YouTube Script Writing Guide — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] In this video, I'm going to share with you how I write my scripts for YouTube videos to ultimately save me time and create better videos. Coming up. You gotta just touch the floor. Hey, my name is Mo Mo with Big Media and we had a question come in recently and Gil asked how to write a script for a video.

[00:17] That's a great question and I'm excited to dive in and share with you exactly what I do for my YouTube scripts and how it helps me shoot better videos. Now the generic answer of how I write these videos would be the hook, the content, and then the call to action.

[00:31] I'm going to show you this quick video that I just recorded recently where I go in depth on what each of those sections mean. And then we're going to come back and I am going to show you what my scripts look like and share some tips with you

[00:43] and go really in depth on how to actually write the script for your next YouTube video. So first, check out this video. Now, a script really can be as simple as writing down or typing all your content out.

[00:57] What is it that you want to share in the video? That's going to be the main chunk of your video is that content. Now, before that, you're going to want to think about a hook. The hook is the very beginning of the video when you tell your audience what they're going to learn or what they're going to gain from watching this video.

[01:13] For example, at the very beginning of this video, I said, Now, before pressing record on your video, there's actually a lot of work and preparation that goes into it. So today I'm going to share the five things that you need to do before shooting your next YouTube video to get more views and to get more done in less time.

[01:31] So someone who wants more views and wants to get more done in less time is going to stick around and see what I have to say. So that's now at the front of your script. You then have your content. And at the very end, we are going to have a call to action.

[01:46] One of the best ways for the YouTube algorithm to be on your side is when you keep viewers on the platform. So at the end of every video that we do on YouTube, we usually say, hey, if you enjoyed this video, then you'll probably really enjoy this video.

[02:00] So if you click on the screen right now, you can go and watch that. And this helps our video get in that YouTube algorithm ranking and search and getting in those suggested videos Now that you understand the format and the general idea of the script let really dive in to the details of how I do this

[02:16] Now, there's really two different ways to write a script. So right now, I'm not using a teleprompter, but I have a script that is sitting actually on the ground on my computer screen, and there's two ways to write it.

[02:28] The first way would be word for word, and the second way would be to use bullet points. word for word would be writing your script out exactly what you're going to say from start to finish and then you would look at it you'd memorize it and you would say the script back to your

[02:45] camera so this is a great option for people just getting started and they have good memorization and maybe they can't really freestyle in front of the camera this is also a great way to write out your hook at the beginning of the video I write out my hook word for word because it's so important

[03:02] and I really spend a lot of time thinking about the words I'm going to use to hook in the audience. And so when it comes to the hook, I always do that word for word. There's also some cons writing a script word for word. You know, you get pretty long and it can take a lot of time.

[03:16] If you're not using bullet points and you're typing everything out, then it's going to take a bit longer to write it out. And then also when you're filming it, you may have some issues and you may need to keep looking down or looking at your script

[03:29] to talk to the camera so you can memorize it. And it usually takes a bit longer to nail the video when shooting it when you write your word-for-word script. Now, if you have a teleprompter, then word-for-word scripts would work perfectly for you.

[03:42] But it's not like I said, you know, this is great for beginners and for those people who can't really freestyle. Maybe you're not comfortable in front of the camera yet, and you might need to use this. And then eventually over time, you can start using bullet points.

[03:56] And that would be the goal is to use word-for-word scripts while you're getting started, but then over time, start to use bullet points and then you can use that and you can start to freestyle and practice that more. My encouragement to you if you're writing it word for word and not using bullet

[04:09] points and you're just memorizing the lines, try this in your next video. If doing word for word but maybe one or two things that you really confident about try doing that in a bullet point and just freestyle it and see how it works And just doing this not for the entire video but just for a little chunk of the video is going to help build up your confidence to let

[04:28] you know that you can do bullet points. You can freestyle to the camera and that you're able to do it, but you know, start a little bit at a time and then eventually your whole video, you may be able to use bullet points and freestyle and talk to the camera. Now coming up next, I'm going to

[04:43] be talking about bullet points and how I use that for my script and then I'm going to share a hack with you that is going to help you get more likes by implementing this into your script and it's also going to help you with increasing your audience retention rate. So stay tuned for that

[04:57] but first like this video and then comment down below what other kind of questions do you have about producing YouTube content. Let me know in the comments below and maybe we'll answer your question in the next video. Bullet points are what I use on my scripts when it comes to the content

[05:11] parts as well as the call to action part because I feel comfortable freestyling to the camera and talking using bullet points. Now if you can just talk to the camera and freestyle then I definitely do recommend bullet points but again this takes some time to get used to being in front of the

[05:26] camera and so take your time be patient with yourself but this is definitely a great way to do it and I found bullet points to be most productive for me when shooting my YouTube videos. I've actually pulled up my script right here for this YouTube video. I'm going to show

[05:40] you this is what you're seeing on the screen right now is this script. If we scroll down to where I'm at right now, you can see this is my little section for this piece of the video. And I've written bullet points of better for the person who can freestyle and maybe isn't the best at

[05:56] memorizing. Content and call to actions are bullet points because I can freestyle. So it's not really even full sentences, but I'm just writing down the main points that I want to talk about. And then

[06:08] underneath you can see that I am going to show you my script and these are the bullet points that I have and then I like to look at the camera, I like to hit those things that I wanted to talk about, but then as I'm talking I might hit other points and talk

[06:23] about other things as well So we can see on the script you know some of my bullet points are really short some are a bit longer and so it really just depends with you and how much you need Sometimes I need

[06:35] a bit more words so that I can read it before I talk to the camera and shoot it, and I read the bullet points before talking to the camera, and this helps refresh my memory so that I don't miss an important point when I'm talking to the camera. You definitely want to experiment with this. You

[06:52] might be able to just do really short bullet points with your main points. As for me, sometimes I need a bit longer sentences and it helps me memorize it better. So find out what works best for you. Now this bonus tip that I talked to you guys about, about getting more likes and increasing

[07:07] audience retention rate, is actually in your scripts incorporating another call to action before the end, but more of the middle, maybe 75% of the way through the video where you ask people to like the video and to comment down below.

[07:21] These things can actually help you get more likes just by asking the audience to like the video. They might go down, like the video, leave a comment, and this is great for the YouTube algorithm. The other thing you want to do here is make it another hook.

[07:34] So I teased what was coming up in the video by telling you I was going to show you how to get more likes, I was going to show you how to increase the audience retention rate, and you guys are sticking to this part of the video because you heard me say that and you wanted to find out what it was.

[07:49] So when you're shooting YouTube videos, find ways maybe in the middle, maybe 60, 70% of the way through to tell your audience what's coming up so that they don't get bored and they click off,

[08:01] but they want to stick to the end and they want to listen to what you have to say. So yes, you can use a hook at the very beginning, but it's also good to remind your audience what's coming up in the video so they stick around.

[08:13] For my call to action, I typically just do one bullet point, and it is the video that I want to send you guys to. And since we are here at the call to action, the end of the video, you can click on the screen right now to learn how to come up with good video ideas for YouTube.

[08:27] I hope you guys enjoyed this video. I'll see you in the next one.