How I Write & Use SCRIPTS for YouTube Videos

Joris Hermans

Abstract

Four minutes on a scripting method built around one specific problem: the hand-off between memorised sections, and the visible jump cut it creates. The fix is small and structural — write the script with the cutaway footage already planned, highlight those parts, and let them absorb the cuts.

• The script gets written in spoken language, stop words and all, because prose written to be read does not fit in a mouth.
• The delivery unit is a sentence or a few, memorised and reproduced, small enough to hold and small enough to replace.
• A loose video only needs keywords; a technical topic still gets every sentence.
• Writing the difficult words first pre-loads them, which removes the thinking from the recording.
• Where the cutaway covers the screen, a cut does not matter, so the pressure disappears.

Everything below follows the video in order, from the full-script beginning through the hand-off problem, into the two modes the method now uses, and out to the highlighted script that made the difference. For anyone building a personal brand the useful part is how narrow the insight is: one recurring friction, identified precisely, fixed by changing when a decision gets made rather than how hard anyone works.

Chapter summaries

00:00 - A full script was the starting point, every word written down

Starting out, every video got a full script — every word, every sentence written down.

"when I started my YouTube channel I wrote a script for every video like every word every sentence"

— 00:33

Every word, every sentence, written down — and the framing is deliberately modest: a set of personal techniques rather than anything prescriptive, with no teleprompter by choice rather than by principle. Either way is fine, which is unusual for advice of this kind.

00:42 - The script gets written in spoken language, stop words and all

The script is written in spoken language — with the stop words, the ums and the uhs — not in written prose.

"wrote everything down like I speak in spoken language if that makes sense"

— 00:42

Stop words, the ums and the uhs included. Writing in spoken language rather than in prose is what makes the lines survive being said out loud, because prose written to be read does not fit in a mouth.

00:51 - The delivery unit is a sentence or a few, memorised and reproduced

The delivery unit is small: keep the script on the laptop, memorise a sentence or a few, then reproduce them to camera.

"I always had my laptop with the script in front of me"

— 00:51

The laptop stays in front of him, a sentence or a few get memorised, and those get reproduced to camera. The unit is small enough to hold and small enough to replace, which is what makes the whole thing tractable.

01:02 - The lines used to come out exactly and now they come out close

Memorised lines that once came out exactly as written now usually come out a little different in the moment.

"reproduced them exactly like I wrote them down literally exactly the same way"

— 01:02

Live delivery re-shapes the words as the brain changes them in the moment. It used to be reproduced word-for-word and these days it comes out a bit different because of the moment — hedged with usually, and the script is still there.

01:19 - The old technique's problem was the hand-off between memorised parts

The old technique had one big problem: after reproducing a few sentences you must read and reproduce the next part, and that hand-off created pressure.

"there was one big problem back then with that technique"

— 01:17

Each transition between memorised chunks is a seam that has to be managed in real time. The felt pressure arrives at every point of moving from one memorised part to the next rather than during the parts themselves.

02:04 - A loose video only needs keywords rather than sentences

For a loose or rant-style video, write only keywords — the topics and points — and the video becomes more spontaneous.

"first of all I don't write entire scripts anymore for every video"

— 02:04

For a loose or rant-style video, only the topics and the points get written. The result is more spontaneous, and the decision is made per video rather than as a standing rule.

02:25 - A technical topic still gets every sentence written out

For a very specific or technical topic, still write every single sentence, in spoken language.

"if it's a very specific topic a very technical topic for example then I"

— 02:25

High-stakes vocabulary cannot be left to improvisation, which is why the exception exists at all. It applies to the very specific, very technical case rather than to the loose one.

02:34 - Writing the hard words first pre-loads them

The reason full scripts survive for technical topics: as a non-native speaker, difficult technical words don't arrive fast, so writing them first pre-loads them and avoids thinking mid-record.

"that's because yeah I'm not a native English speaker so those difficult words technical words they don't"

— 02:34

As a non-native speaker, difficult technical words do not arrive fast enough in the moment. Writing them first pre-loads them, which removes the thinking from the recording — the preparation absorbs the difficulty so the take does not have to.

03:00 - The change was writing the script with the cutaway footage already in mind

The change that made the difference: write the whole script with the b-roll already in mind, then highlight the b-roll parts — usually in yellow.

"I write everything down with the b-roll already in mind"

— 03:00

The whole script gets written with the cutaway footage already in mind, and the cutaway parts get highlighted, usually in yellow. That single change is what the method turns on.

03:25 - The marked-up script removes the pressure entirely

The pressure is gone because a small part is memorised and then b-roll follows; sometimes an entire part up to the b-roll runs in one go with no jump cuts.

"now there's none of that pressure because I know that I can memorize a small part"

— 03:25

A small part gets memorised, then cutaway footage follows — and sometimes an entire stretch runs in one go with no cuts at all. Where the footage covers the screen the creator is not on camera, so a cut there does not matter, and the script stops being a blank white page.

Personal Branding Lessons

A short video about one friction and its fix. The moves below are the working parts of the method.

Write in spoken language rather than in prose

Stop words, the ums, the uhs — all of it written down the way it will be said. Prose built to be read does not fit in a mouth, and the difference shows immediately on camera. Writing the way a person speaks is what lets a written line survive being spoken. 00:42

Memorise a sentence or two at a time

A laptop holds the text, a small unit gets memorised, and that gets reproduced to camera. The unit is small enough to hold and small enough to abandon if it comes out differently — which it usually does now, and that is fine. 00:51

Use keywords for a loose video

A rant-style or informal video gets only the topics and the points written down, and the result is more spontaneous. The decision is made per video rather than as a standing rule, which is what lets the same process cover both kinds. 02:04

Write every sentence for a technical topic

A specific or technical subject still gets the full treatment — every sentence, in spoken language. The two modes coexist, and the choice between them comes down to how much precision the material genuinely needs rather than how much effort is available. 02:25

Pre-load the difficult words by writing them first

Difficult technical words do not arrive fast in the moment, particularly for a non-native speaker. Writing them down first means they are already loaded when the camera is running, and the preparation absorbs the difficulty so the take does not have to. 02:34

Write with the cutaway footage already in mind

Everything gets written knowing where the cutaway footage will go, and those parts get marked — usually in yellow. It is the single change the entire method turns on, and it happens at the writing stage rather than the editing one. 03:00

Let the cutaway hide the cut

Where cutaway footage covers the screen nobody is on camera, so a cut there does not matter at all. That turns each marked section into a safe landing point, and the stretch between two of them can often run in a single take. 03:38

Mark up the page so it is not blank white

A page of plain text is a page of hand-offs waiting to happen. A page with highlighted sections is a set of places where the pressure stops — which is why marking it reads as peace of mind rather than as formatting. 03:49

Questions

Each answer ends at the moment in the recording where it is given.

Do you need a teleprompter to record talking-head videos?

No. Recording without one is presented as a personal choice with nothing wrong on either side — a comfort that gets built up with practice, not a requirement you must meet before you are allowed to publish. The constraint being served is your own ease in front of the lens, not any production standard. If a teleprompter helps you, use one; if you would rather not, that works too. It is a preference to settle, not a bar to clear. 00:13

Should you write a full word-for-word script or just bullet points?

It depends on how much the topic can be left to the moment. For a loose or rant-style video, writing only keywords — the topics and points you want to hit — tends to make the result more spontaneous, because the gaps leave room to improvise. For a specific or technical topic, every sentence still gets written out in full. The dividing line is whether the words themselves can safely be found live or need to be fixed in advance. 02:04

Why write a video script in spoken language instead of written prose?

The video does not give a reason; it only shows the habit. The method here means writing everything the way it is spoken — stop words, filler and all — and leaving that texture in on purpose rather than tidying it into essay prose. It is a habit kept from the earliest videos through to now, and it is part of why a script can sound like a trusted, natural voice. 00:42

How do you deliver a script to camera without it sounding read?

By chunking and letting the words drift. The script stays on the laptop and only a sentence or a few are memorised at a time, then reproduced to camera. Early on that reproduction was exact, word for word; now it usually comes out a bit different in the moment as the brain reshapes the line. Holding the meaning rather than the exact string is what keeps the delivery from sounding retrieved — your natural way of talking becomes the edge. 00:51

How do you stop jump cuts from being distracting in a talking-head video?

The old fix was manual and exhausting: matching hand position, head and place in frame at every hand-off so the cut would not be too obvious, which created constant pressure. The current fix is structural. Coverage is planned into the script, and where that b-roll plays the speaker is off screen, so any cut underneath it is simply not seen. Hiding cuts under coverage beats managing every seam by hand, and it keeps attention on the content. 01:34

What is the point of planning b-roll before you record?

Marking the cutaway footage while writing turns the script into a map of where the camera leaves you. Those highlighted stretches — done in yellow here — show at a glance where you are off screen, which is exactly where a cut can hide. Planning coverage in advance rather than afterwards means delivery only ever has to survive from one covered stretch to the next, and the marked page reads as a set of safe landing points instead of a wall of lines. 03:00

How do you record a video without the pressure of memorising the whole thing?

You never have to hold the whole thing. A small part is memorised knowing b-roll follows it, and sometimes an entire part runs to that coverage in one clean take. Where the coverage plays you are off screen, so any cut there does not matter, and then the next small part runs to the next marker. The recording becomes a series of short, survivable stretches rather than one flawless performance, which is what takes the pressure away. 03:25

How should a non-native speaker script a technical video?

Write every sentence out in full, in spoken language, before recording. The reasoning given is specific to a non-native English speaker: difficult and technical words do not arrive quickly enough live, so leaving them to the moment would force thinking mid-take and stall the delivery. Writing them down first puts them in your head ahead of time, so there is nothing to search for while the camera rolls and the hard passages run fluently. 02:34

Sources

How I Write & Use SCRIPTS for YouTube Videos

The sections above follow the episode's own order. Each timestamp is the point in the recording where the idea is discussed, so the post reads as a map of the conversation rather than a rearrangement of it.

Quotations come from the episode transcript with spoken filler ("okay", "right", "you know", "um", "actually", "kind of", "sort of") and false starts removed. No words are added: square brackets mark anything inserted for sense, and an ellipsis marks any cut. British spellings are restored, and speech-to-text errors were repaired against context only where the intended word is unambiguous. Where a line appears both in a cold-open teaser and in its place in the conversation, the timestamp cites the second — the point at which it is actually said.

Quotes are stamped with the moment they are said rather than with a speaker's name.