🔎RR#22 – This writing technique stops viewers skipping ahead

Hey!

In case you missed it, I recorded a 1hr+ Q&A last week, answering over 25 questions about scriptwriting, freelancing and YouTube!

You can still check it out here 🙂

Scriptwriting tip

Videos need to have emotional stakes for the viewer. Why?

1. The viewer either needs to care about the people on-screen on an emotional level.
2. Or, if they’re trying to achieve a transformation themselves, they need to trust that you resonate with their fears and desires and are gonna help them achieve it.

George Blackman @GeorgeBlackman_ Sure, make your protagonist’s goal seem near-impossible. But the stakes need to be interesting too. What happens if they fail? What will they gain/lose? Time? Money? Status? On a deeper, human level, why do we want them to succeed? Likely failure x low stakes = no tension. May 2nd 2023 1 Retweets 45 Likes

​

Remember, the protagonist could be you, the characters you come across while filming, or even the audience (for whom the stakes are “if I don’t follow this advice, I stand to lose X”).

Have you ever thought about these stakes before recording? Hit reply and let me know! ✍️

Alrighty, onto the retention reviews.

Video #1

​

​

In this review:
​How to re-introduce tension when a video’s starting to go flat.

Video #2

​

​

In this review:
​How to use music to give character to different parts of your video.

Video #3

​

​

In this review:
​The crucial thing you need to do before explaining what your video is about.

Upload alert!

Giving your payoffs too early is a guaranteed retention killer.

But it’s really easy to do – especially with videos like listicles, talking heads or anything educational.

It just feels more natual to make a point, then discuss it. The problem? The point itself is the payoff.

And if you give that first, then spend ages dissecting it, your viewers get bored.

So check out this recent video I wrote where Ed debunks a bunch of YouTube money myths… but I deliberately DON’T tell you what the myth is until the very end of each segment 👇

​

That’s all for now!

Speak soon,

George 👋