A lot of people struggle to write scripts, period. But it’s even harder to write a script that sounds like you, because there’s an abyss between presenting information and connecting with your audience while being true to yourself.
Not only that, your voice will continue to evolve and change, just like you will.
A rigid voice mostly stems from habits built up during school writing essays, but a script for a YouTube video is much more casual and loose (though that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have structure!).
So how do you actually write a script that doesn’t make you sound like a robot on the voice over?
1. Figure out your voice
“Voice” is a very ephemeral thing, but really it just refers to your style of saying something. You and me could deliver the same information, but we would word it in slightly different ways. That’s why no two videos are the same even if they’re about the same topic.
We all have our own way of seeing and experiencing the world and that subconsciously shapes your voice.
So what’s yours?
You might just want to sound like yourself, in which case, write a few scripts and look at what you keep doing across all of them. Do you crack a joke, are you more academic, are you coming across a bit dry?
If you want to emulate a style while still making it your own, study the videos you like. Intentionally. What is it about this specific video that you like in particular? Is it the way they introduce information, their transitions, the tone of their voice?
2. Um and Ah
In school, you were probably taught to write very efficiently. No rhetorical questions, no umm-ing or ahhh-ing, formal language, all of that.
Throw that out the window!
With content creation, you are talking to other people who you want to build your channel and community around, so just try to sound like a normal person.
A great way to do this is to put a lot of thought into your script’s structure, and then just write the first draft as instinctively as you can.
Don’t worry about it sounding too informal or vague because this is where the human-ness of it comes out.
3.Edit Carefully
Once you have this wonderful budding draft, you can go back and edit, but be careful of what you cut. Always think about improving clarity without sacrificing humanity.
For example, this is a first-draft sentence I wrote as part of a script I recently worked on:
So from our point of view that doesn’t make sense, but that’s not going to stop these companies from investing in AI because these companies are making business decisions based on what AI could become, not what it is right now. They’re betting on something that doesn’t exist.
And this is how I rewrote it:
But that’s not going to stop these companies from investing in AI because they’re making decisions based on what AI could become, not what it is right now. They’re betting on something that doesn’t exist.
A lot more straight forward.
I lose some human messiness by cutting that first bit, but I replace it with a casual connective “but” which makes for a leaner sentence and lets the paragraphs around it carry more of the humanizing weight.
This takes some practice, but trust your gut. You want to sound like a more polished version of yourself, even if it’s imperfect. Better to sound like you than an infallible version of someone else.
And on that note.
4.Don’t use AI (yet).
AI is a very powerful tool…in the right hands. But it won’t improve your voice if you don’t know what your voice is in the first place.
And voice is one of the most important signifiers of your channel. A Vox video is very different from a Mr. Beast one.
If you do know your voice then you have everything you need to edit your scripts to make them sound like yourself because it’s not just choosing the right word, or swapping a “so” for a “but”.
It’s sentence structure, pacing and rhythm that are part of the way you naturally speak.
I truly believe that if you want to deliver content that is truly original and truly you, the best way to go about it is to know your voice really really really well. And the best way to do that is by doing research and writing a lot.
Then when you know your voice, you can start using AI from a position of authority.
5. Now your turn
Go out there and watch some of the videos from the channels you admire the most. Pinpoint what you like about them and why. Especially if you’re an experienced channel! It’s always good to stay in tune with your own voice and tweak your style to match.
Even if you end up passing the writing along to a scriptwriter, having a solid idea of your voice (and maybe even a style guide) will be infinitely helpful as a guide for your collaborators, and as north star for the direction of the channel.