Your Scriptwriting Partner

It’s hard being so smart, isn’t it?

When writing about their specialist subject, I often see YouTubers struggling to decide what information is actually important for the script.

After all, you’re an expert in whatever you’re talking about. You know there’s a tonne of nuance you could put into in every video.

I’ve struggled with this feeling, too. Staring at a script, thinking:

“I can’t trim this more than I already have. Every piece of information is completely essential.”

But 99% of the time, if you feel like this… you’re wrong.

”Forced Prioritization”

The feeling is summed up in this quote:

“Forced prioritization is really painful. Smart people recognize the value of all the material.

They see nuance, multiple perspectives - and because they fully appreciate the complexities of a situation, they're often tempted to linger there.

The tendency to gravitate towards complexity is perpetually at war with the need to prioritize.”

This is from Made to Stick, a book recommended to me by my friend Gil Hildebrand.

Never has a quote (that's NOT written about YouTube scripts) so perfectly summed up the struggle of writing YouTube scripts 😂

I often see students and clients get in their heads about some imagined critic complaining about their scripts:

“Erm, excuse me, you didn’t caveat [point X] with [point Y]!”

Gradually, they start to second-guess everything they’re writing.

And this slows their writing speed to a crawl.

But remember - you’re writing a YouTube script, not a college essay.

Yes, you should strive for accuracy and fairness in your videos.

But there will be times when certain nuances or tangents must be consciously ignored.

Made to Stick argues that we must learn to tell the difference between “critical” and “beneficial” information.

The goal is not to remove nuance completely.

It’s to accept that some level of nuance will usually need to be sacrificed, which might mean not all “beneficial” information will make the cut.

Let's look at the difference between "critical" and "beneficial" information using a practical example.

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Critical vs Beneficial

To identify the difference, you need to have a clear picture of your audience avatar.

I’m still ruminating on the best way to define each term, but right now I think of it like this:

• “Critical” information is highly likely to convince your target audience to keep watching.
• “Beneficial” information is something which they might find interesting, but which won’t specifically cause them to keep watching.

Example - Strong Coffee Lovers

So, let’s look at “critical” and “beneficial” information in action.

Imagine an audience of coffee lovers whose primary desire to to brew strong coffee.

• They’re not fussed about diverse flavours - they just want something that’s gonna give them a kick up the butt.
• They already have a basic home setup, but prefer not to spend more money on additional gear.
• Speed is important to them - they don’t have time to learn any complex new brewing techniques.

I’ve just written a hook for an imaginary video, but have deliberately included “beneficial” information in red.

Notice how this information still fits pretty nicely in the hook, but doesn’t appeal directly to my audience avatar:

Version 1 - with "beneficial" information left in.

Why is it so hard to brew the perfect filter coffee?​

You’ve probably tried everything in the book - changing the grind size, cleaning your conical burrs and watching every James Hoffman video under the sun - but each cup still comes out weak and you can’t detect any of the interesting flavours they mentioned on the bag.

So in this video, I’m going to show you how changing the way you prep your tap water will completely alter the strength and flavour of your coffee.

It’ll take you five minutes, you won’t have to spend a penny, and you’ll be shocked that you didn’t think to try this sooner. Prepare to start making cafe-grade coffee from the comfort of your own home.

Compare this to the below rewrite where “beneficial” info is removed.

Now, the focus is on the strength of coffee, saving money and speed.

Version 2 - focused on "critical" information.

Why is it so hard to brew strong filter coffee?

You’ve probably tried everything in the book - changing the grind size, cleaning your conical burrs and watching every James Hoffman video under the sun - but each cup still comes out weak.

So in this video, I’m going to show you how changing the way you prep your tap water will completely alter the strength of your coffee - it’ll take you five minutes, you won’t have to spend a penny, and you’ll be drinking cafe-grade coffee at home for the rest of your life.

Both hooks are pretty similar, and it’s not as though the first one includes any irrelevant information.

But the key is identifying and prioritizing the “critical” information.

Action Point

The one thing I want you to take away from this week’s newsletter?

Next time you realise you need to delete some “beneficial” information from your script, say to yourself:

“I am consciously removing this piece of information, and that’s alright.”

You must accept that removing a caveat here or a piece of nuance there is not only “ok”, but necessary to write a better script.

You can't go down every rabbit hole.

Focus on what your audience cares about, and prioritise creating a more memorable experience for them.

As they say in Made to Stick:

A common mistake […] is that they get so steeped in the details that they fail to see the message’s core - what readers will find important or interesting.

I’m finding this book unbelievably useful for YouTube scriptwriting and highly recommend you give it a read.

If you want to grab a copy, feel free to use my affiliate link!

That's all for this week!

But if you're locking in for a scriptwriting-centric Friday, you can also check out the latest episode of my podcast, Making It.

Watch Now
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Any questions, just let me know!

Speak soon,
George 👋

‍

Hey!

In recent months, the best lesson I've learned about writing YouTube scripts came from watching a band I love write music.

This slightly weird tactic will help you write hooks more easily.

You'll stop overthinking every single word and will create the hook structure much faster.

Find the melody

Ok... I’m not a musician.

So I instinctively assumed the lyrics would always be the first thing a musician came up with when writing a song.

Which is why I found it fascinating to learn that musicians often create the melody first.

When watching behind-the-scenes footage, you'll see bands improvise their way to a sound that feels good - one that conveys the emotion they're trying to express.

Then, afterwards, they create lyrics to match the melody.

It's such an interesting process to watch - particularly when you see footage of a band creating a song you know incredibly well...

...back when they had 0 lyrics and were just "feeling out" the sound.

They hum along, occasionally throwing in a phrase that you know will eventually become "that famous part" of the chorus... but their priority is nailing the melody.

Without meaning to, this is how I have started approaching YouTube scripts.

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Ok, let's get back to it...

Blob scripts

Because YouTube is such a visual medium, I can often see a kind of "blob" version of a video in my mind before I know exactly what I want to say.

It probably comes from having watched a LOT of YouTube… but I can almost visualise the ebb and flow of the hook before I’ve thought about the words.

Imagine I’m writing a script about a 5-step system to help students pass their exams.

Immediately, my brain starts to imagine something like this:

“Dum dah, dum dah, dum system.”

“A system that’s gonna blah.”

“And once you dee dee dee dee doo”

“Your grades are gonna dum dum dee!”

This might sound a bit mad.

But remember, as viewers, we rarely remember a video because of the words alone - we remember the pacing, the visuals, the sounds... all the stuff that comes together to create a video's "melody".

And considering you’ve probably watched a lot of YouTube [FIRST NAME GOES HERE], you’ll have an intuitive sense of how hooks often flow.

But how does this makes writing easier?

Quite simply, once I start writing and get into a flow state, I allow myself to "skip" certain words.

If pausing to think of a "fancy adjective" or the "perfect verb" is going to ruin my flow, then it's not worth it.

If I've got momentum, I don't want to lose it.

I'll write "X" or "Y" or "[thing]" or whatever I need to breeze over if it'll keep my flow state going.

I can always come back to those tiny gaps later.

My priority is nailing the script's "melody".

Here’s an extract from an actual hook I wrote a few weeks back… the first time I tried to “sound out” how it would flow:

Not only does this approach generate faster progress…

…but it also gives you a better chance of writing a video that looks and feels like you dreamed it would when the idea first came to mind.

Rather than a video that has perfect verbiage but no soul.

Give this a try and let me know how you get on.

That's all for this week!

Any questions, just let me know!

Speak soon,
George 👋

‍

Hey!

“Good packaging” is often given credit for making videos go viral.

But that begs the question:

Why do two videos with almost identical packaging perform so differently?

Of course, there are many factors that influence video performance.

But there are always clues the script.

And the easiest place to start is the hook.

So I recorded a quick video showing you how to:

1. Identify a video concept with a high "views ceiling".
2. Find a video with similar packaging.
3. Analyse their hook scripting styles and how they might have contributed to vastly different video performance.

​ ⚡️Click to Watch ⚡️ ​

That's all for this week!

If you want to join me and 1000s of YouTubers using 1of10 to make coming up with video ideas (and packaging them!) easier...

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If you have any questions about analysing hooks, outliers, or anything else, just hit reply and let me know!

Speak soon,
George 👋

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