[0:00]How do you write your scripts? I'm a professional YouTuber, scriptwriter, and ginger with 6-7 years of experience writing viral video scripts, getting millions of views, and today I'll reveal my secret 5 step framework that guarantees viral... Dude. What is this? What? It's the hook. 95% retention. Keep going. You're about to tell them about the framework. I I don't have a framework. Yeah, don't worry. That's why I put the most viral scripting videos into chat GPT. This is literally what works. Just keep reading.
[0:36]Hey. Do you want the views or not? I think I want. All right. to use my brain. Hey, that took me like 30 seconds to generate. Okay. Let's try that again. This time, no secret formulas, no manipulation techniques, just how I actually write my scripts.
[1:05]The biggest mistake to make while scripting a video is just opening a blank page and scripting. No matter how much you know about your topic, if you start writing without a plan, you'll go all over the place. At least that's what usually happens for me. So before you write a single word, you got to build a foundation. Starting with obviously you got to have a solid idea to begin with. It's a completely separate video topic, so I'm not gonna dive deep into that here. Just find something interesting for you and for your audience. You can find it from video comments, other YouTubers, Reddit posts, or just have a spark while you're on the toilet. I'm gonna use this video that you're watching as an example to show you the entire process. So yeah, it's gonna be a weird script. Let's go. Most people skip it and wonder why the video feels off. So what is that mean? Well, why do the viewers click on your video and why are you making it? For this tutorial, your goal is to, well, learn how to write a viral script. And my goal is to write a viral script while teaching you how to write a viral script. That's pretty aligned, right? But let's take a random guru video. Your goal is to learn how to make money, but the guru's goal sell you an overpriced course. They don't match. That's why what they say feels fake. You can sense it. Something's not right. Just can't prove it. So if you don't find your common goal with the viewer, no matter how many fancy storytelling techniques you use, the script's gonna feel weird. Now, the secret sauce for my scripts. Every good script has a surface problem and a deeper problem. It's what takes a script from a regular video to your video. In my case, sure, I'm breaking down how I write scripts. That's the surface. But what's the deeper problem here? Well, let's not give spoilers for now, but remember this deeper problem concept for the end of the video. Let's see if you can figure it out before I say it. But if you've watched my videos before, you might have seen the pattern. This video is about making viral shorts, but the deeper problem is about having patience. This one about editing cool videos. Deeper problem, perfectionism. And this is about me trying to have a shorts channel. The deeper problem is having determination. It may seem unnoticeable for a regular viewer, but subconsciously, these are the things that make your videos stand out among other videos. So think about this for your next video. Find the emotional struggle underneath the technical problem and write it down as well. Never write the script without a thumbnail. I mean, come on, it's common knowledge at this point. Make a simple draft in Canva or generate something with AI. Just know what's the viewer's first impression while clicking your video, because if your script doesn't deliver on that promise, I mean, come on, dude, it's over. It's over. And packaging isn't only about thumbnails, it's about every first impression like your domain name. Let's say you've got a killer product, made a great website, and then tell people to check out your store and you drop a link that looks like this. Whether you sell on Shopify, Squarespace, or anywhere, you usually get a weird random link like these. I mean, some of these look like my YouTube password. Wait, that's my password. with screams unprofessional. But if you replace that mess with your name. store, now we're talking. Dot store is a domain name just like.com, but it's built specifically for creators who sell something online. It's clean, intuitive, and it literally screams trust. Dot store for your store. I mean, come on, it just makes sense. I recently found out some small creators like Mr. Beast, I show speed, Dude Perfect, another Isaac Hacksmith, and many more people are already using.store as their domain. And now I have one too.
[4:22]Thank you. Thank you. You can get my presets and guides from Isaacverse.store right now. It's memorable and it tells you exactly what you're getting. And it's not just a fancy name. Dot store domains are proven to drive two times the visibility. Why? Because when people see the link, they know it's a store straight away. And when they know it's a store, when they click, when they want, when they add to cart, they buy. So if you're a creator selling merch, courses, art, presets, or literally anything, your.store domain is waiting for you at the link in the description. Huge thanks to.store for sponsoring this video. Now, who are we actually writing this script for? It's not needed for every single video, but it's good to have a document where you write down one or two audience avatars who would watch your channel. If you haven't heard this before, it's pretty simple. Open a blank document and write down as much detail as you can about your potential viewer. For my case, it can be a YouTuber with less than 1,000 subscribers, who wants to write better scripts for his videos. Knows the basics about writing techniques, retention, and YouTube algorithm. Maybe struggling to get his first viral video. The second avatar, someone more intermediate. Wants to learn something new to apply in his next video. Knows more than average about scripting, retention, analytics and stuff. That's probably the main audience I'm writing for. Another small group, and maybe a guy who just likes watching fancy edits and laughs at my terrible jokes. So which one are you? Every channel has its own avatars. You can write with more details, but I think this is enough for a starting point. Just know who you're writing for, and what's the complexity level you can go without losing them. Now the next big step is to sit down for a few hours and do some research about the topic. I know what you're thinking, I already know this stuff. That's why I'm making the video. Yeah, I thought that too. But here's the thing, even if you think you already know enough, there's always more to learn. And it's a great moment to improve yourself anyways. So watch a few videos on YouTube, read if there are any sources you found online, ask AI some questions, take notes. Write down what they explained, and more importantly, what they haven't explained. That gap, that's your opportunity to shine. At the end of this part, you have to have a bunch of random notes all around the place. They may not make sense yet, but it doesn't matter for now.
[6:29]You know the knowledge at this point, but you need a clear structure to follow while writing. What comes after what? How do the pieces fit together? So take a look at your notes, write down all the points you want to explain, and try to sequence them in a logical direction. A tiny tweak I do here is to clearly state where Isaac is at the start of the video, and where he will be at the end. You can do that for yourself, the explainer, or for the viewer's point of view. For example, in my editing tutorial, the start was Isaac wanting to make a perfect editing tutorial. At the end, he realizes it's about the process, not perfection. See, a clear transformation. That's what we're aiming for. Now, we've got the start and end points. We've got the main problem and a deeper problem. Here comes the interesting part. Taking them all and writing a story to capture it. And how do we write a story? Well, I made a whole video about it. But here's the idea, there's a simple framework that's been used since forever. Harry Potter, how to train your dragon, Iron Man, King Arthur, Gilgamesh. That's like 4,000 years ago. Hero's journey. That's the name. The story starts here. Then the hero gets a call to adventure. Then comes a wise man to help. The journey starts. A lot of things happen in between. A big crisis approaches. Gets a new Let me show you how it actually works in a YouTube video. Have you watched my editing tutorial? Cool, because if you haven't, I'm about to spoil the entire plot. Though, what kind of psycho watches a tutorial for the story anyways? Well, when you say it that like, what kind of psycho writes a story for a tutorial? So here it goes, status quo. That's where everything starts. Isaac has a successful channel. Nothing's bad, but something's off. Call to adventure. Something happens to kick off the story. It can be a problem, an opportunity, a threat, or just a curiosity. You know, the where's the editing tutorial comment. Assistance. That's where the wise old man comes in, Steven. Departure. That's where the hero starts the journey. The actual tutorial begins. Trials. That's the main part of the YouTube video. All the points you want to mention, the mistakes, some wins, and maybe some losses. Break down the whole thing. Approach. Remember the deeper problem? That's where it appears in the tutorial, the perfectionism creeps in. Crisis. Everything goes sideways. This is the lowest point of the story. 60 days pass and Isaac is still editing the same video. In good stories, though, this is also where the identity change happens. You got to show you don't know everything. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable. But no matter what, you got to find a solution to the problem. To find the treasure. It's the reward. What did you learn from that crisis moment? Isaac realizes the escape from perfectionism is to say, it's good enough. Result. Hitting publish moment. Return. The positive comments roll in. New life. He's not the same person anymore. The mindset has changed. Resolution. This is where all the plot lines open up, and then status quo again, and the cycle continues with the next video. See, it works insanely well for a YouTube video. But most people still don't use it. So the video has no conflict, no stakes, and no change at the end. Without that, it would be just an editing tutorial with some useful tips. But once you add the story, it becomes a journey. And most importantly, the viewer sees themselves in you. That's how you build a loyal audience. But it's not always that simple. For reference, the hero's journey map of this video looks something like this. I'll show the details once we actually finish the journey, but it's quite messy. And finally, there's one more layer. Okay, this one may be overkill for 90% of channels out there, but I'm explaining my entire process, and this is a big part of it, so here it goes. Writing mini stories for your videos is cool, but if you blindly use the hero's journey, that's just a repeating cycle with no ending. It works, but wouldn't it be more epic if we connect all those stories to one another? Use them as pillars of a grand story that unfolds with each video. You see where I'm going with this? So every video is connected. The story scenes, the big charts, even the reason I'm teaching you this, it's all leading somewhere. Dude, you're leaking the grand story. They aren't supposed to know about the prison yet. What? No, I'm just You, you're live? Relax, man. They don't know what that means. Sorry, man. Can't take any risks. What's tha- Well, I can't really reveal the grand story of my videos, since it's not finished yet, and I don't wanna give spoilers. But you can understand this concept by looking at the Marvel movies. From Iron Man 1 in 2008, they made standalone stories and combined them all in a grand story that peaked with Endgame in 2019. Damn, the memories. What a time it was to be human. Just give me a moment. Anyways.
[11:01]Once the plan is ready, I send it to my best friend and ask for his opinion. Oh, I don't have a friend. But chat GPT works. Now you might ask it to write the script for you based on your plan, and that's how you throw all your work in the garbage. Because it just writes a generic script no matter how much context you give it. So what I use it instead is ask it to roast my outline. What did I miss? Is it too boring? What can I add? What can I remove? What about changing the plot twist? After a few back and forths, you're finally ready to actually write the script. Open a blank page, take your outline, set a timer, and just type. Don't worry about the grammar, wording, structure, or anything. Just get the thoughts out of your head onto the page. Expand on each point in your outline. The goal here is to have something to work with instead of staring at a blank page. Here are some small tactics I use while writing. Well, it's kinda common sense, but I see so many people make this mistake. They start breaking down really advanced concepts right at the beginning. Of course, it makes you sound smart, but most viewers don't really understand all that and just leave the video. It's like going from 0 to 100 right away. So start by giving some context for people who are not familiar with what you're talking about. Then explain simple concepts and gradually increase the complexity. Remember the start of this video? We were just talking about the packaging, topic, research, simple stuff. And we slowly increased to stuff like hero's journey and universe building. Now, YouTube advice says to only explain simple concepts and avoid complex topics to maximize retention. Yeah, that's indeed good for retention, but it's not how I want to cook. I wanna give as much value as possible to those who want to learn more. I guess it's a fair trade to get slightly lower retention in return. You probably heard the rule, show don't tell. Well, everyone knows that. I'm talking about something else, and it improves the retention way more if done right. Do you remember what I said while explaining the deeper problem concept? Sure, I'm breaking down how I write scripts, but what's the deeper problem here? Well, let's not give spoilers for now, but remember this deeper problem concept for the end of the video. Let's see if you can figure it out before I say it. See what I did there? Instead of telling you, this is the deeper problem, I asked you to figure it out by yourself. It makes the video not just me talking, you listening, but more like a conversation, an interactive thing, and makes you pay more attention. It's like two different teachers. One just explains the lecture from start to finish, but the other doesn't reveal everything upfront. He gives you hints, asks you questions, makes you think, and figure out the answer by yourself. And we all know how good it feels when you actually figure out the answer, right? It's the same principle here. Lastly, not for the actual script, but it makes your life way easier to add some notes for editing. Things like add Sigma grind set music, show a footage of Captain America lifting Mjolnir, or Isaac sending it to his best friend via WhatsApp and match cut to chat GPT. Yeah, even that was scripted. Keep writing until you've explained all your bullet points, implemented the hero's journey, and solved the deeper problem that you've set up.
[14:00]Once you finish the first draft, read what you wrote, change up the order, add some extra points, remove some unnecessary stuff, and tweak the sentences to make them flow better. How do you do that? Glad you asked. Naturally, when you write, you write the points like, okay, this happens, right? And then this happens. But it's too linear, too predictable, boring. Instead, you should write like, this happens, but this happens. Therefore, this happens. It's way more interesting to listen to. At least the writers of South Park say so, and these guys made 28 seasons. So I think they know what they're talking about. If you paid attention, you may have caught some points where I used that writing. You know the knowledge at this point, but you need a clear structure to follow while writing. So take a look at your notes, writing mini stories is cool, if you blindly use the hero's journey, that's just a repeating cycle with no ending. It works, but wouldn't it be more epic if we connect all those stories to one another? Of course, it makes you sound smart, but most viewers don't really understand all that and just leave the video. So start by giving some context for people who are not familiar with what you're talking about. See, it makes everything more dynamic. Another really weird tactic to make your script more interesting is rhythm. Most beginners write with the same sentence length over and over again. It creates a monotone script, but if you write your sentences with different lengths, like the script of this video, it makes it less boring. I actually learned this technique while researching for this video, but realized I've already been doing it subconsciously in my script. So it's a nice tactic, but I don't think there's any need to overthink it. Just make sure not all your sentences are the same length, and you're good to go. And lastly, send it to an AI and ask for feedback. Or a friend if you have one.
[15:39]So, what do you think? Well, I mean, it's something. Something? Look, it's not terrible, but it's too complex. Hero's journey, universe building. You got to think about retention, dude. People will click off. All right, I can refine it more. Actually, here, I ran it through the retention optimizer AI. It removed those weird parts that dropped your retention rate, added some small payoffs throughout, and changed the ending to a rage bait. Really? Yep, works every time. It'll get at least 30% more watch time. That's the goal, right? Now, what do you think? It, it's better, technically. And that's all that matters. Just delete your version. Use this one, and the video goes viral. We win.
[16:30]Do it. No. What? It may have better retention, better everything, but it doesn't have a soul, man. I won't manipulate people to keep that chart high, and I won't delete actually useful parts just because they hurt retention. Sorry, man. I'm doing it my way. Why do you always choose the long route? Maybe you're not the right Isaac either. What? Nothing. But the universe building part was badass, actually. So what's the deeper problem of this video? It's about choosing authenticity over optimized algorithms. You have to accept the hard way if you wanna make something unique. Those retention tactics? They work, I use some of them. But there's a line. Don't overuse and turn them into manipulation tactics for extra few seconds of watch time. Give more value, and the right people will watch. Even if it isn't retention optimized. Use AI for brainstorming. Roasting your ideas. Finding gaps. But don't make it write for you. It sucks at writing anyway. Because it can't be vulnerable. It can't struggle. It can't be you. This entire script was written by chat GPT. Just kidding.
