Hey Reader,

I’ve been a bit of a silly boy.

As if launching both a course and an agency simultaneously wasn’t enough stress for one man’s brain…

🎙️ I’m also launching a podcast!

​

While working for Ali Abdaal, I met Gwilym Sims-Williams (left) and Jamie Whiffen (centre).

Gwilym was another writer; Jamie was Ali’s producer.

In fact, between us… we realised that we work as:

• YouTube producers.
• Writers.
• Thumbnail designers.
• Strategists.
• Consultants.

(Basically everything except editors 😂)

That’s why we decided to launch “Making It” 🚀

​

While there are some incredible podcasts devoted to interviewing creators, and even to interviewing people like us who work for creators…

We wanted to have conversations exclusively between folks like us working behind the camera.

In the 10+ episodes we already recorded, we’ve talked about:

• What “working for a YouTuber” actually looks like.
• How to get hired in the first place.
• How we’re growing our own creator businesses from scratch.
• “Insider” strategies on ideation, writing, packaging, and more.
• The realities of trying to balance work and life in an industry that’s ripe with opportunity and seemingly has no limits.

Episode 1 is out now!

In this episode, we reveal how we got hired by Ali Abdaal as full-time employees in 2021.

Then we discuss how we’ve continued to work with multi-million subscriber YouTubers over the last year while building our own creator businesses from scratch

Click to listen on YouTube or Spotify.

(Apple Podcasts coming soon.)

That’s all for this week Reader 🙂

What did you think of the episode? Hit reply and let me know! ❤️

Any questions, I’m just an email away 🙂

Speak soon,
George 👋

‍

This is an exciting week!

You folks sent me a bunch of questions on Twitter, so today I’m sharing a 35min video Q&A with my responses!

December Q&A

We talked about:

• My scriptwriting “process” – where it starts and ends.
• The misunderstanding people have about “Grand Payoffs”.
• Whether creators actually need to hire scriptwriters or not.

​

Click to watch the Q&A 👆

Got any questions? Or anything you’d like me to talk about in future? 🧐

You can reply to these emails anytime 🙂

Speak soon,
George 👋

One of the main “retention edits” I do for every script is to improve clarity.

Clarity is a major factor in whether or not someone will commit the next 15 minutes of their life to your video.

If your audience feels confused, they’ll leave.

That’s why it’s especially important during the hook (although it matters a good deal throughout the script too).

So, this week, using extracts from scripts I’ve worked/advised on…

I’m sharing three quick clarity checks for you to do on your next script before you hit record…

Jargon

I spoke last week about the need to unlearn “essay-style” writing.

But this is not a debate about “dumbing down” your script.

Rather, it’s about avoiding overly convoluted language when it doesn’t serve any purpose.

Here’s an example from a script I reviewed, which sounds more like an “essay” than a YouTube script:

“We live in a world for the loud. This can be hard to accept at first – there’s a sort of moral irony in it.“

Keep in mind, these are the first words of the video.

But the comment about “moral irony” just feels like… too much.

Nothing wrong with being a bit vague during the hook to open curiosity.

But this is so vague and jargon-y that I don’t feel curious. I just feel mildly confused.

Hence my comments at the time:

​

Surplus Detail

You don’t always need the amount of detail you might think.

And it’s easiest to notice when this is the case if you read your scripts out loud.

See this example from a script I reviewed:

“Or, more simply, as comedian Steve Martin once advised in an interview: ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.'”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with saying “once advised in an interview”.

But when you actually say it, it sounds clunky.

Unless the fact that he said it in an interview is specifically relevant, it’s just far easier (and more naturalistic) to keep it simple and say: “said”.

So ask yourself:

Am I overcomplicating this?

After all, nobody wants an overcomplicated script, just like nobody wants an overcomplicated screen recorder… 😉

Smoothest segue ever, right? 😜

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There, I said it. I won’t take it back. You simply can’t make me.

I’ve tried a couple of different screen recording options over the last two years, and this has ended up being my favourite because of how flipping good the recordings look.

Check out this quick video if you wanna see all the cool stuff Tella can do 👇

​Click to watch my love story with Tella unfold in realtime ❤️​

The good news? Their affiliate program is offering new users 30% off forever when you sign up through my link.

You’ll literally be paying less than I am to use it lol.

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Try Tella (1 week trial, then 30% off forever)

Because I’m an affiliate, signing up through this link will result in a small kickback for me at no extra cost to you 🙂

​

Ok, let’s get back to the final clarity check…

Conceptual Confusion

The next video’s hook sounds great…

…but it accidentally implies a different type of video than we actually got.

The first sentence is:

“Meeting the world’s richest comedian is easier said than done. He’s not all over podcasts and movie screens this comic has built a comedy Empire all without having to leave his home.”

To me, this sounds like a video where the creator tries to physically meet someone.

One of those classic “track them down” quests where we see the creator catching 6 planes, almost being arrested and spending the night in a bush…

Just to get a 10-second chat with their idol.

Now, the video I quoted above is actually really good…

But the plot I described doesn’t happen.

It’s actually a talking-head listicle about the richest comedians in the world.

“Meeting the world’s richest comedian” actually meant “figuring out who the world’s richest comedian is”.

It’s both subtle and unintentional…

But I’m certain early retention suffers from this lack of clarity…

​

​
Aim to be clear, not clever.

And, if you want more on how to simplify hook writing, you can check out this old thang I wrote a few weeks ago.

Stronger hooks within 24 hours, or your money back.

(Joke’s on you; you didn’t pay for this newsletter 😈)

⚡️ Action Point

Review your script and check it for:

1. Jargon.
2. Surplus Detail.
3. Conceptual Confusion.

That’s all for this week Reader 🙂

Got any questions? Or anything you’d like me to talk about in future? 🧐

You can reply to these emails anytime 🙂

Speak soon,
George 👋

“Why is finding a good scriptwriter so dang hard?”

It’s a question I get asked constantly.

After all, I could recommend 5-6 editors off the top of my head.

But I’ve consistently struggled to vouch for good writers (until recently).

This is a problem, both for scriptwriters looking to prove themselves and for YouTubers who need writers.

So, after 2+ years as a writer in this industry, I’m going to offer my (admittedly subjective) thoughts on the situation, and what needs to change on both sides to reach a solution.

The Problem For YouTubers

Finding the right person to outsource a part of your content to can feel like a scary, deeply personal task.

But creators have successfully done this for the best part of the last decade with editing.

The same is not true for writing… but why?

I’ve heard some creators argue that hiring a writer just isn’t as useful as hiring an editor. That they’ve been burned in the past. That they can’t find anyone good.

But why is this? Plenty of people can write well, so I don’t think it’s a theoretical lack of potential talent.

And I’ve just gone back through my DMs and emails to find I’ve received almost 100 inbound enquiries this year… so the demand is only increasing.

At its core, I believe there’s a fundamental difference between how it feels for a creator to relinquish control of an edit vs the words coming out of their mouth.

There’s just more at stake with the latter.

Yes, the way shots are cut together and edited can vastly affect how a creator comes across to their audience…

But the words they say are baked into the video and forever associated with that creator.

And trusting someone else with that is scary.

If you’re a YouTuber in this position, it might seem just as likely that you’ll have to re-write everything to make sure it definitely sounds like “something you would say”.

So, solving the “writer problem” begins with something simple…

Both writers and YouTubers must approach their relationship with excessive communication.

Have a long conversation before every video, if you can.

Make sure you both understand what you want this video to be before you put pen to paper.

Check in with each other after the structure has been drafted, and ideally once more before the end.

Get on the same page.

The result is almost always better when both parties assume nothing and make everything explicit.

The problem we see with scriptwriters getting offered abysmal rates stems from skipping valuable steps like this.

When you offer $50 per script, of course the writer is desperate to finish ASAP.

They’ll need to write another 4 this week to make this a viable part of their income.

Ergo, they won’t feel inclined to spend extra time aligning expectations, taking great care over every word, or going the extra mile for your content… because they’re rushed.

So what happens?

1. The result doesn’t improve.
2. The YouTuber remains convinced the service is barely worth it.
3. They continue to offer $50 per script.

The rate you set implies the level of detail and care the writer should employ.

The Problem For Writers

Now, the responsibility to improve the situation lies with writers, too.

Just as we saw the proliferation of the “I’m also a YouTube strategist” Twitter bios…

The same thing is starting to happen with YouTube Scriptwriters.

This part of the industry is on the cusp of becoming much bigger, and people can sense the opportunity.

But there’s a huge misconception here.

Making the transition to YouTube scriptwriter is not as simple as porting your writing skills from college.

It’s actually requires the destruction of half the writing principles you’ve spent two decades being taught.

You’ll need to unlearn defunct skills as much as learning new ones.

Because writing a YouTube video like an English essay is usually a recipe for disaster.

It results in bland, bloated, boring paragraphs like this:

​

​
And I hope you won’t mind me roasting the writing, because it’s mine.

And I don’t blame younger me for being crap – my instinct was simply to write like I did at school, as it is for most people.

It speaks to a wider problem:

This part of the YouTube industry is incredibly young, and there’s very little education surrounding it.

For most, getting better at scriptwriting involves years of trial and error.

It involves being up-front and honest with clients about what you can offer.

At first, you might simply position yourself as someone who can help with their scriptwriting bottleneck.

6 months later, with more experience under your belt, you might start to offer scriptwriting and strategic advice.

Then help with ideation, packaging, etc.

​

Solutions

With all this in mind… I can understand why many creators feel disenfranchised by the idea of hiring writers.

It’s a nuanced problem, and I don’t have a perfect solution.

But, in a word, what both writers and YouTubers need is time.

90% of what I’ve learned as a writer has come in the last year, because the skills and knowledge have started to compound.

I allowed myself time to work with as many creators as possible, stared at retention graphs until my eyes dried out, and spent time thinking about and systemizing this extremely particular style of writing.

But, by the same token, the clients who have seen the best results from my writing are those who have given me time to adjust to their style and have paid me fairly so that I might give their scripts more care and attention.

Remember… we’re all on the same team here!

We all just want to make the best videos possible while earning a living in this amazing industry.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, whether you’re a scriptwriter or a YouTuber. Did anything ring a bell or touch a nerve?

I’m always interested in discussions like this about the meta of the YouTube industry, so any and all opinions are welcome!

Speak soon,
George 👋

Nobody likes a rambler.

If you’ve ever been stuck in “conversation” with some guy at a party who’s three drinks further along than you, you’ll know what I mean.

He (and, yes, let’s be real, it’s usually a “he”) witters on about something or other, but the conversation is completely directionless.

I know this, because this is me being that guy about 10 years ago.

Pretty sure this other chap is literally talking to someone else…

Now, ramblers aren’t talking with their audience in mind.

They’re talking because they like to hear themselves talk.

No one wants to be that guy.

But, when it comes to YouTube…

The majority of creators sound like that guy without realising it.

And it comes down to a structural mistake.

That’s why we need to identify and correct this structural issue if we want people to watch our videos for more than a minute.

Because, unlike at a party, where social convention demands that people stand there and listen…

Your viewers have no obligation to keep watching.

So here’s how to avoid it…

The most important thing

This week, I tweeted:

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​
But a couple of people asked for more explanation on point #2, “payoffs”. After all…

Nailing your payoffs is absolutely fundamental to creating an engaging video.

So let’s break it down.

There are two things to think about when it comes to payoffs.

1. How many are there?
2. Are they well-placed?

A video with only a single payoff at the end is boring, so it needs to have mini-payoffs throughout.

In a well-structured 10-15min video, there are usually around 3-4.

This Johnny Harris video is slightly longer, so has a few more…

Click to watch 👆

The first three mini-payoffs the audience experiences look like this:

1. Understanding the rationale behind the first undersea cable ever laid.
2. Learning that cables often break, but how this is sometimes done deliberately.
3. Realising that sabotage is not actually the biggest problem… spying is.

Now, as I’ve spoken about before, you don’t want to give the payoff and then spend ages talking about it.

But, as you’ll notice in the Johnny Harris example, the mini-payoff is always the very last thing that happens in each segment.

As soon as we experience a payoff, he sets up the next one.

Now, before we look at the transcript to see this in action…

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Signing up through this link will result in a small kickback for me at no extra cost to you 🙂

Transcript breakdown

So, let’s look at segments 2 and 3 of Johnny’s video to show this payoff technique in action.

He begins segment 2 by saying:

“But sometimes these cables get broken on purpose” (5:50)

This piques our curiosity and makes it clear what the following segment is going to be about.

Johnny then spends 70 seconds building up a picture that explains why the cables get broken on purpose. The curiosity is resolved and we experience a payoff.

Then he immediately sets up segment 3 by saying:

“But the more interesting approach to me isn’t just sabotage. There’s another way that you can use cables to your advantage if you are a great power.” (7:00)

He’s opened another curiosity gap.

We now know exactly what we’re building towards next.

Because as soon as one point of tension has been resolved, the audience needs to know what the next one is.

How to create more payoffs

You might be wondering how to turn one payoff into three (or more).

But it’s usually fairly simple.

If you’re an educational channel, ask yourself:

What are the component pieces of information needed to understand my overall point? And can I create tension in the buildup to the reveal of each?

If you’re an entertainment channel, ask yourself:

What are the component tasks I need to complete in the build-up to the [big explosion thing] at the end? And can I create tension around the completion of each of those tasks?

If you physically can’t find a way to break your concept down, it’s probably not strong enough to be made into a video.

A word of warning

You assume you’ll have done this stuff intuitively.

But after 2+ years of writing scripts every single week, I still overlook these things and have to go back and correct them.

It’s always worth checking.

By constantly orienting your audience within the video’s structure, you make yourself the interesting person at the party who everyone wants to listen to.

Rather than the drunken rambler who just says things until they get bored.

Trust me… the audience will have gotten bored much earlier.

⚡️ Action Item

Review (and highlight) each payoff in your script. Check whether:

1. You have more than one.
2. You are setting up the next one as soon as you’ve resolved the last.

That’s all for this week!

Got any questions? Or anything you’d like me to talk about in future? 🧐

You can reply to these emails anytime 🙂

Speak soon,
George 👋

Although I love YouTube, I used to find writing scripts really hard.

Even after a year of doing it, the feeling just wouldn’t go away.

It wasn’t that the subject matter was difficult to understand, nor were my fingers simply too weak to push the keys on my Macbook.

I just felt overwhelmed and I couldn’t figure out why!

Hahaha this is a ridiculous pic and yes I did do a photoshoot recently.

But, having spent the last four months thinking about and systemizing my writing process for The YouTube Scriptwriter’s Playbook, I realised something critical.

So let’s talk about that realization and why it will drastically reduce how “difficult” it feels to write a YouTube script.

The Problem

I’ve broken my scriptwriting system into five steps.

But here’s the thing…

Actually writing the script is the FOURTH of these steps.

​

The mistake a lot of new (or not so new!) YouTubers make is to sit down after a flash of inspiration and simply try to write.

And while that inspiration will carry you up to a point, decision fatigue eventually starts to set in.

“I’m so excited about this idea! But how do I properly convey it in the hook?”

“I know this is an interesting point, but how do I say it so my audience actually cares?”

“I loved writing this… for the first hour. So why do I feel like I’ve lost momentum?”

It boils down to this:

Trying to make macro-decisions and micro-decisions simultaneously is overwhelming.

• You can’t focus on optimizing the hook while you’re still unsure who you’re writing for.
• You can’t write confidently about a topic without choosing the angle of your approach.
• You can’t decide how to end a paragraph without knowing what’s going to happen in the next one.

This is one of the main reasons why writing scripts becomes exhausting.

Your brain is trying to do too much at once.

The Solution

There are three things you need to figure out before writing:

1. Who am I writing for?
2. From which angle should I approach the topic?
3. How is the video structured?

Because when you have a clear idea of who you’re writing for…

​

…how you should frame the video to make it interesting for them…

​

…and how the video is structured…

​

…you’ve got far fewer choices to make when you’re actually writing.

Now you can concentrate on your creativity.

​

Of course, once the script is written, there are plenty of other things we can do to tighten it up.

But getting that first draft done is so much easier when you spend less time writing it and more time planning it.

⚡️ Action Item

1. Spend time thinking about your audience avatar.
2. ​Frame the video in a way that’s interesting to them.
3. Create the structure before you write.

That’s all for this week!

Got any questions? Or anything you’d like me to talk about in future? 🧐

You can reply to these emails anytime 🙂

Speak soon,
George 👋

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I can’t tell you how happy I am to be writing this newsletter again! 🥳

Thanks so much for your patience, especially if you’re one of the approx 600 new folks who joined during my hiatus.

Me, staring lovingly at you for sticking with me.

If you didn’t know, I made the choice to narrow the focus of my entire business so I could complete my scriptwriting course.

However, now that it’s finally in the hands of my small army of beta testers, we can get back to business as usual!

I thought I’d kick back off with a handy little framework that’s going to simplify (and enhance) how you write the most important part of your script…

Have you ever wondered this…?

One of the most common questions I get is:

“How long should my hook be?”

After all, as one creator who emailed me put it…

“Should you get straight into the content so people don’t click off right away?

​

Or do you need to do everything humanly possible to convince them the video is gonna change their life first?”

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by indecision and uncertainty, especially when you know the hook is the most important part of the video.

But here’s the thing…

“How long should my hook be?” is not the right question to ask because it doesn’t have a proper answer.

Instead, the only question you need to ask is this:

”Does every sentence have a reason to be there?”

After writing and reviewing hundreds of scripts for creators big and small, I’ve created a simple framework to figure this out.

3-Step Framework

The framework looks slightly different depending on whether your content is primarily educational, or entertainment-based.

🧠 Education → Target, Transformation, Stakes:

​

1 – This is my target audience.

2 – This is their desired transformation.

3 – Here’s what’s at stake.

💥 Entertainment → Character, Concept, Stakes:

​

1 – These are the characters.

2 – This is the concept.

3 – Here’s what’s at stake.

In a nutshell…

The audience needs to know what they’ll experience and why it matters.

That’s it.

Focus on clearly signposting each of these three factors within your hook, and be brutal about cutting the rest.

Two Examples

To see this framework in action, look at how simply we can break down the hook of two videos.

Below each, you’ll see my breakdown of the 3-step framework and the colour-coded hook transcript.

Zac Alsop – I Faked My Grandpa to the Top of Fashion Week​

Character – Granddad

Concept – Is it possible to get anybody to the top of fashion week?

Stakes – He’s a fraud; will he be discovered?

Hook Transcript:

​

As you’ll notice, every word fulfils the criteria of the 3-step framework.

But, while this hook is nice and short, a strong hook can also be much longer (as long as every sentence deserves to be there).

For example:

Abi Connick – Why 95% of Graphic Designers Fail​

Target – Graphic designers worried about their business failing.

Transformation – They’ll learn what the mistake is so they can avoid it and create a flourishing business.

Stakes – Unless they learn the lesson, their business is at risk of failure.

Hook Transcript:

​

I probably would have trimmed a couple of extra words here.

Nonetheless, every single sentence here is crucial to setting up the content.

And with 86% retention after 30s, you really can’t complain.

⚡️ Action Item

On your next video, instead of worrying about the length of your hook, focus on the 3-step framework.

Force every word to justify its place, and the hook will end up exactly the length it needs to be.

That’s all for this week!

Did you have anything you’d really like me to talk about in a future issue? You can reply to these emails at any time and let me know 🙂

Speak soon,
George 👋

A brilliant, terrifying realisation.

I arrived in London 3 years ago to start a job I didn’t care about.

0 direction. 0 long-term plans. Happy enough, but aimless.

But, last week, I left the city with a life that is almost completely unrecognisable…

I want to share this story with you because, across those 3 years, I learned something that’s equal parts liberating and terrifying:

Sometimes the entire direction of your life rests on your willingness to say “f*** it” at just the right time.

A snapshot of my final scriptwriting session in London 🌇

1 year after arriving in the city and plugging away at my “normal job”, Ali Abdaal put out some job applications.

I’d only discovered his channel a few weeks before, but I applied on a whim.

Actually, I applied for 3 different roles.

“F*** it”, I thought. “I like YouTube. I can write. I once had a gaming channel with 1500 subscribers. F*** it.”

Despite having no real experience, I had a sense that “working for a YouTuber” was something that would suit me. I literally didn’t care what role, I just wanted one.

As the application process drew on, I spent more and more time imagining what this “new life” might look like, and the reality of my current employment became increasingly stark.

“What if, rather than doing 12-hour night shifts… I got to write YouTube videos for a living?”

The gradual breakdown of a man who hated his job 😵‍💫

Hilariously, as I started writing the tweet this newsletter is based on, I actually found some old diary entries from the time I was waiting to hear whether my application had been successful.

I was evidently in a melodramatic mood 😂

​

What I didn’t share in my original tweet, though, was this pretty shocking extract that detailed just how apathetic I was feeling about my job at the time… 👇

​

Granted, the 12-hour night shifts were a little atypical.

But wow. I was honestly shocked to see that I’d written those words.

The scary thing is, “living for the weekend” is a completely ubiquitous concept.

It permeates nearly every social circle I’m a part of and exists cross-generationally, too.

You probably know the feeling all too well, even if you’re fortunate enough to have escaped it by now.

Clearly, I wanted to leave.

2 months later…

The allure of YouTube was becoming more powerful every day.

The problem was, I’d genuinely started to convince myself that a job like “working for a YouTuber” was simply not something I’d ever end up doing.

I had 0 experience.

It sounded too fun.

Life didn’t work like that.

Then, inexplicably, 2 months later…

I got it.

(That ‘thing’ was: “do you want the job?” lol)

​
I’ll write another newsletter going in-depth on why my application was successful and how I’ve carved out this space for myself as a “Consulting YouTube Scriptwriter” in the years since.

But it’s not the point of this particular story.

Anyway, I handed in my notice, and my day-to-day life did a complete 180.

• Night-shifts were now “flexible hours”.
• Limited annual leave was now “as much as you want, just don’t take the p***”
• Data entry was now “writing scripts for YouTube”.

I woke up feeling grateful almost every day.

But even that version of me wouldn’t have believed how much would change again after I went freelance.

1 year later…

Things keep getting crazier. Now:

• I have a community of nearly 10,000 people across my platforms, just from “writing about writing”.
• I get to choose my clients based on who I have the most fun working for.
• I drunk-messaged Mr Beast’s manager and got left on “seen” (but then Mr Beast followed me a week later so… swings and roundabouts.)
• I’m building an actual business, wtf.

And, most excitingly, I’m leaving London with my girlfriend (who I met just after moving to London) to go live and work in Europe for a while.

Because f*** it, why not?

So take this as a reminder that a well-placed “f*** it” could be all that stands between you and the start of an even happier life.

Of course, there’s a little bit of luck in every bit of fortune. But you’ve gotta be willing to grab it when it comes.

I’m endlessly thankful to 2021-George for saying “f*** it” at just the right time.

So I want to thank you for coming along for the ride Reader, and I can’t wait to ramp this newsletter back up again in the coming weeks ❤️

Speak soon,

George 👋

‍Does this resonate with you…?

“I hate writing; I love having written.” – Dorothy Parker.

It certainly struck a chord with me.

That’s not to say that writing a YouTube script is actually a miserable process.

But the build-up to a writing session is often fraught with anxiety.

And that anxiety either leads to procrastination or to such a degree of overthinking that when I sit down, I barely make progress.

“Where do I start? What should I work on today? Am I even good at this?” (Classic.)

But I’ve managed to significantly reduce these feelings by systemising how I write.

I promise you – systemising your writing will make scripting YouTube videos less stressful, more efficient, and will result in a better piece of content.

If you came here from my recent appearance on Jay Clouse’s Creator Science – welcome! If not, I discussed the system in this video 👇

Click to watch, or read on for a summary…

​
Let’s talk about…

The 4-Hat Method

This is an upgraded version of the 3-Hat Method I first discussed 6 months ago.

The basic principle is that we want to avoid “task switching”.

That means breaking the process of writing the script down into 4 distinct components.

Let’s think of each component as a “different profession”.

And you’re only ever wearing one of these “hats” at a time.

The first hat is…

The Artist

You have your basic video concept.

Now you need to spam ideas to see if there’s enough meat to make the video work.

Brainstorm any moments you instinctively imagine appearing in the video.

This might include half-formed B-Roll ideas and visual cues, as well as key story/information beats.

The only essential part of this stage is identifying the “Grand Payoff” – the main thing your audience has clicked to see.

Use my 4-point checklist to make this super simple.

Once this is done, it’s time to become…

The Architect

This is where we bring structure to the script before actually writing it.

We have our Grand Payoff locked in.

So now we need to identify the necessary steps that build up to that moment.

In a tutorial, these may be obvious:

“Step 1, step 2…”

In an entertainment video, it might take more thinking.

“Here’s my bombastic aim, but first I needed to find a big hammer. So I was on my way to visit the local hammer salesperson when THIS happened…”

Each beat should open up its own curiosity gap. And, as you resolve each point of curiosity, you set up the next one.

Tension, release, setup, tension, release, setup…

Ergo, we need to know what each of these key “mini-payoffs” will be while we’re wearing the architect’s hat.

By the end of your time as the Architect, you should have your structure finalised.

The Writer

Now it’s time to connect the dots.

If the structure was your script’s skeleton, this is where we add the flesh.

An important thing to bring back at this stage is an element of the freedom you felt as the Artist.

For example, don’t worry about retention at this stage.

Nor perfect grammar, nor anything else.

The sole aim is to connect A to B to C.

By the end of this stage, you’ll have what most people would refer to as “Draft 0”.

It’s nothing like perfect, but it’s a complete package.

So, we have our Draft 0, and now it’s time to don the fourth (and pointiest) hat…

The Wizard

It’s time to fine-tune your script.

And, once again, the key here is to focus on one thing at a time.

I comb through my scripts with the following in mind:

1. Excessive jargon.
2. Imperfect structure.
3. Grammar.
4. Verbal test.

The first check, “excessive jargon”, is where I think about clarity, checking I’m not repeating myself, or taking 2 sentences to say what I could have in 1.

The third check, “Grammar”, is self-explanatory.

The fourth check, “verbal test”, means reading it aloud to check if it actually flows when spoken aloud.

But the one that needs the most explanation is the second check, “imperfect structure”.

This is about retention, and there are a tonne of things you could focus on here. For example…

• I check how well-spaced out my payoffs are.
• I ensure I haven’t given away an interesting nugget and then spent 5 minutes discussing it.
• I confirm there’s a constant progression of information.

Again, lots to think about here, so feel free to join the YTSP waiting list if you’re interested in learning more.

Either way, breaking down the process of scripting a video into these 4 stages will make your life much easier 🧘‍♂️

That’s all for this week!

Another big welcome to any new subscribers who found me through Creator Science!

Hit reply if you have any questions 😊

Speak soon,

George 👋