How to outline a YouTube video: beats, not a script

An outline is not a script and it is not a list of topics. It is the order things happen in and the energy behind each one. Done properly, it shows you the sag in the middle where viewers quietly leave, at the one moment it costs nothing to fix: before anything is filmed.

Outlines get skipped because they feel like admin standing between you and the fun part. Then the dead patch you could have spotted on one page turns up in the edit instead, filmed and unfixable, and the retention graph wears it for the life of the video.

Beats, not sentences

Write what happens, in order, in short lines. Each line is a beat: a thing the video does. Not the words you will say, just the move you will make. Show the before. Explain the one rule. First attempt fails. Fix it. Show the after. Five beats can carry ten minutes if each one earns its place.

Working in beats keeps you honest about pace. A beat that takes three minutes and moves nothing is obvious on the page in a way it never is in your head.

Map the energy before you film

Now mark how hard each beat pulls the viewer in. Most videos look like this: a strong open, a dip in the middle where the setup drags, and a recovery near the payoff. The dip is where you lose people.

Once you can see the dip, you can fix it on the page: cut the slow beat, move a stronger moment earlier, or fold the setup into the action instead of front-loading it. None of that is possible once it is footage.

Where the script comes in

Some creators script every word, some never do. Both work. The outline comes first either way, because a script written without one tends to wander, and a script written from a tight outline inherits the pace. If you do script, write it beat by beat against this list. If you do not, the outline is what keeps you on the road while the camera rolls.

This is also where the hook locks in. Your chosen opening from the hooks task becomes beat one, and every beat after it is a step toward paying that opening off.

Where Chewbr fits

Outline the sections is step 8 of the 47, sitting directly after the three hooks. Everything left in Plan is built on it: gathering what the script needs, writing the script, then the shot list you will film against. Get the beats wrong here and all three inherit the problem.

Keep reading

Once the beats are down, the obvious question is length: how long the video actually needs to be, which the outline mostly answers for you. When you turn those beats into words, reading the script aloud catches the lines that look fine but sound stiff.