Congrats! You wrote a full on YouTube script. But now the doubt is creeping in. Maybe it isn’t as good as you thought, or it’s completely missed the mark, or your competitor just published a video that’s about the exact same thing.
Or maybe, you’re overthinking.
But how do you tell the difference?
As a professional writer/overthinker, I’ve had to develop a process for vetting the scripts I write to make sure they perform well. You may have a similar process in a gut feeling of reading a script and knowing it will make a great video.
So let’s strip that feeling down and really dig into how you can tell if your video is a hit or a miss, and why that even matters.
Unique Angle.
The script is ready, you have your visuals sorted you’re ready to move to video production and–
–your main competitor posts a video about the same topic, or you realise it’s well-trodden land.
The main issue here is that your script may not have a unique-enough angle. Notice I said angle, not topic.
I specify the difference because there are endless ways to approach and link topics together. No one is expecting you to reinvent the wheel. But they are expecting you to tell them something they didn’t know about before.
The best way to do that is to tap into yourself. What about you and your view of the world makes the way you are approaching this topic different from your competitors?
A great way to test this is to watch said competitors’ videos. If they cover the same topic, what order are they covering them in? What is the overall focus of their video? Who are they speaking to?
If you find that your scripts are a bit too similar, it doesn’t mean you have to re-write. In fact, it’s evidence that the topic performs well.
Instead, look within the script and think about what things could be moved around or re-shaped to make for a more unique take. Here are a couple of ideas:
- Change the sources you are using
- Use a source that goes against what you are saying, and then argue it to show that it’s wrong
- Add more of your personal brand to your voice and the way you express information
- Tweak your thesis to cover a gap in the competitor’s video.
This comes down to topic v.s. thesis. You may be covering the same topic, but as long as your thesis is different from that of your competitor and unique to you and your channel, then you’re heading on the right track to a great script.
Audience Appeal.
But a unique angle does not make a great script, at least not on its own. You also have to think about your audience, because they’re the ones that are going to be watching.
Really dig into your target audience, and then dig even further into the target audience for this specific video.
If you have an audience of non-STEM viewers who want to learn more about how gravity works, your script likely needs to be easier to understand. However, if you’re explaining complex theory to those who are already familiar, that simple explanation will likely be lackluster.
Narrative Flow & Storytelling.
I’ve been covering a lot about the impact of the script, but what about the way you actually wrote the script?
Voice is very individual for each channel, so I won’t go too much into it here apart from emphasizing that scripts are meant to be spoken, not to be read. So make sure you’re having software read the script back to you, or that you do at least one spoken pass before locking the script in.
What is more widely applicable is the narrative shape and frame of your script. This once again differs depending on topic and niche but there are two main points that I believe apply to every single script.
- Set-up & delayed payoff
- Symmetry.
1. Set-up & Delayed Payoff
Why do you stick around when you watch a video? Because you’re still interested. There is still stuff to learn and a question to answer.
Great scripts bake this into their structure by promising a big payoff in their hook, and only giving you the full answer at the end of the video. These are of course connected by sub-topics and explorations that naturally build onto the argument so that final payoff feels satisfying.
2. Symmetry
As humans, we like symmetry in storytelling. Boy loses girl, boy gets girl. Princess trapped in tower, princess escapes tower.
This symmetry is what helps narratives feel satisfying, because we feel that something has been resolved. A loose end has been tied.
John Yorke talks about this in his (frankly fantastic) craft book called Into the Woods which is focused on screenwriting, but is truly astoundingly applicable to YouTube scriptwriting.
His core idea is that if something happens at the beginning of a narrative, the opposite should happen at the end. A fantastic way of doing this is using a visual frame and mirroring the graphics from other parts of the video.
You can also bake this into your script by echoing phrasing that you’ve used earlier. Assuming it’s incorporated well, it can be a subtle call back that will subconsciously make viewers feel more satisfied with the video as a whole.
The Algorithm
At the end of the day, no one can control the algorithm. We can navigate it and we can anticipate it, but we cannot control it, so don’t stress out too much.
Just make sure your video is unique, engages your audience, and most of all, that you are proud and happy with it after you’ve checked it against these parameters.
But if that sounds like a bit too much work that you don’t have enough time for, getting a writer to take a look can help you see where you’re currently going on and understand how to catch those mistakes before you make them in the future.