YouTube Transcript:
How To Write A Killer Script That Keeps Viewers Hooked

today we're talking about writing killer
scripts the reason winning creators go
viral so often is because of their
script writing you might have a great
video idea but how do you actually write
a script with a compelling story that
keeps people hooked the entire time this
is an art I've analyzed hundreds of the
top creators across every Niche and they
all run the exact same script writing
process so in this video I'm going to
break it all down this is the proven
five-step framework for how to write
killer scripts that keep viewers hooked
by the way I'm Callaway I've done over a
billion views I have a million followers
and this stuff is all I do all day long
all right let's dive in now before we
get into the script writing framework
there is a critical first piece that you
have to understand and this alone will
level up your script writing in a
massive massive way winning on social
media is all about hacking human
psychology this is the game within the
game it is the most important building
block in content now content psychology
really boils down to one single
principle expectations vers reality
expectations are what people think is
going to happen reality is what actually
happens when reality beats expectations
and things go better than expected
people are happy they keep watching and
you win but when expectations beat
reality and things go worse than
expected people are not happy they stop
watching and you lose it really is that
simple this give and take is why you
feel so good after giving a public
speech because your expectations are
super low cuz you think you're going to
bomb and then after you go and it's fine
you feel great because reality Beats
meet expectations now I start here
because understanding this expectation
vers reality psychology concept will
influence every decision you make when
you're writing a script that really is
where the sauce lies it is the black
magic that makes all this stuff really
work and if you understand that the
script writing process that I'm about to
go through becomes way easier okay so
these are the five script writing steps
in the process number one is packaging
number two is outline number three is
intro number four is body and number
five is outro I write every single
script in this exact same order now
let's take each one quickly and break
down how to do it your job when you're
writing the script is to make sure the
first few lines of the intro confirm and
ideally beat their expectations set by
the title this is called click
confirmation it's one of the most
important principles to winning on
YouTube so if Mr Beast has a title that
says I spent 100 hours inside the
pyramids then right away in the first
sentence and ideally the first intro
he's going to show you and tell you that
he's in the pyramids this would meet
expectations now to exceed expectations
he would also add on something like I
have unprecedented access to explore
pieces that have never been explored
before and this takes base expectations
the pyramids and then beats them
unprecedented access this positive gap
of reality beating expectations hooks
the viewer and it turns out this is
exactly what Jimmy does in every single
video it's exactly what every winning
Creator does in every video so before
you write any script you need to have
your video packaging dialed so you know
what to put in the intro to get this
confirmation and the package of the
video is made up of the idea title and
thumbnail now the idea is a oneline
sentence describing what the video is
about more importantly this is the pain
point that you're trying to solve for
your ideal viewer Avatar or it's the
rabbit hole you're trying to create so
they go down the loop if you don't have
a good base idea that something they'd
actually want to watch it's going to be
so much harder to write a killer script
because they're not going to be
interested in it okay now next and most
important in this packaging is the title
it's critical that you have the title
established before you write the intro
I'm not going to cover how to write a
good title in this video because that's
a whole other psychology can of worms if
you guys are interested in that let me
know in the comments and I'll make a
video on titles but the most important
thing to know about the title is that
you're trying to trigger a click
curiosity Loop does the title alone get
the viewer curious enough about the
paino or problem that they cannot resist
clicking and they have to find out what
you have to say and also based on that
title what expectations should a viewer
have coming into the video if they did
click because slight tweaks in the title
wording can completely change the
incoming expectation and again the whole
point is to have reality beat
expectations you don't know what reality
should be with the click confirmation if
you don't know what that expectation is
now again if you're bad with titles you
could use tools like one of 10 vid IQ
spotter Studio view stats there's so
many tools that allow you to remix
titles and optimize them for YouTube
that's what I'd recommend I have a full
team that kind of does the ideas and
titles for me but if you don't have that
using one of these tools is a great way
to do it now when it comes to thumbnails
most YouTube experts will demand that
you have the title and thumbnail solved
before you even start writing this
script but I don't agree with this the
title for sure but I think it's okay if
you have the thumbnail loose but not
really dialed and that's because the
creative process and back and forth that
comes with the thumbnail can be a huge
inhibitor to Action Agency and
creativity when you're writing your
script if you have to wait and delay
constantly because you're waiting for
the thumbnail to write the script it's
just going to slow you down and so in my
opinion the title is a must a loose
thumbnail idea is fine that will get
dialed in over time all right let's move
on to step two of the five-step script
writing process which is outline now
before I start writing the actual script
I really like to have a bulleted outline
on the page first and this may seem
counterintuitive You' think You' do the
intro first and then the outline and
then the body why am I doing the outline
before the intro well my take is that
anybody can learn how to write a
compelling intro it's just a few Lego
bricks I'm going to go through it in a
second once you know this formula you
can easily print the intro so I know in
the back of my mind that I can solve the
intro the real Moe the real sauce of
videos that goes from good to Great is
having something actually unique
differentiated and novel to say in the
body of the video are your points
actually unique Could you actually beat
someone's expectations because your
reality is so good at what you're saying
now uniqueness in these points can come
from the actual tip itself the process
of distillation how you actually say the
tip or the example that you use to
explain what it is I find that writing
these in a quick outline bulleted first
is a great way to gut check if you
actually have something worth saying or
you're just summarizing and
regurgitating common things if you don't
have something worse saying that's not
unique but before you move forward and
waste time writing a script go research
more go watch other source material and
try to come up with more novel points I
think one of the reasons why my videos
work so well is because I'm saying
things that nobody else is saying I am
also distilling them down and using
different examples but I'm saying things
that I've never heard people say on
YouTube remember the goal with script
writing is to beat expectations with
reality if expectations are existing
based knowledge and you're just
repeating existing base knowledge you
will not be able to beat expectations
with your reality so tactically I like
to make a quick and dirty bulleted list
and just write this out and zoom out and
just think is this unique or not and
then for each point in the list I layer
on the what the why and the how the what
is what it is the why is why it matters
and the how is how it fits in the
overall puzzle of the story and again if
I don't have unique points in the
outline I'm not moving forward I'm not
making the video now it's important to
call out all of this the idea the title
the outline is all done before breaking
ground on the script itself this is the
measure twice cut once of content I try
to only make ideas that I feel like have
a chance to do well and if it's not
going to do well I don't make them I go
back to the research process okay let's
move on to step three which is the intro
now before I write the full body of the
script I start with the intro and my
ultimate goal after establishing The
Click confirmation is to build a
curiosity Loop you want to open a rabbit
hole in the viewer's mind that they just
can't help but go down each line should
make them want to go to the next line
now I have an intro hook framework that
works every time short form long form it
works every single time and you can just
copy it I'll give it to you this is
exactly how to do it okay so part one is
to give immediate context on what the
video is about this is so the viewer can
opt in and of course confirm the click
so for example in this video
specifically the title was how to write
a killer script that keeps viewers
hooked and the first three lines of my
intro were today we're talking about
writing killer scripts the reason
winning creators go viral so often is
because of their script writing you
might have a great video idea but how do
you actually write a script with a
compelling story that keeps people
hooked the entire time so this was Tor
made to establish the context and
immediately click confirm that the video
is about script writing and keeping a
viewer hooked you want to start by
bluntly stating this as quickly as
possible okay now part two is to
establish the common take or belief so
what I like to do is establish the
conventional belief on the topic people
will get more eager to listen when they
feel like you're talking about something
they care about the easiest way to build
this common ground is by restating the
common belief because chances are if
they struggle with this topic they also
know the common belief and that is their
belief so when you restate it it helps
connect in their mind that this is
something they should care about and it
also helps set up the contrast which is
critical in part three so for the intro
for this exact video I said this this is
an art and it's one of the hardest
things to learn when you're starting out
making videos again I'm doing this
because people want you to start out
confirming the belief they already
believe before you offer a way to change
it now the next part of the intro which
is critical is building a contrarian
take or contrarian approach against this
common belief and the only way to build
that contrast between the two is
actually to State the common belief
that's why you have to start there now
part three as I said is by creating
contrast by stating a contrarian
approach so you want to offer a
contrarian take or perspective that
contradicts that common belief and this
will stun them and hold them into
needing to hear what you have to say the
best way to exceed their expectation at
that EVR moment when they're first
listening to the intro is by stating the
common belief but then that you have a
contrarian approach that they may not
have heard before so in today's video
for the intro I wrote this but the good
news is there is a right answer I've
analyzed hundreds of the creators across
every Niche and they all run the exact
same script writing process this formula
has driven hundreds of billions of views
and it works every single time this is
me contrasting against the common belief
that script writing is Art I'm saying
it's not it's science there is a formula
and I have it now right away I've nailed
the clip confirmation and I've begin to
raise their expectations of what they
believe is possible in the video because
I offer a different solution than what
they've thought of before now the last
two steps can be done in either order
but you have to do two things one a Lish
proof for why they should trust your new
approach and two give them a plan an
ordered list or steps for how you're
going to do it so in today's video I
wrote this so in this video I'm going to
break it all down this is the proven
fstep framework for how to write killer
scripts that keep viewers hooked by the
way I'm Callaway I've done over a
billion views I have a million followers
and this stuff is all I do all day long
so in this case I started with my plan
and then I lay it on the proof right at
the end by the end of this intro
framework and I'm telling you it works
for every video you have the viewer Hook
Line and Sinker by the way I know this
is is a lot to take in in one shot if
you need help actually tactically doing
this I put together a free 5-day email
series which kind of breaks down more of
these Advanced strategies in a much
easier form to digest it's called The
virality Blueprint you can grab it at
virality blueprint.com all right step
four in the script writing framework is
the body of the script and so what is
actually happening in the viewer's brain
right at this moment as the viewer
watches the intro they're compiling all
the previous knowledge they had on the
topic plus combining it with the
promises that you're making in the intro
and their new expectation is that
they're hoping they will learn something
slightly different or better than what
they already knew so for example if I'm
making a video on storytelling and the
title is how to become a master
Storyteller and the intro is I'm going
to share six new unprecedented things
that will make you a master Storyteller
then the viewer has a pretty high
expectation because they're compiling
their mental database of all the things
they've learned about storytelling in
the past and they're using those as a
baseline knowledge set for what they
already know and so their expectation is
that one of my six things or all of my
six things are going to be new different
or better than what they currently know
that's how I would exceed their
expectations now at this exact moment to
really blow their expectations away the
first point in the body that I share the
first thing they hear after the intro
has to be amazing it has to be so good
that it blows their mind that's how you
really create this big gap between
reality and expectations and this is so
critical because if your first point of
the body of your video repeats something
they've already heard or is just not
that compelling immediately they will
get disappointed and they will lose
interest in the video This Is Why when
you watch a video that's just a
generalized summary regurgitating things
that you've already heard you usually
watch one or two points and then you
bounce maybe you'll see the first point
not think it's good scroll to the
description read the timestamps see if
there's anything unique and then usually
there isn't and you leave and this is
super common because creators usually
don't take enough time to come up with
unique different and better points in
the body of their videos if you really
think about it expectations are just the
viewers hope that they're going to learn
learn something new about the topic that
they don't already know and so if you
don't give them something new there's no
way you'll beat their expectations when
you don't beat their expectations they
leave this is why the first body point
of your video has to be something new
and different and my cheat code for this
which is not intuitive is to put your
second best body point in that first
slot I'm going to explain in a second
exactly why this works so well you would
think you'd want the best stuff first
because the viewers are decaying off the
video so why hold your best thing for a
second and here's why human brains work
in patterns if you show someone one
thing that's amazing they'll think it's
cool but if you show them two things
that are amazing especially if the
second thing is better than the first it
creates a subconscious pattern where
they have to stay to see the third
because they feel this value continuing
to drip up over time if you show your
best thing first and then your second
best thing is slightly worse it trains
the viewer subconsciously that the value
will be diminishing and it's not worth
staying but if you slightly increase
from 1 to two it creates this pattern
and they have to stay this is why most
music albums put their best songs in the
third third or fourth slot if you ever
wondered that why did the single The
Banger single with the billion streams
not go first on the album you would
think when you click the album and the
first track is the best one that would
make sense well usually the first track
is an intro but it's never the single in
the second slot why is that it's for the
same reason the second track is always a
great track but it's not the best track
and so when you listen to two and three
and four you're increasing to the point
where you climax the best song at 3 or 4
that builds this pattern recognition and
makes people stay for the whole project
now that is deep deep deep psychology
that you will not hear you're anywhere
else on YouTube and if you want to learn
more about that psychology stuff these
little tweaks that just make a massive
difference this is all I talk about in
my free newsletter content department
and my free community for creators wavy
world the links are in the description
for those for each point in the body you
want to include these three things I
call it the value Loop one is context
say what it is and explain it as simple
as possible two is application say how
to do it and use as many relevant
examples to kind of articulate your
point as possible and three is framing
say why this point matters and how it
fits into the overall puzzle of the full
story the context part needs to be clear
concise and digestible the application
has to be interesting enough and easy to
digest where they can begin taking
action on their own side and the framing
needs to reorient themselves so when
they zoom out they can see why it's
worth continuing to watch the video and
this three-step frame for explaining
points in the body it suits really well
the way the brain processes information
base facts first surface level and then
slowly deepening to add inference and
connect different points now as
mentioned before you want to organize
your points in the body based on shock
value novelty and uniqueness you want
your second best point to go first your
best point second your third best third
and so on now the easiest way to learn
how to do this tactically is just study
the videos on my channel I have 23 or 24
videos every single one of them follows
this exact same framework study the
pacing and the rhythm of how I do this
it'll get you much better when you watch
you will notice this constant zoom in
and zoom out I'm constantly looking at
the big picture going down for the
tactics big picture tactics it's kind of
like a wave this is what you want to
create it adds to the comprehension it
allows people to lock into the full
story but then also extract a tactical
piece that's how you want to layer these
body points now one power tip here is
how to seamlessly transition between the
points in the body and the best way to
do this while maintaining Max retention
is called reh hooking now I talk about
mechanically how to do this in other
videos but this is a really really
important concept you basically want to
set up these mini hooks between the end
of one point and the beginning of the
next one so for example you might say
something like that point was super
important but if you don't also couple
it with this one then the magic is lost
all of a sudden that makes the viewer
have to hold for the next one if they
liked what they heard in the first one
and reh hooking really works because
people's brains are on an attention
delay as soon as they see something
they'll have max level of interest and
that will slowly start to Decay if you
don't rehook them and get their interest
peing they will eventually just bounce
okay step five in the script writing
process is the last piece is the outro
and it feels like the outro would be an
afterthought like who would be listening
to this point but you can add retention
and shares and likes and rewatches at a
much higher clip if you just do this at
the very end of the video leave them
with a high note you want to wrap up the
video in a clean way you want to
summarize those points and remind them
of the paino solve that you walk through
this is the final push to remind them
that we did in fact have reality beat
expectations and this is like the free
chocolate that the restaurant gives you
when they bring the check they're doing
that on purpose they're trying to remind
you of the good service that they
invested the whole previous two hours
it's the same psychology you want to do
this at the very end of the video
because you want to leave the viewer
with a lasting impression of wow that
was an amazing video I just remembered
all these tactics that I learned the
reality was much higher than my
expectations and this is where likes
comments shares rewatches all the good
stuff that powers the algorithm it all
kind of comes from leaving them with a
high note now before we end this video I
want to quickly share one bonus tip that
will help you rev up the conversion
between that attention and driving leads
and actual dollars from your videos a
common question I get around this script
writing process is how do I include a
call to action in my script without
completely disrupting the flow and
making it feel like an ad and my
strategy for this is what I call native
embeds what you want to do when you're
creating that outline is figure out
proactively which point naturally suits
highlighting the free resource you have
as the solve and so when you're speaking
about the point you want to frame the
pain point and then give your own
Resource as the solve it'll seem way
smoother and more seamless if you do it
this way so you can either open the loop
with a paino and then give the solve or
you can speedrun a framework in a way
that's so deep and fast that most people
won't be able to absorb and then you can
offer your free Resource as a way to
recap to review or to compress speed of
implementation if they need your help
either way you don't want it to seem
like you're breaking flow in the script
you just want to seamlessly add it in
showing it natively and then move on for
example I did this twice in this video
I'm not sure if you picked it up the
first time was when I broke down the
super super deep psychology piece and
then I said hey if you like the
psychology things that I'm talking about
and you want to go deeper I have a free
newsletter and a free community where
you can learn more I also went through
the full intro hook framework and then I
said if you want to go deeper I have a
free 5-day email series called virality
blueprint.com that you can download you
may not have even picked up that I
called those out but the key is these
are free and they actually do solve the
paino or enhance the points that I
talked about and here's one other tip
that's super helpful if you want to get
better at script writing but you're
struggling with this there's so much to
organize the intro the points actually
writing it and getting the Rhythm down
it's a lot the thing that would be
helpful is if you could organize all
your thoughts in a software and just
have it do some of that work for you so
I've been looking every for this and I
built sandcastles sandcastles a for
doing this and when you have it it
compresses 60 to 90 minutes worth of
this organizational writing work down
into 60 seconds it really is the most
magical way to do this so if you
struggle with the script writing aspect
you should look at sand castles it's one
of the best solves out there see I just
did it again that was another native
embed I tried to do that purposely cuz I
wanted to see if you would catch it but
that was me naturally integrating a
paino that we've talked about the whole
video in a way that didn't really feel
like an ad but for real if you want help
writing full short form video scripts 60
Minutes down to 60 seconds sand castle.
a is actually legit you should try it
out all right guys that's all I've got
for this video again this was the
step-by-step formula for how to write
killer scripts that keep viewers hooked
the full time I know we went super deep
into the psychology plus we broke down
the full framework and that CTA
conversion native Abed piece at the end
this was a full Master Class if you're
still with us thank you guys so much for
watching leave a comment and let me know
what you want me to cover in the next
video but until then we'll see you guys
on the next one peace