Last updated: May 2026.
Writing a video script used to mean staring at a blank page until something showed up. AI changes the blank-page problem, but it does not solve the real problem: most video scripts fail because they are well-written essays read out loud, which is a completely different job. This is how to write a video script that lands in under a minute, with or without AI: the 60-second template we use, the word counts that match every major platform (YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Reels, long-form YouTube), three full example scripts you can adapt today, and the three AI prompts that take the work from blank page to workable first draft in under a minute.
The 60-second video script template (copy-paste)
Every script in this post follows the same shape. Four beats, in that order, every time.
HOOK (0-3s) [the reason to keep watching]
PROMISE (3-7s) [what they will get if they stay]
PAYOFF (7-50s) [the actual content, in 3 short beats]
ASK (50-60s) [one specific next step, not three]
Word-count rules that win the page:
- 30-second video → ~75 spoken words
- 60-second video → ~150 spoken words
- 10-minute video → ~1,500 spoken words
These targets assume a natural narration pace of 150 words per minute, which is the comfortable read-aloud speed scriptwriting tools like Boords and TechSmith's video team both cite as the working average for English voices. Faster delivery (energetic short-form) lands closer to 170; slower delivery (calm explainers, meditation) closer to 130. If you are over the target word count, you are not editing yet, you are still drafting.
How to write a video script in four beats
The Hook earns the watch. The Promise earns the next ten seconds. The Payoff is the only beat that delivers actual value. The Ask is the only beat that converts. Treat them as four different writing jobs.
Hook (0-3 seconds). The first sentence is the only sentence that has to do its job alone. If the hook misses, the rest of the script never happens. Write the hook last, after you know what the payoff is.
Promise (3-7 seconds). Name what the viewer will get and roughly how long it will take. "In the next forty-five seconds I will walk you through three things…" Promises that quote a number or a time perform measurably better than promises that hand-wave.
Payoff (the body, 7-50 seconds). Three short beats is the right count for most short-form. Each beat should be one short sentence that lands one idea. If a beat needs more than two sentences, it is two beats.
Ask (50-60 seconds). One specific next step. "Subscribe so you don't miss part two" beats "subscribe and like and comment and share and turn on notifications" every time. The fewer choices you give, the more likely one of them gets taken.
Five hook formulas that work in the first three seconds
A working hook either names the payoff, challenges a belief, sets up a story, drops a stat, or asks a direct question. Borrow these patterns; the wording is yours.
- Payoff Promise. "I cut my grocery bill in half. Here is the spreadsheet."
- Belief Challenge. "Stop slicing your steak the wrong way. You are making it chewy on purpose."
- 3-Second Story. "Three weeks ago I tried this and it changed how I plan dinners."
- Stat Slap. "Ninety percent of indoor cats die from preventable diseases. Here is the one that gets missed."
- Direct Question. "Why does your phone battery die faster in winter?"
A useful trick: write five hook variations before you pick one, and put the strongest words at the start. "Stop slicing your steak the wrong way" beats "You are slicing your steak the wrong way, stop" because the verb lands in the first half-second.
Need a starter script in one click? Try the free video script generator (6 full HOOK / BODY / CTA scripts per topic across short-form, long-form, tutorial, VSL, and product-demo formats) or the TikTok script generator (15 scripts per topic across 8 formats). For just openings, use the video hook generator. All three are free, no signup, run in your browser.
Video script length by platform
| Platform | Target length | Word count | Hook window | Pacing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube Shorts | 15-60s | 38-150 words | 0-3s | Fast, captions on by default |
| TikTok | 15-60s | 38-150 words | 0-3s | Fastest delivery, energetic |
| Instagram Reels | 15-90s | 38-225 words | 0-3s | Visual-led, captions on by default |
| Long-form YouTube | 5-15min | 750-2,250 words | 0-10s | Conversational, open-loop tease |
| Podcast clip / audiogram | 30-90s | 75-225 words | 0-5s | Conversational, slower pace OK |
These are starting points, not gospel. YouTube's own Creator Academy guidance leans toward longer formats; platform-specific tools like TikTok's Creative Center lean shorter for the For You feed. The 150-WPM rule is what tightens the estimate once you have a draft.
If you are building a faceless YouTube channel or running a TikTok content schedule, pick the row that matches your primary surface and treat the others as cross-post variants.
Three full example video scripts
Most posts about scriptwriting promise examples and ship snippets. These three are written end-to-end at the target word counts, with the visual cue alongside each line.
Example 1: 60-second YouTube Shorts explainer ("Why your phone battery dies faster in winter")
| Time | Narration | Visual |
|---|---|---|
| 0-3s | "Your phone is not broken. Cold weather is stealing your battery." | Close-up of a frozen iPhone screen showing 1% in the snow. |
| 3-7s | "Here is exactly what is happening inside the battery, in 45 seconds." | Title card: "Cold + lithium-ion = bad day." |
| 7-22s | "Lithium-ion batteries hold their charge by moving ions across a chemical bath. Cold weather slows the chemistry. Less ion flow means less voltage." | Diagram: ions sliding through electrolyte; same diagram with frost overlay slowing the animation. |
| 22-40s | "When the voltage drops far enough, your phone reads it as 'almost dead' and shuts off. Even with 40% real battery left. The charge is still in there. The phone just can't get to it." | Battery meter dropping from 40% straight to 0%; thermometer on screen reading -5°C. |
| 40-50s | "The fix is dumb and free: keep the phone in your pocket against your body. Warmth restores the chemistry. Battery comes back in minutes." | Hand sliding phone into a jacket pocket; battery meter ticking back up to 40%. |
| 50-60s | "Save this for your next ski trip. Follow for more one-minute science." | Save icon highlight; channel handle at bottom. |
145 words. 58 seconds at 150 WPM.
Example 2: 30-second TikTok hook-and-payoff ("Stop slicing your steak the wrong way")
| Time | Narration | Visual |
|---|---|---|
| 0-3s | "Stop slicing your steak the wrong way. You are making it chewy on purpose." | Knife coming down on a rested steak, slicing parallel to the grain. |
| 3-7s | "Here is the 5-second fix." | Title card: "Cut against the grain." |
| 7-22s | "Look at the lines on the surface of the steak. Those are muscle fibres. If you slice with the lines, every bite is one long fibre to chew. Slice across the lines and the fibres are already shortened on the plate." | Close-up of grain on a ribeye; finger tracing the line; knife rotating 90 degrees. |
| 22-30s | "Try it tonight. Tell me in the comments if you tasted the difference." | New slice cut against the grain; bite-sized cubes plated. |
74 words. 30 seconds at 150 WPM.
Example 3: 90-second long-form YouTube intro ("Three habits that quietly destroy your sleep")
| Time | Narration | Visual |
|---|---|---|
| 0-5s | "You are not bad at sleeping. You are doing three things right before bed that guarantee bad sleep." | Person staring at the ceiling at 3am; clock cuts. |
| 5-15s | "In the next ten minutes I will walk you through all three, why they matter at the biology level, and the swap I made for each one." | Title card with three numbered icons; subscribe-button overlay. |
| 15-35s | "The first one is the obvious one and you probably already know it: screens. But the part nobody tells you is which two hours matter and why dimming does almost nothing." | B-roll: phone in dark room; brightness slider on phone. |
| 35-60s | "The second is the one I got wrong for years. Late caffeine, but not when you think. Caffeine has a half-life of about six hours, so the 3pm coffee is doing more to your 11pm than the 9pm one." | Coffee cup with a clock overlay running backwards from 11pm to 3pm. |
| 60-80s | "The third is the quietest of the three. Hot showers in the evening feel like they help. They don't. The mechanism is the opposite of what most people think and I will walk you through it." | Steam from a shower; thermometer graph dropping. |
| 80-90s | "Subscribe so you don't miss part two on caffeine timing. Comment which of the three you are most guilty of." | Subscribe button; comment prompt animation. |
220 words. 88 seconds at 150 WPM.
How to use AI to draft your script (and where to step in)
AI is brilliant at three jobs: brainstorming twenty hook variations in seconds, turning a rough outline into spoken-tone copy, and tightening a long draft down to a target word count. It is weak at voice, specifics, and judgement. The workflow that actually works is draft with AI, then edit for one personal detail, one concrete number, and one line only you would say.
Three prompts to copy into any chat tool. They work in our pipeline, and they work in any other model you already use.
Prompt 1: Hook generator.
Give me 20 hook ideas for a [LENGTH]-second video about [TOPIC].
Use these patterns:
• Payoff Promise ("I did X, here is how")
• Belief Challenge ("Stop doing X, you are wrong about it")
• 3-Second Story ("Three weeks ago I tried X…")
• Stat Slap ("90% of people who X never Y…")
• Direct Question ("Why does X happen?")
For each, write only the first sentence. Maximum 15 words each.
Prompt 2: Beat-by-beat 60-second draft.
Write a 150-word video script (60s at 150 WPM) about [TOPIC] for [PLATFORM].
Use this structure:
HOOK (15 words, in the first 3 seconds)
PROMISE (15 words, names what they get and how long)
PAYOFF (3 beats × ~30 words each, one idea per beat)
ASK (15 words, one specific next step only)
Write for the ear, not the page. Read-aloud rhythm. Short sentences.
Prompt 3: Tighten to target.
Tighten this script to exactly [N] words for a [N/2.5]-second video at 150 WPM.
Keep the four beats (Hook, Promise, Payoff, Ask) intact.
Remove adverbs first. Combine two-clause sentences second. Cut the third Payoff beat only if everything else fails.
Return only the tightened script.
When the draft comes back, edit it like a human draft: read it aloud once, cut anything that trips your tongue, add the one detail nobody else could say. Then drop the finished script into our script-to-video pipeline and the AI handles the voiceover, scenes, captions, and music in one pass. If you would rather skip the script stage entirely, generate the whole video from a single line instead. For talking-head reads where you want a presenter on camera, the same script works as input to a lip-synced AI avatar.
The 30-second from-blank-page workflow. Run Prompt 1 to brainstorm 20 hooks. Pick one. Run Prompt 2 with that hook to draft the body. Run Prompt 3 to tighten to target. Edit in one personal detail and one concrete number. Read aloud once. Done. Try it inside MakeAIVideo → (7-day free trial, $0 today, cancel anytime).
How to write a script for YouTube (long-form specifics)
Long-form YouTube is the only format where the script structure stops being four beats and starts being a chaptered outline. The same principles still apply, but the hook window is longer (5-10 seconds, not 3), the Promise is more important because viewers can leave at any point, and the Ask should appear at the end and at the most-engaged mid-point. HubSpot's video marketing team and Adobe's video script guide both lean into chaptered outlining for the 8-15 minute range for the same reason: dropouts compound across chapters, so each chapter has to earn the next.
A sub-template for the YouTube intro specifically:
0-5s HOOK (a single sentence that names the payoff or challenges a belief)
5-15s PROMISE (what the video covers + tease the most surprising point)
15-30s OPEN LOOP (drop the framework / the three things / the cliffhanger)
30s+ CHAPTER 1 (first beat of the actual content)
For 8-15 minute videos, write the chaptered outline first. Lock the beats. Then draft each beat to its own word count target (a 10-minute video at 1,500 total words is roughly 150 words per minute or 150 words per chapter if you have 10 chapters). Drafting full sentences before the beats are locked is the single most common reason scripts run long.
Five common video script mistakes (and how to fix each)
- Writing for the page, not the ear. Long, comma-heavy sentences. Read every line aloud once; if you trip, cut.
- No specific ask at the end. "Subscribe and like and comment" reads as four asks and lands as zero. Pick one.
- Burying the hook. If the most interesting line of the script is in the middle, move it to the top and write around it.
- Over-scripting. Every word planned, no room to breathe. Mark two or three places where you can deviate or improvise.
- Copying the formula without the detail. The template gets you to drafted. The personal detail gets you watched.
If you are mostly making short-form, our MakeAIVideo pipeline takes the finished script straight to render (voiceover, scenes, captions, music) so the iteration loop is "edit a line, re-render, watch it back" rather than "rewrite, re-record, re-edit in three apps".
Read it aloud, time it, ship it
The pre-record checklist is one paragraph. Read the whole script aloud at recording pace. Time it. Cut any line that trips your tongue. Mark emphasis and pauses. Lock the final word count. If the result is within ten percent of the target length, you are ready.
Once the script is locked, paste it into our script-to-video flow. The pipeline handles the voiceover, generates a scene per beat in the visual style you pick, times word-by-word captions to the audio, and renders a watermark-free 1080p MP4. Two minutes from finished script to finished video.
Skip the script stage entirely. Prompt to Video writes the script, voice, scenes, captions, and music from a single line. 7-day free trial, $0 today, cancel anytime. Start the trial →
Frequently asked questions
How long should a video script be?
Use word count, not page count. A 30-second video lands at around 75 spoken words, a 60-second video at around 150, and a 10-minute YouTube video at around 1,500. These targets assume a natural narration pace of 150 words per minute, so adjust up or down if your delivery is faster or slower.
What is the best video script template for beginners?
A four-beat template covers almost every short-form video. The beats: Hook (the reason to keep watching), Promise (what they will get), Payoff (the actual content), Ask (one specific next step). Write each beat as one or two short lines, in that order, before you worry about wording.
Should I use AI to write my video script?
AI is great for the first draft, hook variations, and tightening to a word count, and weak at voice, specifics, and judgement. The workflow that works: draft with AI in 30 seconds, then edit in one personal detail, one concrete number, and one line only you would say.
How do I write a script for a YouTube video?
Open with a hook in the first five seconds that names the payoff. Then state what the video will cover so viewers know to stay, deliver the content in clear beats with on-screen text cues, and close with one specific ask (subscribe, watch next, comment). For long-form YouTube, write to a beat-by-beat outline first and only draft full sentences once the beats are locked.
What is the difference between a video script and a video outline?
An outline is a list of beats in order, usually one sentence each, that locks the structure of the video. A script is the full spoken copy, written for the ear, that the narrator (you or an AI voice) reads word for word. Always outline first.
How do I write a hook for a short-form video?
Pick one of five patterns. Name the payoff ("I cut my grocery bill in half, here is how"), challenge a belief ("Stop slicing your steak the wrong way"), set up a 3-second story ("Three weeks ago I tried this and it changed how I plan dinners"), drop a stat, or ask a direct question. Write five hook variations before you pick one, and put the strongest words at the start.
Can I use an AI-generated script for commercial videos?
Yes. AI-drafted scripts are text you wrote and edited, and you own the final wording. The thing to watch is not the AI, it is the claims: any number, quote, or statistic the AI suggests needs to be checked against a real source before you record it. Our full content and rights terms cover how this applies inside MakeAIVideo.
What words per minute should I use to estimate script length?
Use 150 words per minute for a conversational narration pace. Faster channels (energetic short-form) land closer to 170, slower channels (calm explainers, meditation) closer to 130. Read your draft aloud once and time it; that single check beats any formula.