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How to write a script so good viewers can’t stop watching | Kallaway | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: How to write a script so good viewers can’t stop watching
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Core Theme
Effective video content relies on strong scriptwriting and storytelling, with three common mistakes – poor story flow, lack of comprehension, and slow delivery of value – hindering viewer engagement and performance.
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Today we're talking about script writing
for your videos. If you want your
content to perform better, you need to
improve your script writing and
storytelling. Now look, I've studied
literally thousands of videos. And it
turns out if your scripts are not
working, there's three massive mistakes
you might be making. If you solve for
these three things, your retention and
views will skyrocket immediately. These
are the three biggest script writing
mistakes holding back your videos with
tactical examples and tips for how to
fix each of them. By the way, I'm
Callaway. I have a million followers.
I've done billions of views and content
is all I do all day long. All right, the
first script writing mistake that so
many people make is writing with bad
story flow. And what I mean by story
flow is that the flow of the points in
your story is not clear enough or easy
enough for the viewer to follow. In
other words, it's hard for the viewer to
stay hooked throughout because you're
adding all this extra stuff that doesn't
need to be there. This is called the
story flow problem. Now, to help
visualize the concept of story flow,
think about it like this. When you're
writing a script to tell a story, you
want there to be a clear through line
that people can follow to get from the
beginning to the end. You give context,
introduce some conflict or question,
more context, more conflict or question
all the way through until an ultimate
resolution. Now, the story does not need
to have a straight predictable line
down. That would be way too boring. But
there needs to be a clear through line
from beginning to end that the viewer
can follow to finish the story
logically. This happened, then this
happened, but this happened, so this
happened. There needs to be a logical
flow. A story flow problem is when that
line connecting the plot of the story is
broken because you added things in that
have nothing to do with the main
premise. Extra details, disconnected
tangents, broken plots, distractions.
There are all sorts of elements that
people throw into the story that
actually make it harder to understand.
And this is a super common problem that
trips up a lot of people. So, pay close
attention to this. I'm going to explain
exactly how to assess when you're making
this story flow mistake and the tactical
solves to fix it. And by the way, when I
talk about this stuff, I use the words
script writing and storytelling a bit
interchangeably. In this case, they mean
the same thing. Script writing is just
writing down the words that you
ultimately tell for your story. Okay, so
so far we walked through what the story
flow problem actually is. It's when you
throw a bunch of extra junk that makes
it harder for the viewer to get through
from beginning to end. Let me give you a
practical example of this in real time
so you can understand what I'm talking
about when I say story flow. Imagine
that I was telling you a story that went
like this. One day there was a prince
walking through the forest. He was on
his way to find a house in the woods so
he could visit the sorceress. With him
he had his trusty steed, a horse, and
several other woods animals that became
his friends. The fox, the goat, and the
raccoon. You see, when he was raised, he
was taught to love animals. He spent a
lot of time in the stables and in the
woods training them and learning to
communicate. His favorites were always
the horses because they were so strong
and powerful, and that's why he walked
with one. Now, he had been walking in
the forest for several hours when he and
his group of animals wandered upon a
strange looking tree. All right, you see
what happened there? You were on a clear
path. The prince walking to a house in
the forest with animals. Clear path. But
then I veered you off that path to throw
in all these unnecessary details about
the prince's background and loving
animals and working at the stables.
These are unnecessary details that
didn't need to be there based on the
purpose of this plot. And what this does
in practice is that it caused your brain
to hop storylines. We went from the
journey in the forest to his background
in a flashback. Simply put, a percentage
of people listening lost connectivity to
the original thread. And the problem
with that is that it makes it much
harder for me to get everybody else back
to that original plotline because now
you have to remember the details that I
said a while ago. Great storytelling is
like hypnosis. You want the viewer or
listener to forget where they are and
get fully immersed in the one single
plot you're focused on. The more red
herrings or unnecessary details you
throw in, the more fragile and surface
level that hypnosis becomes. And the
more that hypnosis breaks, the more
people that churn out of your video
because of confusion and the worse it
does. Now, you might be thinking
something like this. Listen, crazy guy
that waves his hands around. I'm a tax
accountant. I sell tax services to small
business owners. What does this have
anything to do with me getting more
small business owners to pay for my tax
services? And that's a great question.
The answer is that you also are
struggling with this story flow problem
in your content without even knowing it.
Because when you make a piece of content
and you're writing a script, your job is
to get your potential buyer into that
hypnotic state. If you are able to hook
them and get them to start going down
the rabbit hole of whatever you're
saying, the worst thing you can possibly
do is throw some detail in that breaks
them from the hypnosis. Because when you
throw extra details in, that creates a
story flow problem. Now, the reason
people make this mistake and throw in
all these extra details, makes a lot of
sense when you think about it. When you
start talking about a topic you're
excited about, especially when you know
a lot about it, people tend to get over
excited and share more than necessary
because they want to prove that they
know stuff. Most people think more is
always better, but that's actually not
the case when it comes to script writing
and storytelling. Because the problem is
adding extra unnecessary details is kind
of like throwing barrels at someone
that's trying to walk down the sidewalk.
It forces them to look, jump, react, and
distracts them from the walk that
they're actually on. Okay, so the big
question is, how do we fix this problem
and improve your story flow? The good
news is the tactics for this are
actually very simple. After you write
your script, I want you to read back
through line by line. The common advice
is that after you read the first line,
you want to gut check if you're curious
enough to want to go to the second line.
And that's super helpful for
comprehension. But I want you to add one
more question to yourself on top. I want
you to read every single line and ask
yourself this. Is this line a necessary
piece of context or an intentional step
in the logic flow I'm trying to make to
get someone's understanding of the story
to go up? Or is it a distraction and an
unnecessary detail? If you're talking
about tax strategies for saving money,
don't also go on a super long tangent
about some new tax bill and the politics
that got it enacted. Save that for
another video. See, storytelling and
script writing is a lot like taking a
test when you were a kid. When you were
younger, they would give you a word
bank, but intentionally put a bunch of
extra words that you weren't supposed to
use. It's the same thing here. Your job
as a script writer or storyteller is not
to use every word or fact at your
disposal. You're only supposed to use
the ones that are necessary to maximize
comprehension. That whole process I just
described is called improving your story
flow. And I guarantee if you add that as
a layer towards the end of your script
writing, your retention will go way up.
All right, the second major script
writing mistake is called the
comprehension problem. And for this one,
I'm going to share a ton of tactical
improvements to your scripts that will
help you immediately. Here's the
reality. If the viewer does not
understand the words you're saying in
the script, they're never going to get
immersed in the story. They have to
understand what you're saying. So, your
job as the storyteller is to communicate
your points in a way that retains 100%
of the meaning behind the words that
you're saying. See, most people think,
especially with educational content, the
goal is to demonstrate how much more you
know than the person that's watching.
And the logic is because when they
realize how big of a deficiency they
have, they'll pay you to try to close
it. But this is actually the wrong
approach. People do not feel good when
they feel dumb. Your job with content is
to make them feel smart. So the truth is
the goal is not to demonstrate how much
more than them you know. The goal is to
demonstrate how big of a gap you can
help them close on that piece of content
as a demonstration for how you're going
to help them. And that's all about them
actually understanding what you're
saying. This is why so many people like
this channel. I spend an enormous amount
of time compressing my complex ideas
into the simplest form so that everyone
can understand them. I call this process
atomic messaging. If you want your
scripts to perform better and people to
actually watch, follow, subscribe, and
buy, you need to learn how to do the
same thing. Compress your words for
maximum comprehension. Okay, so the
question is tactically, what does that
actually look like? I'm going to give
you five super tactical, quick hit ways
to increase the comprehension of your
scripts. The first is to use simpler
words. Big words are only valuable to
the people that know them. To solve for
this, you should just write with simpler
words. You want to target a sixth grade
vocabulary, nothing more. Again, people
are not buying you because you know
words they don't know. They're buying
from you because they're trusting that
they will understand the words you do
say and that that will help them close
the gap on a painoint. Now, the easiest
way to simplify your words to a sixth
grade reading level is to actually be in
sixth grade. That was a joke. The second
easiest way is to just put your script
in Claude and tell it to rewrite the
whole thing in a sixth grade reading
level without removing the meaning or
examples you used. Now, the second way
to increase comprehension is to use
fewer words. And by this, I mean shorter
sentences. Most people have weak
attention spans and below average brain
function. That's just the truth. The
more words you say per sentence, the
more they have to store, remember, and
then think back to connect with the rest
of what you say. It's just more load on
the brain. Make this easier for them by
using shorter, punchier sentences. You
wouldn't speak in a run-on sentence, so
don't write in a run-on sentence. Quick,
short, punchy staccato. That's what you
want. Now, the third way to increase
comprehension is to use simpler and
clearer phrasing. You want to use active
voice. The dog jumped instead of passive
voice. The jumping was done by the dog.
Again, Chad GBT or Claude will solve
this for you in one click. It really is
a cheat code for writing. The fourth way
to increase comprehension is to restate
things twice. The second time saying it
in the most rudimentary or simple way
possible. See right there, I went to use
the word rudimentary, but not everybody
knows that word. So, I added or simple
after to make sure everybody could
understand. This is how you should
approach writing scripts. It's not that
I have the world's biggest vocabulary. I
have to actively reduce it down to the
simplest, lowest common denominator to
make sure everybody can understand
everything I'm saying. The truth is,
making content is actually pretty hard
for smart people with big vocabularies
because they struggle to dumb themselves
down. It's a muscle they've never used
before. The juice in making content is
the ability to do this on demand. It's
called distillation. Lastly, the fifth
tip that seems to help comprehension is
by naming things. You'll notice I do
this a lot. Atomic messaging, story
flow. These are terms that I just made
up, but I wanted to put a stake in the
ground around my frameworks and concepts
so it's easier for people to understand.
People can relate to a single word name
more than a long definition. So, try to
name your frameworks and concepts, and I
guarantee the recall will go up. All
right. Now, before I go on to the last
script writing mistake, and this is a
huge one that almost everyone struggles
with. If you're watching this video and
you're a business owner trying to get
better with content, I built a free
community designed to help you
specifically. It's called Wavy World. We
have over 27,000 other entrepreneurs all
helping each other try to get better at
content. We've got tutorials, guides,
frameworks, all types of stuff. I just
made it because I wanted people to get
better. If you want to join, it's
completely free. There's a link below in
the description. All right, the third
and final big script writing mistake
that people are making is the speed to
value problem. And the name on this one
kind of gives it away. Most people that
make content are not getting to the
value or the mention of value quick
enough before the viewer bounces. Now,
the obvious tactical solve here is to
get to value quicker. But let me explain
what getting to value actually means.
The truth is people are watching videos
for value. Either they want
entertainment value or they want
educational value. But either way, they
want to walk away knowing their time was
well spent and they got something out of
it. The biggest difference between
traditional story formats like books and
movies and all the ones online on social
media is the amount of time you have to
communicate that there is value. The
traditional story follows a basic story
arc. Some beginning where some context
is set, some middle where conflict
occurs, and then some end where a
resolution happens. And this is because
with books and movies, they are made
assuming they have you captive for the
entire duration. You bought the book,
you bought the movie, so they can afford
to be long and drawn out and really
stitch the full story following that
arc. But on social media and online
content, this is not the case. You got a
lucky slot machine pool for your video
to show up in front of someone for free,
and you have to earn the right for them
to keep watching. Because of this, you
need to demonstrate value or incoming
value as soon as possible. Content is
basically a race to see if you can
signal value before they lose interest.
Now, it turns out there is a much better
script writing formula or approach to
making sure you have high speed to value
before they bounce. I'm going to walk
through exactly what that is right now.
All right, so the first piece is the
hook. And we all know the hook, but the
important part is that you want to do
two things. Establish context and then
aggravate the pain point or tease the
benefit in the first two to three
seconds. The best scripts are both clear
on the topic and tease the value
incoming allin one. And if you want the
full deep dive on all the mistakes and
ways to actually do the hook, I've made
a ton of double clicks on that, so you
can find those in the description. All
right. Now, after the hook, the next
section is the body. We'll call this the
first body. And once you establish the
context and the incoming value, you want
to follow that story flow process that
we talked about as the first point in
this video, layering on the additional
details, context, facts, and examples,
but only using ones that are absolutely
critical to create that smooth, clear
through line. Okay, so we've got hook
and then we have the first body. Now we
have the rehook. And this happens about
20 to 25 seconds into a short form video
and maybe 2 to 3 minutes into a YouTube
video. A rehook is the reagravation of
the painoint originally triggered in the
hook by showing that there's a better
solution still out there. Your goal with
the rehook is essentially to trigger
this in the viewer's brain. Hey, what I
said is good, but what's coming next is
great. This rehook opens a new loop and
then rehooks them. So, so far we have
the hook, we have the first body, and we
have the rehook. The next section is the
second body. And the second body is
repeating the same approach as the first
body. Clear story flow. Distilled
details, context, examples, anything
that's important to say so that they
have a clear flow through the story. And
you repeat this back and forth flow.
Rehook body. Rehook body. As long as you
have valuable context to say. For a
YouTube video, you might rehook four or
five times. For a short form video,
probably two rehooks at the most over a
60 to 90 second video. At the end, you
add the outro. And the outro is either
you summarizing the value stated or
extending the value ramp. You triggered
a painoint through the video. You didn't
quite have enough runway to get through
the full value, so you lead them to a
lead magnet or some dock where you can
give them more value off platform. This
is the general script writing flow for
maximizing speed to value. It's hook
where you say the value in the first 3
seconds. First body, clear story flow,
rehook, second body, etc. Outro. If you
follow that rough schematic broadly,
obviously there's a ton of nuance inside
there, that will make sure you're
triggering the value early, reminding
people of the value in the middle,
continuing to hit that until the end.
All right, guys, that's all I've got for
this video. We covered the three really
biggest script writing and storytelling
mistakes that are probably holding back
your content from performing better.
Now, as a summary, these were the three
mistakes we went through and the
tactical fixes for how to solve each
one. The first mistake or problem was
the story flow problem. And
specifically, this refers to when people
add too many additional details and the
through line of the story is broken or
jumpy. It's just not clear for the
viewer to be able to go from beginning
to end. The way to solve this is to
audit every line of your script after
you've written it. And really ask the
question, is this line adding a detail,
clarity, or direction that we want to go
in, or is it a tangent, confusing, and
distraction that we don't? Keep the
clear ones, delete the distractions, and
you'll be better off. Now, the second
mistake, which is a huge one, is the
comprehension problem. And this is
really the viewer not understanding the
word you're saying. They're confused and
then they bounce. Now, in this section,
if you go back and listen, I broke down
five specific tactics for how to
approach increasing the comprehension.
And lastly, the third mistake we covered
was the speedtovalue problem. And with
this one, the viewer is just not getting
a hit of the value or what the value is
going to be quick enough before they
bounce. To solve for this, you want to
follow the rough story outlined
approach. I don't even want to call it a
format because there are plenty of other
story formats that are more granular
that differ depending on the type of
video you're making. What I described is
more a layer, an approach, an
architecture for how you should think
about speed to value. Hook, mention the
value. Body, make it clear. Rehook,
re-trigger the value. Second body, make
it clear. Outro, summarize or extend the
value. That's more of an architecture
for how many times you should infuse
value into the story. Now, as always
guys, the reason I made this channel is
because I'm trying to make it easier for
business owners to make better content,
get more leads, and grow their business.
That's all I'm doing. I give away all
the game for free on this channel
because I really want to see more people
win that are small business owners. If
that's you and you think you would
benefit from being able to make better
content and get more leads for free,
make sure to subscribe, but also join
Wavy World. It's the best place to
aggregate all entrepreneurs that help
each other with content. It's free and
there's a ton of helpful stuff in there.
All right, that is all we've got for
this one. We will see you on the next one.
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