Writing Scripts for 60-Second YouTube Shorts
A sixty-second script looks easy because it is short. In practice it is harder to write than a ten-minute one, because there is no room to recover from a slow sentence. Every line either moves the viewer toward the answer or gives them a reason to swipe.
Start with one question
A Short can answer one question well. It cannot answer two. Before writing a word, state the question the video answers in a single sentence, the way a curious viewer would ask it. "Why is the Dead Sea so salty?" is a question. "The Dead Sea" is a topic, and topics produce scripts that list facts instead of explaining anything.
If you cannot write the question down, you are not ready to write the script. If you find yourself wanting to add a second question halfway through, save it for another video. A channel needs hundreds of ideas, and the second question is often a good one.
The first line does most of the work
In the Shorts feed, the viewer has not chosen your video. It simply started playing. Your first line has to give them a reason to stay, and it has to do that before they have decided anything.
Three openings work reliably for explainers:
- The question itself, sharpened. Ask it in a way that makes the answer feel non-obvious.
- A surprising fact that the video will explain. State it plainly and let the viewer want the reason.
- A contradiction. Point at two things that seem like they cannot both be true.
What does not work is preamble. Greetings, channel names, "in this video" and "have you ever wondered" all spend the most valuable seconds of the video on nothing. Start on the substance.
Build one chain of reasons
The body of a good explainer is a chain: this happened, which caused that, which is why the thing in the question is true. Each sentence should follow from the one before it, and the viewer should be able to feel the connection.
Connecting words carry that chain. "Because", "so", "which meant" and "that is why" tell the viewer how two facts relate. When a script reads as a list of true statements with no connectives, viewers lose the thread, even if every fact is correct.
A simple check helps here. Read each sentence and ask whether it answers "why?" or "so what?" about the sentence before it. If a sentence does neither, it is probably a fact you found interesting during research that does not belong in this video.
Cut more than feels comfortable
A minute of narration holds fewer words than most first drafts contain. The fastest way to find out how many your voice can carry is to read the script aloud, or generate a narration, and time it. If it runs long, cut whole sentences rather than squeezing words out of every line. Speeding up the narration to fit makes the video harder to follow.
When choosing what to cut, protect the first line, the chain of reasons and the ending. Background detail, qualifiers that do not change the answer and second examples usually go first.
Write for the ear
A Shorts script is heard, not read. Short sentences work for the ear and for captions. So does putting the important word near the end of the sentence, where the narration naturally lands with emphasis.
Numbers, dates and names deserve extra care. Spell them the way they should be spoken if your narration is generated, and avoid stacking several figures in one sentence. Our guide to AI voiceover for YouTube covers writing for a synthetic narrator in more detail.
Plan the screen with the words
In a faceless video, the visuals are part of the script. As you write each sentence, note what the viewer sees while it plays. If a line names a place, show the map. If it states a number, put the number on screen. If you cannot think of anything to show for a sentence, that sentence is often the one to cut.
This is also where your niche shows its strength or weakness. A topic with natural visuals makes this step quick. If you have not settled on a topic yet, our post on choosing a faceless YouTube niche has tests for exactly this.
End on the answer
The last line should complete the chain and give the viewer the answer to the question you opened with. It does not need a summary, a sign-off or a request to subscribe tacked on after the payoff. Shorts often play again from the start, and an ending that leads cleanly back into the opening line suits that.
Check the script before production
Before a script moves on to narration and graphics, read it once more with three questions in mind:
- Does the first line give a reason to keep watching?
- Does every sentence connect to the one before it?
- Does the last line answer the question from the first?
Fixing a script costs minutes. Fixing a rendered video costs far more, so this is the cheapest place in the whole process to be strict.