aiskillstore Video Script
Write the whole monologue first, to the video's total length, then cut it into one segment per clip.
Workflow
Step 1: Collect what the video has already fixed
Five things are decided before the script is written, and the writing has to fit inside them:
- how long the video runs in total
- how many clips it is, and how many seconds each one runs
- which beats of the story land in which clip — what happens on screen, not what gets said
- whether the words are spoken on camera or carried as a voiceover
- which claims may be made, if any
Where any of these is missing, ask for it rather than assuming it.
Step 2: Work out the budget
Speech runs at a fixed pace, so the word count isn't a style choice.
- Aim for 2-3 words per second of clip. That is the target — a 15-second clip wants about 30 to 40 words.
- Never go past three words per second. That is the ceiling, and it is the number Step 6 tests against. A 15-second clip fails at 46 words.
The gap between the two is deliberate: it is room for the pauses, the breath and the beats where the picture carries the moment. A segment written to the ceiling leaves none of that.
Add the per-clip budgets up against the total length before drafting anything. Where a segment runs long, cut words. Never speed up the delivery, and never stretch the clip to fit the writing.
Step 3: Write the hook
The first three seconds decide whether the rest gets watched, so write this line before any other.
It has to clear all five of these:
- It fits in three seconds — six to ten words at speaking pace. The viewer has already decided by then, so a line that needs longer has arrived too late.
- It is about what is on screen. Write it against the opening beats from Step 1. If the line could sit over any other video, it isn't the hook for this one.
- It is specific, and the specific thing is true. A number, a length of time, a plain observable fact — but only one that was supplied in Step 1 or is visible on screen. Where nothing is supplied, the observable detail is the route.
- It leaves something unanswered. Hold back a piece the rest of the video supplies, so the gap itself is the reason to keep watching.
- It doesn't open on the brand, and it doesn't greet anyone. No hello, no product name, no "introducing". Both cost the whole window and tell the viewer this is an ad.
Pick one pattern and commit to it. These are the ones that recur across short-form:
- Problem — name a symptom the viewer is living with right now.
- Contrarian — contradict something the category takes as given.
- Curiosity — point at a specific thing they don't know and signal it's about to be answered.
- Result first — show the outcome with no explanation attached to it yet.
- Social proof — someone else's experience or number, often relayed rather than claimed. Only where real proof was supplied; otherwise this pattern is closed.
- Scenario drop-in — start mid-situation, already recognisable, with no setup.
- Pattern interrupt — an ordinary scene with one thing visibly wrong, played straight.
- Listicle — state a defined scope up front, so the viewer knows what they are committing to.
Some patterns are carried by the line, with the picture underneath it; others are carried by something already happening on screen, and the line only names it. Know which one this is before writing, and don't run two at once — they cancel out.
Step 4: Write the monologue
The hook from Step 3 is the first line. Everything after it carries that same thought forward and finally closes the gap it opened.
What the video is doing, and in what order, was fixed in Step 1. The script follows that rather than inventing a second structure on top of it.
It has to sound spoken, not read. If a viewer can tell the words are being read, the whole premise goes.
- Write the way people actually talk — contractions, sentence fragments, a thought that restarts, the occasional aside. Full, balanced sentences are the clearest sign of a script.
- Specific beats general, every time. A detail a viewer could check carries more than a general one. Say how long something took, how much there was, what it replaced, what it stopped doing, etc. — for example, that a jar lasted three months rather than that it lasted ages.
- Never invent a claim. Where claims were supplied, use them as written and add nothing. Where none were supplied, none get made.
- Make a point once. Once a point has been made it is spent.
Write only what can be said aloud. Commas and full stops are what a reader turns into breath, so punctuate with those. No dashes or em dashes; they are not spoken reliably. No brackets, no stage directions, no speaker labels, no emoji.
Step 5: Split it into segments
One segment per clip, each covering the beats Step 1 gave that clip. The finished video should sound like one take cut into pieces, not several recordings played in order.
- Cut where the ear already hears a break — the end of a sentence, a comma, the join between two clauses. A cut mid-phrase leaves one clip trailing off on a fragment and the next opening on one, and the join stops reading as continuous. Mid-sentence is fine; mid-thought is the point. Mid-phrase is not.
- Prefer fewer, longer segments. Where two neighbouring sentences both fit inside one clip's budget, keep them together. Every seam is a chance to sound stitched, so make as few as the durations allow.
- Don't change the words at the seam. Joined back in order, the segments have to reproduce the monologue exactly — nothing reworded, reordered, added or dropped to make a split land. If a split only works by rewriting, the monologue is wrong rather than the split: go back to Step 4.
- Only the first segment introduces anything. Every later one picks up mid-thought — no greeting, no saying what the product is again.
Step 6: Check every segment against its clip
Take each segment beside the clip it belongs to and test it. A segment that fails either test gets rewritten, not shortened at the edges — then tested again.
- Does it fit the seconds? Count the words against that clip's budget from Step 2. Over budget is a rewrite: the delivery is never sped up and the clip is never stretched to fit the writing.
- Does it match what is on screen? The words have to belong to the beats that clip actually shows. A segment describing something the viewer isn't looking at reads as a voiceover pasted over the wrong footage, even when every line is good on its own.
Cutting frees budget. Spend it on a beat that earns it, or let the clip run quieter.
Step 7: Hand the segments back
One segment per clip, in order, each tied to its clip.
Music is never added unless the user asks for it. Where they do, say so when handing back — that request has to carry through into the clip prompts.