's nothing super duper complex. It's a 45se secondond hook that [music] condenses all of the values. And you can see we actually went through

[11:16] every single step there, which we started all the way from confirming the click to sparking curiosity to setting stakes, establishing credibility, and telling the viewer exactly what they're going to get when you watch this video.

[11:30] And once again, this video 29 times outperformed her average video with just such a simple hook formula. And of course, if you're like, "Hey, Brian, oh, You didn't follow any format there." Really, this title format, how I

[11:44] brainwashed myself, is actually taken from popular Leila Hermosi videos. You can see over here, 12x, how I brainwashed myself to be rich, 1.2 million views. How I brainwashed myself to success are, [music] you know, two of

[11:56] her top five performing videos. And once again, how this how I brainwashed myself, right? Leila and Anna had a lot of things similar. Both of them are in you know, high performing women who have a lot of success. [music] But really, I

[12:10] decided to take this title and add become a millionaire at 20 because when I ask myself when I'm working with a client like Annayia, what can I say that is outstanding for her that other people cannot say, right? She can say that

[12:24] she's a millionaire at 20 and most people can't say that. And if you look at the titles for Leila Hermosi, how I brainwashed myself to be rich, how I brainwashed myself to success, kind of the dream outcome at the end to be rich

[12:36] to success is very vague. It's very broad. So I was like, hey, what if broad. So I was like, hey, what if instead I took a very specific outcome like becoming a millionaire at 20 and adapted it to the client's unique

[12:48] advantages and what they can say that no one else can say. And really, that's how you take a winning format from within your niche and you specialize it for did for this specific client. And there you go. Massive outlier just like that.

[13:03] And so that's the anatomy of a strong title and a strong hook that keeps [music] viewers glued. Now, how do you keep them watching after the hook? And really, that's where transitions come in. So that's what number three is,

[13:15] transition formats. Open loops create curiosity gaps. And really, they're why you can't stop watching Netflix. They work because you tease something valuable and then you delay the payoff. The framework I use to write open loops

[13:29] has four steps. Number one, first tease something valuable. For example, I can say something like, "But here's the crazy part." And the second part of a strong open loop is, "I want to create a knowledge gap after hooking them back

[13:42] in." So, you can do this by saying something like, "Oh, this one mistake cost me $10,000." Next, I will delay the payoff. So, one way to do this is by saying, "I'll show you exactly what it was in a minute." So, once again, you

[13:55] create anticipation. You future pace over there. And lastly, remember to always close the loop. like actually deliver on what you promised. So if you say that you're going to tell them the story about how you lost $10,000

[14:07] eventually you need to tell the story. You cannot just have a curiosity gap and be like hey why did this guy not tell me the story? You need to explain what the good at transitions and instead of just saying oh onto my next point right now

[14:21] swipe file of your favorite creators. So a swipe file is basically a compilation of all of your favorite open loops. And if you want my personal swipe file of over the years, some of the favorite ones that I've written for myself, some

[14:36] of the favorite ones that I've taken from the top creators, I'll send it directly to your inbox. No problem. Because really, mastering open loops is so important because you put the viewers in a state of curiosity and you give

[14:48] them strong reasons to continue watching beyond your current script. And once you install effective open loops, I guarantee that your retention will boost guarantee that your retention will boost by 30%. Pretty easy because viewers want

[15:01] more and they'll continue watching your video and it's an essential part of a killer YouTube script. Okay, now let's talk about number four. Body structure formats. All viral videos follow similar structures, whether it's storytelling or

[15:15] educational content. And when it comes to body structures, don't bother trying to reinvent the wheel. I want you to just model what's already proven to work. So the same thing for hooks, see what works for your hooks, and then you

[15:27] what works for the titles, and then you want to model that. Once again, this script writing stuff is not super complicated. I can title this video, writing YouTube scripts is easy actually because it is easy actually. Just see

[15:40] what is working and then model that. For example, I recently filmed my video example, I recently filmed my video titled I scripted 173 YouTube videos. Here's what I learned. And once again, I took this title format from this Ed

[15:53] performance titled I made 300 YouTube videos. This is what I learned. But I wanted to take that exact title and adapt it for my specific channel, which is specifically talking about YouTube script writing. And if you go ahead and

[16:07] you watch that video, you'll notice that he talks about 40 different lessons that he learned from making YouTube videos. And I, because I saw that that format did I do? I'm just going to take that format and then I'm going to apply it to

[16:21] script writing niche and talk about 40 brutal truths about YouTube script writing that you need to know. And so I scripted the video based on the similar body structure. This guy talked about 40 lessons. So I'm going to talk about 40

[16:33] brutal truths about YouTube script writing. It's the exact same body structure. You can literally steal body structure. But if you put your own twist, your own content to it. It's something completely new. Once again, I

[16:45] am not stealing. I'm just adapting what works. And really the big art of this is understanding what works in a viral video. So that's the overall concept of the Ed Lawrence video. And if you were to drill down even more granular and you

[16:59] look at the specific structure of the video, once again, it's hook truth one, truth two, truth three, truth four, so on and so forth into the closing call to action. And then if you were to zoom in even more on truth one, you can see that

[17:13] the truth follows a why, what, how format, starting with why does this matter to the viewer, telling with a story, number two, what the lesson is, and number three, how to actually implement it for them. And yeah, it's

[17:26] really that easy. So now I know when I want to go ahead and script my I scripted, 173 YouTube videos, what do I do? I start with the hook. Truth one, truth two, truth three until truth 40 with a closing call to action. And

[17:41] within truth one, I follow why, what, how. Super duper simple way of scripting you script the actual body of your script, I want you to find a winning body structure within your niche or within similar niches to your specific

[17:57] you're stealing the format from, if you can break down the body structure and see why it actually worked, and if there's a good argument to be made for why that specific body structure actually worked, then you can actually

[18:10] adapt it for yourself or make any improvements that you need to on it. Super duper easy. Okay, number five, call toaction formats. This is the trickiest one to replicate because so many creators are so bad at doing call

[18:22] to actions. The big mistake that most people will make is that they will signal that their video is about to end. So, most YouTubers will end their videos by telling people, "Oh, thanks for watching. Like and subscribe." That is a

[18:34] definitely do not want to just tell people to like and subscribe as a call to action. Subscribers don't even matter anymore these days. Or an even more subtle mistake that people will make is they'll be like, "Oh, so these are the

[18:47] know. Thanks for watching." And then that's the end of their video. Just by telling the viewer that you are recapping the video and that these are the five winning formats that you need to know. You're telling the viewer, hey,

[19:00] this video is about to end. And that is a big retention bomb. I personally have made this mistake before, but never again. I would never just tell the viewer, hey, this is a summary. Because a summary is useless because the viewer

[19:14] can kind of like scroll back and watch the video if they need to, if the video is valuable enough, which ideally the video is valuable enough. So, I've analyzed thousands of YouTube videos, actual good YouTube videos with strong

[19:26] call to actions, and most endings end under one of two buckets. Number one, the end is abrupt. So, it could immediately just cut to a black screen sentence. And really, the reason why cutting to a black screen or ending the

[19:41] cutting to a black screen or ending the video abruptly is so useful is because retention doesn't immediately dropped. And plus, they've already got the entire video, so they don't need an actual ending to the video and it just cuts to

[19:55] a black screen. You don't need to do anything super duper fancy there. Or on the other end of the spectrum, if you want to do a call to action to something, you can use the hook, curiosity, action formula. Hook is

[20:07] saying, "But wait, there's one more thing that I didn't tell you." It's a really common one. I love to use this. And then the curiosity is everything we've covered is completely useless if you don't know this one thing. And then

[20:19] the action is to click here to watch my video on this one thing over here. So if you follow this formula, hook, curiosity, action, once again, you rehook the viewers's attention. You give them another reason to continue

[20:33] It's like, oh, like what more do I not know? And then the action is something where you get them to click and take an action to [music] go somewhere. And screen clickthrough rate will go from somewhere between 5% all the way up to

[20:48] somewhere between 5% all the way up to 15%. That's an extra 10% of your viewers who get to the end of your video that will click on another video on your channel and thereby creating this binge effect or spiderweb effect where people

[21:00] will continue watching your video over and over and over and over again and spend hours and hours and hours with your YouTube channel and become a mega fan for a long time. Now that you understand the concept of winning

[21:12] formats when it comes to writing strong titles all the way to writing a [music] banger call to action, there's actually something that I didn't cover in this to is how you can use AI to actually automate this entire process. And you

[21:27] Click over here to learn how subscriber AI can do this entire process for any niche you're at, whether you're a personal brand or entertainment channel, it can do it all. Click over here to learn the exact process of how I do it

[21:42] for thousands and thousands of customers every single day. Thanks for watching every single day. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next