The Pros and Cons of Using AI to Write Your Video Scripts
Last week I ran into a post over at r/youtubers asking if anyone still wrote their scripts now that AI was a thing and it really got me thinking about the pros and cons of how AI can fit into someone’s process.
As someone who writes YouTube scripts for a job, I want to share some honest thoughts from the perspective of making the best script possible. I’m not here to doomsday, but I am here to share my expertise and explain the why instead of just saying “do this” or “no don’t do that.”
3 Reasons Why Writing Your Video Script Is Taking Too Long
“Writing” is really a multi-step process to create a 10+ minute video that has days of work behind it.
This is particularly true of any channel that concerns itself with accuracy so saving time isn’t about “cutting corners” but about making your process more efficient so you don’t sacrifice quality or credibility.
Ergo, if you feel like writing a video script is taking too long, it’s probably because something is up with your process.
How to Make Entertaining Educational YouTube Videos (That Don’t Feel Like a Lecture).
The educational niche on YouTube is a very interesting space where videos often struggle to find the balance between giving accurate information and entertaining an audience.
Good news is if your viewers are watching your educational content, they likely find enjoyment in that accurate information. They become one in the same, but if this was the only thing needed to keep viewers watching, then algebra lectures would be going viral.
How to Brief a YouTube Scriptwriter
So you’ve hired or are thinking of hiring your first YouTube scriptwriter, first of all, celebrate the milestone! This likely means your channel is growing and that you’re getting serious.
Hiring a writer will save you time, improve the quality of your content and help you stay consistent without burning out. Sounds pretty great.
But for all of those wonderful things to happen, you have to make sure your writer knows what to deliver and how you go about communicating this information can mark the difference between a great collaboration and one that struggles.
Let’s imagine two scenarios, A and B, both run educational channels and have the same voice and style. Let’s see how these two channels fare at briefing their writers and what effects that produces.
Spending too Much Time Researching Your Scripts? It Might be a Structural Problem.
You have a great video idea in mind, you sit down ready to get into it, start researching, and suddenly it’s a month later and you haven’t started on the script yet. If that sounds familiar, you are not the only one.
Of all the analysis channels I’ve worked with, around 2 in 5 say that research is a massive time sink in their video production pipeline. Scale that up to the 60 million YouTube creators out there and that 2 becomes around 17 million people with the same problem.
The Three Act Structure that Makes Great YouTube Video Essays
We’ve all watched a video essay that just felt a bit stale in the middle. Maybe it lost the plot a little bit. Maybe it got lost in explaining some research a bit too long. Maybe you even clicked off.
If you’re seeing a retention dip in the middle of your video, know that you’re not alone because this isn’t just a YouTube problem, it’s also a Hollywood problem. Difference is they found a methodology that is built to keep audiences engaged.
You’ve probably heard of three-act-structure, but what does it actually mean and how can it be applied to YouTube video essays to tell better stories that keep your audience engaged for longer?
The Reason Your Video Essays lose viewers (and how to fix it).
If you make video essays, you might notice that there’s a significant dip in retention around the middle of your video. I’ve certainly noticed it as a viewer and writer of this type of content.
Video essays generally have lower retention rates because they tend to go over 20 minutes. That’s mostly because of those pesky short attention spans we’re all dealing with today, but let’s look at the numbers.
A 5-10 minute video has around 30% retention beyond the hook. While a 20+ minute one only has 19.7%
How to Write a YouTube Script That Sounds Like You
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.
How I researched a YouTube video script with 270k+ Views.
About three months ago I had the opportunity to work with Projectionist, a film analysis channel run by the wonderful Cody Wagner. Like a lot of analysis channels, Cody found he was falling into research spirals that were deeply interesting but took up a lot of time.
If you have a similar problem, know that it is completely normal. Doing research takes a lot of time and it’s hard to figure out what you actually need to write the video.
So here’s the steps I took to help Cody research his video (it ended up getting 270k views and counting!)
How to Write a YouTube Hook That Actually Retains Viewers
About 72% of viewers click off YouTube videos within two seconds. This is a problem that even top performing YouTube channels have to deal with, especially as attention spans get shorter and shorter (those pesky phones!).
There are so many reasons why viewers could click off so your hook has to make a great case to convince them to stay.
That’s because the main body of your script could have tremendous value, but if that isn’t presented in a way that hooks them from the start (we’ll get into what that means for different niches in a bit), then they might click off before they get to that high-value part they would have loved.