0:01 Today we're talking about writing killer
0:03 scripts. If you want to learn how to
0:05 make content faster, this is going to be
0:07 one of the most helpful videos you ever
0:08 watch. Cuz the truth is, when it comes
0:10 to content, most people really struggle
0:12 with script writing hooks and
0:14 storytelling. And the reason is you
0:16 don't have a system for converting raw
0:19 ideas into winning scripts. Now, I've
0:21 studied thousands of the top creators
0:23 across every niche, and it turns out
0:25 they're all using the exact same script
0:28 writing process to make their videos way
0:30 faster. It's the same playbook I've
0:32 personally used to generate billions of
0:34 views and over a million followers. So,
0:35 in this video, I'm going to walk you
0:37 through the whole thing. This is the
0:38 four-step blueprint for building a
0:40 script writing system that will help you
0:42 make videos 10 times faster. And trust
0:44 me when I say this, nobody else has
0:46 given away this kind of stuff for free.
0:47 All right. Now, before I go through the
0:49 four-step system, it's really important
0:51 to understand why people get stuck with
0:52 script writing and storytelling. It
0:54 turns out there are four major blockers
0:57 that cause the blank page problem. These
0:59 four things are the reason why script
1:01 writing feels so difficult. Now, here
1:03 are the four script writing blockers.
1:05 The interestingness blocker, the hook
1:07 blocker, the storytelling blocker, and
1:08 the engagement blocker. Each of those
1:10 blockers corresponds to a question that
1:12 will pop in your head and make you
1:14 unsure of what to write. So, for the
1:15 interestingness blocker, the question
1:17 is, what is actually interesting about
1:19 this topic or story that I should
1:21 include? For the hook blocker, the
1:22 question is, what is the best way to
1:24 hook the viewer? For the storytelling
1:26 blocker, the question is, if I am able
1:28 to hook them, what is the best way to
1:30 tell the rest of the story to hold their
1:32 attention the entire time? And for the
1:33 engagement blocker, the question is, if
1:35 I'm able to hold their attention the
1:37 entire time, how can I make sure that
1:39 after they're done, they engage by
1:40 liking or sharing the video? Whether
1:43 you're a creator or a brand, these four
1:44 questions are going to be on your mind
1:46 every time you're trying to think
1:47 through how to tell a story. And when
1:49 you don't have an answer to any of those
1:51 questions, that's what holds you up and
1:53 causes the overthinking. So, what I've
1:55 done is built a script writing system,
1:57 really a framework that helps you
1:59 systematically think through each of
2:01 those questions to come to an answer
2:02 much faster. So, for the rest of this
2:03 video, I'm going to break down a bunch
2:06 of tactical tips for how to get through
2:07 each of those blockers. And then at the
2:10 end, I'll walk through my step-by-step
2:11 script writing process for how I
2:14 speedrun around the blank page problem.
2:15 All right, let's start with the
2:17 interestingness blocker. The very first
2:18 thing to tackle before you actually
2:20 start writing a script is to figure out
2:23 what makes the video interesting or
2:24 compelling. If you're making content,
2:26 you have to start with this step first.
2:28 Because if you don't have a set of facts
2:30 or an angle or a premise that's actually
2:31 interesting, none of the rest of the
2:32 script writing process really even
2:34 matters because you're going to be
2:36 optimizing for a boring concept. So,
2:38 this first part of the process before
2:40 you actually write the script is to jot
2:41 down a few bullets about what makes this
2:43 story interesting to you. Now, this
2:45 brings up a really key question. How do
2:47 we know which facts or nuggets to grab
2:49 that will make our version of the story
2:51 more interesting? In other words, is
2:53 there a formula for knowing when
2:54 something is going to be interesting to
2:57 others? And it turns out there is. I
2:58 call this the law of interesting.
3:01 Interestingness comes from shock value.
3:02 When you're making a video, whether it's
3:04 entertainment or education based, you
3:06 want to find key facts or opinions that
3:09 drive maximum shock. Now, shock value is
3:11 the distance between what someone
3:13 already knows about a topic and what you
3:15 tell them in the video. The greater this
3:17 distance, the greater the shock and the
3:19 more they will hold on to see why that
3:21 shocking claim might be true. For
3:22 example, I made a video about a Russian
3:24 engineer that built a fully functional
3:27 Iron Man suit in his garage. Now, when I
3:28 was researching this topic, I came
3:30 across a clip where the main engineer
3:32 said that he invented the world's first
3:34 personal hydrogen reactor, the glowing
3:36 thing that goes in Iron Man's chest. As
3:37 soon as I heard that, I thought, there's
3:39 absolutely no way that could be true.
3:41 How could a random guy in a garage build
3:44 a hydrogen reactor by himself? And that
3:46 right there, that curiosity shocked
3:47 based question that pops in your head
3:48 when you hear something you can't
3:50 believe, that's what you're going for.
3:52 My current belief was that there was a
3:54 0% chance this guy could have built a
3:57 hydrogen reactor. His claim was that he
3:58 did. The distance between those two
4:00 things is massive. And that distance
4:02 represents max shock, max
4:04 interestingness, and I had to stick
4:06 around and keep watching to figure out
4:08 if it were true. Now, knowing that, I
4:11 anchored my video around that detail.
4:12 And the video got 40 million views in 5
4:14 days. So, for you, when you're
4:15 researching a topic or just trying to
4:17 organize the facts you already have in
4:19 your head, you want to write down the
4:21 things that would drive maximum shock
4:23 based on what you think the viewer knows
4:25 or doesn't. So, here are the tactical
4:27 steps for doing that research process.
4:28 This is exactly what I do. I call it
4:30 idea development. When you research a
4:32 topic, you want to watch and read
4:34 everything you can and then assess every
4:37 fact you hear on a shock score of one to
4:39 100. Out of a 100 people, how many do
4:40 you think would have heard that thing
4:43 before or not? If your best guess is
4:44 about four out of five people wouldn't
4:45 have heard it, well then that's going to
4:48 be a shock score of around 80 out of
4:50 100. The goal is to find facts that are
4:52 true but also have a maximum shock
4:54 score. So as you find them, take those
4:56 facts and write them down as bullets on
4:58 your script document. And this works for
5:00 entertainment content like the Iron Man
5:01 example, and it also works for all
5:03 educational content. What do you know to
5:05 be true about this topic that most
5:06 people don't write those things down?
5:09 That's where true interestingness lives.
5:10 So, this first step, the gathering of
5:13 the facts, makes the research process so
5:14 much faster. Now, there's two ways you
5:17 can run this research process to mine
5:19 for the shocking facts. The first way is
5:20 that you could do it manually, where you
5:22 find videos and blogs, and you just read
5:24 all of them on your own and try to parse
5:25 out the different facts. Or you could
5:28 use the new sand castles.ai AI research
5:29 tool. And this is exactly what I do.
5:31 First, I find any reference links or
5:33 videos about the topic. I go to the
5:35 scripts tab in Sandcastles. I press new
5:37 script. I press notes. And then I drop
5:40 in any of those links or just a broad
5:42 context about the topic that I want to
5:43 make. Now, Sandcastles will
5:45 automatically write a V1 script. But I
5:46 just ignore that for now. Here's where
5:49 the real sauce is. Go down to the script
5:50 writing toolbar at the very bottom of
5:52 the page and click that first button on
5:54 the left. This is a research report that
5:56 was created based on the links and
5:58 context that I put in the notes. But
6:00 this isn't just a normal research
6:02 report. It was specifically created to
6:05 mine for interesting and shocking facts.
6:07 This report feature is basically a
6:09 shortcut for finding the most shocking
6:11 and interesting facts for any context or
6:13 links that you give. So, even if you
6:15 don't want to write the full script in
6:17 Sand Castles, which is totally fine,
6:18 this little research tool that's kind of
6:21 hidden is actually a super helpful way
6:23 to curate the shocking facts that you
6:25 can then use in your manual writing
6:27 process. So, those are the two ways you
6:28 can mine for interesting facts with a
6:30 high shock score. You can do it manually
6:32 just by watching all the sources or you
6:33 can do it automatically with the
6:35 Sandcastle's research report. Now, let's
6:36 zoom back out. At this point in the
6:38 script writing process, you now have a
6:41 dock with five to 10 bullets of the most
6:43 interesting and shocking facts about the
6:45 topic. And this will help us get past
6:47 the interestingness blocker because now
6:48 we have a process and a system for
6:50 curating the most interesting parts of
6:52 the story. Now it's time to actually
6:53 start writing the script and piecing
6:55 everything together. So let's move on to
6:57 step two. All right, the next most
6:59 important piece to focus on is the hook
7:00 blocker. And you guys are going to love
7:02 this one. Once you've curated the most
7:03 interesting aspects of the story, the
7:05 next question on your mind should be,
7:07 how do I hook the viewer? Now, we all
7:08 know the hook is the most important part
7:10 of the script. So, is there a formula
7:13 for writing a winning hook every single
7:14 time? Of course, there is. Now, I've
7:17 analyzed thousands of hooks across every
7:19 single niche. And it turns out there are
7:21 nine proven hook formats that tend to
7:23 work in every single category. If you're
7:25 stuck, the easiest way to solve for
7:27 writing a winning hook is just to use
7:29 one of these nine proven formats and not
7:31 over complicate it. All right. So, here
7:33 are the nine most effective hook
7:35 formats. You have secret reveal, case
7:39 study, comparison, question, education,
7:42 list, contrarian, personal experience,
7:44 and problem. Those are the nine. Now,
7:45 quickly, let me just go through a
7:47 oneline explainer of each of them so
7:49 that you can use these right after
7:51 watching this video. No gatekeeping
7:53 here, but to be honest, I could do a
7:55 whole video on just those nine hook
7:56 formats. So, if you want me to do a much
7:58 deeper dive where I dedicate a whole
8:00 video to those, break them down, do a
8:01 ton of examples, comment something like
8:03 nine hooks so I know that you guys want
8:04 that. Okay, here we go. This is the
8:06 quick breakdown of the nine proven hook
8:08 formats. Let's start with secret reveal.
8:10 The secret reveal hook works best when
8:12 you have some unknown insight or future
8:15 implication that the viewer might not
8:17 know. It teases the feeling that the
8:18 speaker knows something the viewer
8:20 doesn't. So, for example, Google just
8:22 released four free AI trainings that
8:25 make it way faster to learn AI. The
8:27 secret reveal format is great for news
8:29 coverage, product releases, or tactical
8:31 tips that have just been uncovered. All
8:33 right, next is the case study hook. This
8:35 is number two. The case study hook works
8:37 best when you're highlighting a brand,
8:39 person, or subject that achieved some
8:41 result in some unexpected way. For
8:44 example, Alex Hormosi just sold $100
8:46 million worth of books in 3 days using
8:48 this five-step method. Case study hooks
8:50 are great for breaking down a rapid
8:51 explanation for how X subject
8:54 accomplished Y result in Z method. Most
8:56 educational creators have a ton of
8:58 success with case study type hooks. All
9:00 right, third, we have the comparison
9:01 hook. The comparison hook is when you
9:03 instantly compare two or more versions
9:05 of something so you can illustrate the
9:07 optimal one verse the suboptimal. For
9:09 example, what's the difference between a
9:11 beginner creator versus an experienced
9:12 one. These are really great for breaking
9:15 down A versus B scenarios and creating
9:17 instant contrast between the ideal
9:19 desired state and the base one. All
9:20 right, fourth, we have the question
9:22 hook. The question hook is when you
9:25 explicitly ask a question to implant the
9:27 desired curiosity directly in the
9:29 viewer's mind. So, for example, can you
9:31 bake sourdough bread in under an hour
9:33 using only household ingredients? The
9:35 question hook is great for teeing up
9:38 challenge videos or directly asking a
9:39 question that is common from your
9:41 viewer. All right, fifth, we have the
9:43 education hook. The education hook
9:45 introduces a step-by-step process for
9:47 completing a single task, process, or
9:49 workflow. For example, here's the
9:51 easiest way to use ChatGBT to create
9:52 content. Typically, the education hook
9:55 is the precursor to a tutorial or some
9:57 kind of playbook. All right, sixth, we
9:59 have the list hook. The list hook
10:00 introduces an ordered set of items for
10:02 accomplishing a painoint or task. For
10:04 example, these are the five best
10:06 Premiere Pro editing templates that you
10:08 can use for free. List hooks are best
10:10 for plainly introducing a rapidfire list
10:12 of items. All right, seventh is the
10:14 contrarian hook. The contrarian hook
10:16 introduces a bold and contrarian take in
10:18 the very first sentence as a way of
10:20 grabbing attention. For example,
10:22 Jaguars's rebrand is one of the worst
10:24 design blunders in the history of the
10:26 world. Contrarian hooks are great when
10:27 you have a strong take that goes against
10:29 the grain and you're willing to frame
10:31 the entire video around it. And this
10:33 works especially well if that contrarian
10:35 take drives discussion in the comments.
10:37 All right, eighth is the personal
10:39 experience hook. The personal experience
10:41 hook introduces a personal story or
10:43 scenario, usually preceding a
10:45 storytelling type video. For example,
10:47 when I was in college, I use this sleep
10:49 technique to only have to sleep 3 hours
10:51 per night. Personal experience hooks are
10:52 best when you want to speak in first
10:54 person and frame up a story from your
10:57 point of view. And last, but certainly
10:59 not least, is the problem hook. The
11:01 problem hook introduces a specific pain
11:03 point or problem to set up a solution
11:05 response. For example, if you struggle
11:07 with acne, this is one obvious solution
11:08 that will clear it right up. Problem
11:10 hooks work best when you can agitate a
11:12 pain point that the viewer is already
11:14 aware of. Now, of course, not all nine
11:16 hooks are going to work in every
11:18 scenario, but in every scenario, I
11:20 guarantee one or two of these will be
11:22 the best bet of the nine. Now, once you
11:24 know these are the nine goated hook
11:26 templates, the questions then become,
11:27 how do I know which hook format to use
11:29 in what scenario? And then of course,
11:32 how do I take my chosen hook format and
11:34 write it so that it works for my topic
11:35 specifically? Let's tackle both
11:37 questions. The easiest way to decide
11:38 which of the nine hook formats you
11:41 should use is to study which hook
11:43 formats are already working for the best
11:45 performing videos in your niche. Now,
11:47 typically for every niche, there will be
11:48 one to two hook formats that just always
11:50 crush. And this is because certain
11:52 topics are better suited for certain
11:54 hook storytelling than others. So, just
11:56 pick the hook formats that are already
11:58 working for your niche and remix those.
12:00 Don't over complicate it. Now, the
12:01 easiest way to figure out which hooks
12:03 are best performing in your niche is to
12:04 go to Sandcastles, go to the channels
12:06 tab, and build a watch list of all the
12:07 top performing accounts. Go to the
12:10 videos tab, filter by that watch list,
12:12 sort by outlier score top down. Now,
12:15 you've got all the best videos in your
12:16 space from those accounts right there
12:19 for you. Click on each individual video
12:21 to get to the idea detail page. Scroll
12:23 down past the transcript and boom, right
12:26 there, we have the hook analysis for
12:28 you. This shows exactly which of the
12:30 nine hook types I just walked through is
12:32 being used on that video. It's
12:34 automatic. This makes it so easy for
12:35 you. You don't even need to watch the
12:37 video. If you just click into 20 or 30
12:39 of the top performing videos, there will
12:40 be a pattern. There always is. Now, if
12:42 you combine this datadriven pattern
12:44 matching approach on Sandcastles with
12:46 common sense, you'll easily be able to
12:48 figure out which hook formats work best
12:49 for your topic. Now, the second question
12:51 is, okay, once I pick the hook format,
12:53 how do I actually write it and tweak it
12:55 so that it works for my specific video?
12:56 And again, there are two ways to do
12:58 this. The manual way is to take the
13:00 literal word for word hook from the
13:03 outperformer, copy that down, paste it
13:05 in your doc, switch the words mad lib
13:07 style, and run with that. So, the way to
13:08 do this, go to Sandcastles, click into
13:11 the video, see the full transcript, copy
13:12 the hook word for word, and go from
13:14 there. Again, pretty easy, but that's
13:15 the manual process. You have to know
13:18 which words to switch mad lip style. The
13:20 other way, the automatic way is to again
13:21 use sand castles, but it's a different
13:22 feature. one that will automatically
13:24 write all the hook variants for you in
13:26 one click. So to access this, go back to
13:28 the scripts tab, go to the script you
13:30 just made, go all the way down to that
13:31 script writing toolbar at the bottom.
13:33 The third button, the one with the key,
13:36 click that. What you see are all nine of
13:38 the hook options written for you for
13:41 your topic automatically. Now again, you
13:42 might not want to use the Sandcastle's
13:44 generated version word for word. Take
13:47 that, copy it, paste it in your doc, and
13:48 tweak it from there. And I'll say this
13:50 again, you may not want to use Sand
13:52 Castles or any AI tool to write the full
13:53 script end to end because you don't like
13:55 how it reads. But these little pieces,
13:57 the research report, the hookwriter,
13:59 these little things help you figure out
14:02 puzzle pieces to add to your script
14:04 process to find the answer quicker. Now,
14:06 as a bonus on hooks, before I move to
14:08 the next step in this video, I just want
14:10 to quickly review the four hook
14:12 commandments. Once you write your hook,
14:14 screen for these four things to make
14:15 sure these are true, and your hooks will
14:17 perform much better. The four
14:19 commandments for hooks are alignment,
14:21 speed to value, clarity, and curiosity.
14:23 For alignment, hooks are actually three
14:26 parts. It's visual hook, spoken hook,
14:27 and text hook. It's not one component.
14:30 It's actually three. The visual, spoken,
14:32 and text hook must be aligned. Whatever
14:35 you say in the spoken hook has to match
14:36 what you're showing with the visual and
14:38 text. Now, the nine hook formats I just
14:40 went over, those are obviously the
14:41 spoken hook. That's what you write on
14:43 the script. That's what you speak. But
14:44 you should also be thinking about what
14:46 visuals and text you should show on
14:48 screen to complement the words you're
14:50 saying. Okay. Next, when it comes to
14:52 speed to value, the hook delivery must
14:55 be fast. Zero delay, zero fluff. If the
14:57 viewer only hears one sentence and you
14:59 stop the video there, is it clear what's
15:01 coming next or is it up in the air? It
15:02 must be clear. The third piece, when it
15:04 comes to clarity, the hook must clarify
15:06 what the video is going to be about.
15:08 Again, if the viewer only hears that
15:10 first sentence, are they clear about
15:12 what's coming or is it murky? Do they
15:13 not understand the words you're saying?
15:15 It must be clear. And then lastly is
15:18 curiosity. The hook must open a question
15:19 in the viewer's mind. This is the
15:21 curiosity loop concept. When you're
15:23 reading the hook back and you just read
15:24 the hook, does it make you want to keep
15:27 watching, keep reading, or not? So now
15:29 you have the nine proven hook formats
15:31 with a description of when you use each
15:34 one, and the four hook commandments,
15:36 kind of like filters or a checklist that
15:37 you should run your hook through once
15:39 it's written. If you want an even deeper
15:41 dive on hooks, I made three other
15:43 completely free videos that I'll link
15:45 below. I also recorded a 2-hour in-depth
15:47 training just on hooks. Literally
15:48 everything I know about hooks with a
15:51 37page notes guide that everybody who
15:53 takes the training gets. That's also
15:54 linked below. If you want to go crazy on
15:56 hooks, the answer's right there. It's in
15:57 the description. You don't need to watch
15:59 anything else. Okay. So, at this point
16:00 in the script process, let's just zoom
16:02 back out and orient where we are. We've
16:04 gone through two of the four steps.
16:07 First, we curated the five to 10 most
16:09 interesting facts about the story. And
16:11 second, we've now picked the hook format
16:13 and written the hook. If you're looking
16:14 at your script document, you now have
16:17 the body points and the hook done. Next,
16:19 we need to figure out how do we piece
16:21 those body points together to tell a
16:22 compelling story after the hook. Okay,
16:24 so the third blocker, remember, is the
16:26 storytelling blocker. And for this one,
16:28 you're stuck on this question. If I am
16:30 able to hook them, how do I tell a story
16:32 that's compelling enough to hold their
16:34 attention through the whole thing? And
16:36 the easiest way to solve the blank page
16:38 problem of writing the story is to start
16:40 with a story outline. I call this the
16:42 story structure. It's the way the story
16:44 flows after the hook. Now, listen, I'm a
16:46 nerd when it comes to this stuff. Just
16:47 like the hooks, I've analyzed thousands
16:49 of the top performing videos across
16:51 every niche. And there's also a proven
16:53 pattern for story structures. There are
16:55 seven winning story structures that tend
16:58 to work across every niche. And just
16:59 like hooks, I'm going to walk through
17:01 all seven, give you the sauce, and tell
17:02 you exactly how to use them. If you
17:03 don't know where to start when it comes
17:05 to structuring those facts into a story,
17:07 I would pick one of these seven. So, the
17:09 seven story structures are this:
17:12 breakdown, newscaster, case study,
17:15 explainer, listical, problem solver,
17:17 tutorial, and educational. Now, just
17:18 like we did for hooks, let's go through
17:20 a two to three sentence explainer of
17:22 each one. I'll break down when to use it
17:24 and what hooks to pair with each
17:26 different storytelling structure. Like I
17:27 said, nobody gives away this kind of
17:28 stuff for free. So, if you're liking
17:30 this, you know what to do. All right,
17:31 the first story structure is the
17:33 breakdown story structure. And the
17:35 breakdown story structure is really used
17:37 to explain any concept in building
17:39 blocks. Essentially, you're breaking
17:41 down some complex thing. Now, the
17:43 outline that you would use for breakdown
17:45 stories goes like this. First, you have
17:47 a hook. Then, you have some initial
17:50 context shock. Then, you have a block
17:51 explaining what happened or how it
17:54 works. Then, you have a block for why it
17:56 matters. And then, an outro. It's a five
17:57 block outline. The breakdown story
17:59 format is best for things like product
18:02 launches, general development or news,
18:06 new technology or analysisbased stories.
18:07 Now, typically the best hooks to use
18:09 when you're writing in a breakdown story
18:11 format would be the secret reveal, the
18:13 question, the comparison, or the
18:15 contrarian. Okay. Second, we have the
18:17 newscaster story structure. The
18:18 newscaster story structure is used to
18:21 explain a largely factual recounting of
18:23 an event. Typically, not as much
18:25 opinion, more facts. It's like a
18:26 journalist. It's kind of like a
18:27 breakdown, but it has more of a
18:29 journalistic fact-based slant. Now, the
18:31 outline for newscaster stories goes like
18:34 this. You have hook, you have the full
18:36 context of the story, you have an
18:38 optional extremely short take or
18:40 analysis section, optional, and then you
18:42 have an outro. So, it's three or four
18:44 pieces. And like I said, newscaster
18:45 stories are typically best for
18:47 journalism or sharing the news. Now,
18:48 typically the best hooks to use if
18:50 you're trying to write in the newscaster
18:53 format would be secret reveal, question,
18:55 comparison, contrarian, or problem.
18:57 Okay. Third, we have the case study
18:59 explainer story structure. The case
19:01 study explainer story structure, that's
19:02 a mouthful, is used whenever you're
19:04 trying to educate a viewer on some
19:06 blueprint or framework or process that
19:08 was used to achieve some outcome in some
19:10 way. Now, the outline for case study
19:13 explainers is hook. the framework, which
19:15 is typically two to four pieces breaking
19:18 down in succession the framework used
19:20 and then the outro. So, it's really
19:21 three blocks, but that framework block
19:23 is like the whole story. It's there's
19:24 many blocks between. Case study
19:26 explainers are best when you're trying
19:28 to teach skills or break down some
19:30 framework quickly. And typically, the
19:32 best hooks used when you're doing a case
19:34 study story would be the case study
19:36 hook, a question hook, or a comparison
19:38 hook. All right, the fourth story
19:40 structure out of seven is the listical.
19:42 Now, the listical story structure is
19:43 pretty straightforward. It's when you're
19:44 trying to educate a viewer using an
19:47 ordered list of items. And the outline
19:49 is very simple. It's hook. It's the
19:51 list, whatever the three to five items
19:53 would be, and then it's the outro. Now,
19:54 listicicals are best used when you have
19:57 a mutually exclusive list of atomic
19:59 units, things that you can break apart
20:02 in separation and just go one after the
20:03 next. Typically, for listical videos,
20:05 you use the list hook, but you can also
20:07 use the problem hook as well. All right.
20:09 Fifth, we have the problemolver story
20:11 structure. And the problem solver story
20:13 structure, again a tongue twister, I
20:15 need simpler names, is very common. It's
20:17 when you're trying to agitate a pain to
20:19 tee up some solution. Problem,
20:22 agitation, solution. Now, the outline, I
20:23 kind of just alluded to it, would be
20:25 hook, problem, and you can agitate the
20:28 problem in there, solution, outro.
20:29 Problem solver stories are best when
20:30 you're trying to lead with the problem.
20:32 It's a very simple structure, but it's
20:34 executed very well, especially for
20:36 educational or product use cases. Now,
20:37 typically for problem solver stories,
20:39 you're going to use the problem hook.
20:40 You could also use the question hook or
20:42 the contrarian hook. All right. Sixth,
20:44 we have the tutorial. And the tutorial
20:46 story structure is really used as like a
20:48 ride along or a recap of an experiment
20:51 or some walkthrough of a system. This is
20:52 what you'd want to use if you were
20:54 explaining a step-by-step process for
20:56 how to do something. Now, the outline
20:58 for tutorial stories, very simple, is
21:00 hook, the tutorial, which again is like
21:03 a listbased step-by-step flow, and then
21:05 the outro. So it's three blocks, but
21:07 that middle block is kind of expanded.
21:09 As I mentioned, tutorials are best for
21:11 education, kind of explaining uncharted
21:12 territory, trying to break down a
21:14 complex system, things like that. Now,
21:15 the difference between a tutorial and a
21:17 list is that for tutorial, you have a
21:19 series of steps, but they all go in
21:21 succession leading to one outcome. They
21:23 don't really live alone. The steps can't
21:24 live on their own. For list, every
21:26 single unit, every single piece in the
21:28 list can live on its own. They're kind
21:30 of like separate things. They can all
21:32 help lead to the same outcome, but
21:34 they're all separate. So it's contingent
21:36 steps on each other and then separate.
21:37 Now the difference between a tutorial
21:39 and a case study story structure again
21:41 tutorial is step by step leading to one
21:44 outcome. The case study is less howto
21:46 steps and more analysis or reflections
21:49 of pieces that led to that outcome. So
21:50 they're two sides of the same coin. All
21:52 right. Number seven is educational or
21:54 personal story. And this story structure
21:57 is really used for storytelling from the
21:58 first person perspective. Anytime you
22:00 want to lead with the creator's point of
22:02 view, you're going to use this personal
22:04 story structure. The outline for this is
22:05 very simple. It's hook, personal,
22:07 experience, story, actually telling the
22:09 story, start, middle, end, and then
22:10 outro. So, it's three blocks, but again,
22:13 that middle block is a bit expanded. And
22:14 educational stories, like I said, are
22:16 used to illustrate firsterson learnings.
22:18 Typically, they lead to motivation,
22:20 inspiration, something of that nature.
22:22 Now, the best hook to use for these
22:23 would be the personal experience hook.
22:24 You could also use the problem or
22:26 contrarian hooks. All right. Now that
22:28 you know the seven story structures, and
22:30 apologies, that was a mouthful. The two
22:31 questions that pop in your head again
22:33 are the same thing. How do I know which
22:34 one to use? And once I pick one, how do
22:37 I write my story for my topic? How do I
22:39 tweak it so that it works for me? Let's
22:40 tackle both of those. First, how do you
22:42 know which one to pick? The best way to
22:44 know which one to pick is the exact same
22:45 process I talked about when we were
22:47 going over hooks. You want to study the
22:50 best performing videos in your niche to
22:52 figure out how they tell stories for
22:54 those viewers in those topic areas and
22:57 then pick those one to two story
22:58 structures that work over and over. Now,
23:00 if you're a script writing guru, you can
23:01 make any of the story structures work
23:03 for any topic. But if you're not and you
23:05 just want to take the easy route, pick
23:07 what's working for your topic and just
23:10 use that. It couldn't be any easier.
23:11 Now, I will say this, the winning story
23:13 structures are going to vary niche to
23:15 niche. But for every niche, there are
23:17 going to be one or two standouts that
23:18 always seem to work. And again, that's
23:20 because the psychology of consuming
23:22 different topics varies. And so, certain
23:24 storytelling methods are just more
23:26 effective in certain areas than others.
23:27 Now, the easiest way to figure out what
23:29 the winning story structures are in your
23:31 niche is to go to sandcastles.ai, I
23:33 build a watch list of all the top
23:35 accounts using the channels tab. Go to
23:37 the videos tab. Filter the videos by
23:40 that watch list. Sort by outlier score
23:42 top to bottom. Click into each
23:44 individual video. Scroll down and look
23:47 at the story structure analysis section.
23:48 We literally put which of the seven
23:51 they're using on every single video. And
23:52 really all it takes is going in maybe
23:55 once a week, clicking on the top 20 or
23:57 30, and just noticing the pattern. There
23:58 is always a pattern. You will see it
24:00 right away. Now, of course, the last
24:01 question is once I pick which of the
24:03 seven to use, how do I actually tweak
24:05 and write it for my topic? And again,
24:06 you can either do this the manual way or
24:08 the automated way. And you're probably
24:09 sensing a theme here. I'm trying to give
24:11 you all the tools for how to do these
24:13 steps as fast as possible while still
24:15 maintaining quality. But if you like the
24:17 manual art of script writing, I'm still
24:19 breaking down the why and the how so you
24:21 can do it by hand. Now, when it comes to
24:23 story structure and actually writing the
24:25 story, both manual and automated benefit
24:27 significantly from using sand castles.
24:29 Now, on the manual side, this is what I
24:30 would do. I would go to the script tab
24:31 in Sand Castles. I would go down to that
24:33 script toolbar that we've been going to
24:36 the second button. Now, click that. That
24:38 is now all seven story structures laid
24:39 out for you. Now, if you want to do this
24:40 manually and you don't want to use sand
24:42 castles to write, which is completely
24:44 fine, click the copy button on whichever
24:47 structure you like. Paste that into your
24:49 doc or paste it into chat GBT. And that
24:51 is now the outline that you can use. And
24:52 what you're going to do is just start
24:54 slotting in facts that you've already
24:55 pulled those interesting and shocking
24:58 facts into each bucket to logically tell
25:00 the story from beginning to end. Now,
25:01 obviously, there is an art to slotting
25:03 in those facts. Obviously, there's an
25:05 art to the writing itself, and I don't
25:07 have enough time in this video to go
25:09 into every nuance of the writing. If you
25:10 want me to make a detailed breakdown on
25:12 that, put that in the comments so I
25:14 know. This is the shortcut for the
25:15 writing. Imagine you were telling this
25:17 story to a friend. You now know the
25:18 facts you want to tell them. You now
25:20 know how you would intro the story with
25:22 the hook. How would you order those
25:24 facts so they would understand it the
25:26 most? What order do they go in? That's
25:27 how you should think about sequencing
25:29 the actual writing itself. If you want
25:31 to watch a live breakdown where I script
25:34 and kind of voice over exactly why I
25:36 write each word the way I write it, I'll
25:37 link that video below, too. Now, of
25:39 course, if you want to avoid all the
25:41 headache of the manual part and trying
25:43 to figure out how to sequence the steps,
25:45 you can use the automated flow, which is
25:47 going into Sandcastles, picking which of
25:49 the structures you want to use, and then
25:50 one click, we'll write it for you. And
25:52 again, if you don't like the way Sand
25:54 Castles writes and you prefer Chachi or
25:56 Claude, that's totally fine. But having
25:58 access to the story structures, the hook
26:00 formats, and the research report, these
26:02 little pieces make it way easier to
26:05 drive whatever process, manual, chat, or
26:07 claude, you prefer. I'll be honest, I
26:09 personally don't really like an AI
26:11 program writing my scripts end to end.
26:13 It just feels very artificial. But what
26:15 I do like using is different pieces here
26:17 or there to kind of stitch together my
26:20 90% draft as quick as I can and then I
26:22 manually edit from there. And before we
26:23 move on and finish the video, the reason
26:25 why it feels like sand castles is always
26:27 the answer for doing this faster is
26:30 because it is. I built sand castles
26:32 specifically to make short form video a
26:33 thousand times faster. all these
26:35 formulas, all these playbooks, all these
26:37 learnings. Nobody else is on the cutting
26:38 edge like I am. If you like the way I
26:41 explain this stuff, I am taking my brain
26:43 and distilling it into Sandcastle so
26:45 that you can use it on demand whenever
26:47 you want. That's why it feels like it is
26:48 the answer because it is. Okay, let's
26:50 zoom back out. At this point, we have
26:52 now covered three of the four major
26:54 script writing blockers. First, we broke
26:55 down how to mine for the most
26:57 interesting facts in the story. And then
26:58 we covered the top hook formats and the
27:00 top storytelling structures that you can
27:02 use to start piecing together those
27:04 facts. And we covered those in that
27:05 order because this whole video was about
27:07 how can you write scripts faster. And
27:10 once you have structures and templates
27:12 that allow you to know how to write the
27:13 hook and how to write the story, this
27:15 process gets way quicker. Now, the last
27:17 blocker is the engagement blocker. And
27:19 the question in your mind should be, if
27:20 I'm able to hook them, if I'm able to
27:22 hold them the whole time, how do I make
27:23 the story good enough to where they
27:25 actually engage and they like or share
27:26 with a friend? And I'll give you this
27:28 one super fast. The way to ensure the
27:30 engagement happens is to increase the
27:32 chances that an emotional transfer
27:35 happens via some sort of payoff. Now,
27:36 there are six buckets of emotions that
27:39 you could use content to drive. You've
27:42 got awe or inspiration, amusement or
27:45 humor, excitement or joy, anger or
27:48 outrage, surprise, shock or curiosity,
27:50 and then sadness or empathy. Those are
27:52 the six. The greater the transfer of
27:54 emotion that your video has, A, the more
27:56 the viewer will like it because the
27:58 dopamine release, and B, the higher
27:59 chance there is that they'll share it
28:00 because they want to transfer that
28:02 emotion to someone else. Now, the best
28:04 way to ensure this emotional transfer
28:06 happens is to be very intentional as
28:08 you're writing on the emotion that you
28:10 want to drive. And so, what I like to do
28:12 is write the desired emotion that I'm
28:14 going for at the top of my page as a
28:16 reminder when I'm writing so that I can
28:18 use that as a filter. So, those are the
28:20 four key steps to go from a blank page
28:22 to a finished script really fast and
28:24 avoid the four big script writing
28:26 blockers. Step one, curate the highest
28:29 shock, facts, takes, and opinions to
28:31 ensure max interestingness of the video.
28:33 Step two, choose a proven hook structure
28:35 and make sure your hook satisfies the
28:37 four hook commandments. Step three,
28:39 choose a proven story structure. And
28:41 step four, ensure the emotional transfer
28:43 happens. Now, let's recap the
28:44 step-by-step system that you should use
28:46 for your script writing to ensure that
28:48 you can get through it as fast as
28:49 possible. The first step is that I'm
28:51 researching and I'm writing down as many
28:53 bullets as I can that are interesting
28:55 about the topic. And again, the way I
28:56 look for those is that I'm documenting
28:58 anything that shocks me based on the 1
29:00 to 100 shock factor score. You can do
29:02 this manually or you can use the
29:04 Sandcastle's research report feature to
29:06 do this much faster. Second, based on
29:08 the facts I find and the general
29:09 approach I want to take, I'm going to
29:11 write my desired emotion at the top of
29:13 my paper to make sure that I'm using
29:15 that as a filter for the rest of the
29:17 process. Third, I'm picking the hook
29:18 structure that I want to use, and I'm
29:20 doing that by using sand castles to
29:22 figure out which hook structures are
29:24 working the best for my topic and my
29:26 niche. I'm taking one of those hooks in
29:28 that structure, and then I'm tweaking it
29:30 and optimizing it for my specific video.
29:31 And of course, I'm ensuring that that
29:33 hook meets all four hook commandments
29:35 and that I have a good visual to pair
29:37 with it. Now, fourth, I'm picking the
29:39 story structure that I want to use to
29:41 write the rest of my script. To do this,
29:42 again, I'm looking at what has already
29:44 worked in my niche using the sand
29:46 castle's analysis process, and I'm
29:48 thinking about my own personal spin and
29:50 the facts I have at my disposal,
29:52 combining those to pick the right story
29:53 structure. I'm taking that story
29:55 structure. I'm writing the outline of
29:56 that structure on my page. And I'm
29:58 starting to think about how I can slot
30:00 different facts in. Just writing down
30:02 those sections, I'm telling you, is very
30:04 helpful in the flow. All right. Fifth,
30:05 I'm going to actually write the script
30:07 using that outline. And I know we didn't
30:09 talk about this piece as explicitly as
30:11 the others, but once you have the hook
30:13 format chosen, the shocking facts
30:15 pulled, and the story structure outline
30:17 decided, it's really just about layering
30:19 the facts in order, and adding
30:21 transitions to smooth it out. That's
30:22 really all you have to do to write a
30:24 banger script. And again, I will go
30:25 through a much deeper dive on the
30:27 writing in the future. If you guys want
30:28 that, just comment below. All right.
30:30 Then lastly, I'm going to read through
30:31 the finished script and I'm going to
30:33 have that emotional filter in my mind
30:36 again. And I'm just gut-eing if I want
30:38 anger shock. Did this script written
30:41 drive anger shock in me or not? It's the
30:43 last check. If not, I would change the
30:44 wording and phrasing to make that
30:47 emotion more visceral. Now, at the end,
30:49 once I have all six of those things
30:50 completed, there's a quick four-step
30:52 checklist, four questions really, that
30:54 I'm asking myself to make sure that it's
30:56 finished. This is what I'm asking. Is
30:58 this story interesting? Is this story as
31:00 compressed as it can possibly be? Does
31:03 this hook actually hook me on its own?
31:05 And what emotion do I feel when I finish
31:07 reading? If I can get through those four
31:08 questions, just based on the text script
31:10 alone, I know I'm good once I add
31:11 visuals, cuz they'll only make it
31:12 better. All right, guys. That is all
31:14 I've got for this video. This was a
31:16 master class on how to write scripts 10
31:18 times faster. Obviously, the only way
31:20 you're going to get the script writing
31:22 from 60 minutes down to 60 seconds is if
31:24 you use an AI tool from end to end. But
31:25 if you're like me, you probably feel
31:27 like the AI writing just doesn't hit.
31:29 It's just not there at the quality you
31:30 want. What I found to be the fastest
31:32 while still maintaining effective
31:33 quality and being able to go viral
31:36 whenever I want is using the system and
31:38 automated pieces where it makes sense,
31:39 but then stitching together and editing
31:41 manually. That combo seems to work the
31:43 best. And I'm telling you, using sand
31:45 castles to find the proven outliers,
31:47 both for hooks and story structures,
31:50 that alone will save you 10x the time
31:51 when you're trying to figure out how to
31:53 write the script. As always, guys, I'm
31:54 trying the absolute best to make it
31:56 easier for you to make better content.
31:57 That's my whole mission with this
31:59 channel. Whether you're a creator or a
32:00 business owner, this script writing
32:02 framework should help you a ton. Keep me
32:03 posted in the comments if you guys like
32:05 this one. I really do read every comment
32:07 and use it as a guide for what videos to
32:09 make next. So, if you want something or
32:10 you're confused, please leave a comment
32:12 and let me know what I should cover. And
32:13 remember, if you're a business owner and
32:15 you're still watching, I built a free
32:17 community specifically for you
32:18 entrepreneurs trying to get better at
32:21 content. We have 31,000 business owners
32:23 in there. There are 60 free trainings
32:25 just like this. Everybody's working
32:26 together to help each other. Everyone's
32:28 giving feedback. It's honestly a great
32:29 vibe. If you're an entrepreneur and you
32:31 want to join that, it's completely free.
32:32 I've got an invite link below. Until the
32:34 next one, we will see you guys then. Peace.
