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How to Make a Script for a Video in 6 Steps

Lan He avatarLan He
·Last updated Aug 4, 2026
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How to Make a Script for a Video in 6 Steps
Summary

A six-step video scripting workflow — goal and audience, outline, hook, scene-by-scene drafting in the two-column format, a read-aloud timing pass, and a shootable final format.

By Lan He, Senior Video Producer at Pexo · UPDATED: 2026-08-03

You can make a script for a video in six steps: set the goal and audience, outline the beats, write a hook for the first ten seconds, draft it scene by scene, read it aloud against a timer, and format it so someone can shoot from it. About 45 minutes for a first script.

How to make a script for a video: quick version

  1. Write down the one thing a viewer should do after watching.
  2. Outline the beats before writing a single line of dialogue.
  3. Open with a hook that lands inside the first ten seconds.
  4. Draft scene by scene in two columns: visual on the left, audio on the right.
  5. Read the whole thing aloud against a timer and cut what you stumble on.
  6. Format it so a producer can shoot from it without asking questions.

How to write a video script step by step

Step 1: Set the goal and the audience

Set the goal and the audience before writing anything. Write one sentence naming what a viewer should do after watching — subscribe, request a demo, follow the instructions — and one sentence naming who they are and what they already know. Those two sentences decide vocabulary, length, and how much explaining the script has to carry. A script written without them tends to describe a topic rather than move anyone, and that shows up as a video nobody finishes.

A target with a single stated goal beside three audience cards, one of them selected

Step 2: Outline the beats

Outline the beats before you write a single line. Three to five beats is enough for most videos: the problem, the turn, the demonstration, the payoff. Give each beat one sentence and put them in order, then check that the sequence still makes sense read straight through. Reordering a beat costs a minute at this stage and an afternoon once the lines are written, which is the whole reason the outline exists.

Five story beats laid out in order before any dialogue is written

Step 3: Write the hook first

Write the hook first, and keep it inside ten seconds. A hook works when it makes a promise the rest of the video keeps: the outcome the viewer gets, the mistake they are probably making, or the question they came to answer. Draft three versions and read each in isolation — the one that still makes sense with no setup is the one to use. Writing the hook before the body also tells you whether the video has a point yet.

A script page with the first ten seconds bracketed as the hook, three versions listed

Step 4: Draft it scene by scene in two columns

Draft it scene by scene with visuals on the left and audio on the right. This is the two-column A/V format used for instructional and corporate video: the left column says what is on screen, the right column says what is heard, and a producer can plan the shoot by reading down one side while a narrator records from the other. Keep one idea per row. When a row needs two sentences of narration to explain what is on screen, the visual is doing too little and the scene should split.

A two-column script with visual descriptions on the left and narration on the right

Step 5: Read it aloud against a timer

Read the whole script aloud against a timer at the pace you would actually narrate. Silent reading runs much faster than speech, which is why scripts that felt tight on the page come in long. Mark the clock at each scene break so you know which scene overruns instead of only knowing the total. Any sentence you stumble over gets rewritten, and cuts come from the middle first — the hook and the close do the most work.

A stopwatch beside a script with two stumbled lines struck through

Step 6: Format it so someone can shoot from it

Format the final script so someone else can shoot from it without asking questions. Number the scenes, name the speaker on every audio row, and keep bracketed direction to what changes the shot — a gesture that carries meaning stays, a blink does not. Add the runtime from Step 5 at the top. The test is simple: hand it to someone who was not in the planning and see whether they can produce the video from the page alone.

A formatted final script with numbered scenes being handed to a second person

How to turn your script into a video with Pexo

Pexo picks up where the script ends. Paste the finished script — or even a one-line premise — and it breaks the story into scenes and shots, generates each one, adds voiceover and music, and assembles the edit, so the two-column plan from Step 4 becomes a cut rather than a shoot day.

The AI movie maker page is the entry point for a full script, and script-to-video covers the shorter pieces. Characters hold their look from shot to shot, and narration can use a cloned voice, so a scripted series stays consistent across episodes.

The Pexo AI movie maker page, showing the description box and its script, premise, and story presets

Pexo will also draft the script itself from a premise, the same text-to-video path that turns one line into a finished cut. That is worth using as a first pass when you are staring at a blank page — but the six steps above are what turn a draft into a script that earns the viewer's attention, so read anything generated with Step 3 and Step 5 in hand.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Writing the body before the hook. A script drafted front to back tends to reach its point in the third paragraph, where no viewer is still watching. The hook is a structural decision, not an intro to write later.
  • Describing what the visual already shows. If the narration says "here is the dashboard" over a shot of the dashboard, the row is spending time twice. Let the picture carry the noun and the narration carry the meaning.
  • Counting words instead of timing. Word counts assume a delivery pace that is not yours. Reading aloud against a timer is the only estimate that survives contact with the recording.
  • Bracketed direction for everything. Directions that do not change the shot make a script slower to read and easier to ignore. Keep the ones a camera or an editor would act on.
  • Skipping the handoff test. A script that only its author can shoot from is an outline. Someone outside the planning should be able to produce the video from the page.

Putting it together

Making a script for a video is a sequence of decisions, not a writing sprint: what the video is for, which beats carry it, what promise opens it, and how it reads out loud. Run the six steps once on a short piece before scaling to a series — the read-aloud pass in Step 5 is where most first drafts lose a third of their length and all of their stiffness. Describe your first video to Pexo once the script is ready.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Should a video script be word for word?

Write narration word for word and leave on-camera dialogue looser. A voiceover is read as written, so every stumble in the script becomes a stumble in the recording. People speaking on camera sound stiff reading verbatim lines, so give them the point to make and the phrase to land rather than a full sentence.

What is the two-column video script format?

The two-column format puts what the viewer sees on the left and what they hear on the right, row by row. Each row is one scene or shot, so a producer can read down the left column to plan the shoot and a narrator can read down the right column to record. It is the default for explainers, tutorials, ads, and corporate video.

How long should a video script be?

Time it rather than counting words. Read the finished script aloud at the pace you would actually narrate it and use a timer; that number is the only reliable estimate, because pacing varies with subject, delivery, and how much on-screen text carries the message. Cut from the middle first — the hook and the close do the most work.

Why does my video script sound robotic?

Robotic scripts usually come from writing sentences that look right on the page but nobody says aloud. Long subordinate clauses, formal connectors like "furthermore", and stacked qualifiers are the usual causes. Reading the draft out loud catches them: any sentence you have to restart is a sentence to rewrite.

Do I need a script for a short video?

Yes, and short videos punish a missing script more than long ones do. Under 60 seconds there is no room to recover from a slow opening, so the hook and the single point have to be decided before recording. A short script can be six lines, but it should exist.

What comes first, the storyboard or the script?

The script comes first in most workflows. The storyboard visualises decisions the script has already made, so boarding an unwritten video means drawing shots you will redraw. The exception is a visual-led piece — a product demo or a dance video — where the shot sequence drives the narration instead.

How do you write a script that does not sound scripted?

Write in the sentence lengths you actually speak in, then break the longest one in half. Contractions, direct address, and one idea per sentence do most of the work. Reading the draft aloud and rewriting whatever makes you run out of breath removes the rest.

Can AI write a video script?

Yes, and it is most useful for the first draft and the structure. An AI draft gives you beats to react to, which is faster than facing a blank page, but it does not know your audience, your product's real limits, or the one thing you need the viewer to do. Treat the output as a starting outline and rewrite the hook yourself.

How many words is a one-minute video script?

It depends on delivery pace, so measure instead of estimating. Record yourself reading a paragraph at narration speed, time it, and divide to get your own words-per-minute figure. Use that number for every future script rather than a generic average, which will be wrong for fast or deliberate speakers.

How do you time a video script?

Read it aloud with a timer running and mark the clock at each scene break. That gives you a per-scene duration, not just a total, so you can see which scene is overrunning. Silent reading runs far faster than speech and is the most common reason a script comes in long.

Lan He avatar
Lan He

Meet Lan, Senior Video Producer at Pexo, with over a decade of experience turning complex creative workflows into steps anyone can follow. A hands-on video editor and motion designer, he has taught thousands of creators how to ship video without the overwhelm, and he puts dozens of creative tools through real production work each year to see which ones actually hold up. At Pexo, he writes both step-by-step tutorials and best-of tool roundups, screen-recording each workflow himself and ranking tools on what they deliver in a real project rather than on their feature lists.

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