Storytelling

YouTubers know this (so why do they ignore it?)

July 28th, 2023

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10

min read

Every YouTuber wants filming to be stress-free.

You wanna sit down, hit record, and get into your flow.

But there’s a significant barrier to this freedom that most creators endure.

And it’ll consistently impact your stress levels while filming until you take steps to overcome it.

So let’s talk about what that barrier is and the 1-step technique to solve this problem forever.

Showtime!

I’m gonna show you this technique in context to illustrate how powerful it is.

So…

This is me and my pal Ollie.

In this photo, we’re about to go on stage to perform our new hour-long comedy show, “Framed”.

But, little did we know, we were also about to completely miss out an entire scene.

Yep.

We literally just forgot to perform it and skipped ahead by about a page of dialogue.

Sounds like a disaster, right?

Actually… it was the best thing that could have happened to us.

And the reason for that has to do with the technique I mentioned in the intro.​

So, the show ends, and we realise we completely skipped an entire scene.

But what the audience told us afterwards shocked us…

They hadn’t noticed.

Despite missing two huge flashbacks that provided “crucial” context for the rest of the show, nobody in the room had realised.

(Except our director who was probably the silhouette I saw frantically waving at me).

The next day, we re-read the script and realised something totally unexpected.

The dialogue we’d missed out was actually a repetition of some information we’d introduced earlier.

In a nutshell…

It wasn’t necessary.

That meant something pretty mindblowing had happened…

The natural momentum of the performance had caused our brains to recognise the repetition and cut it out.

(Or we just suck at learning lines 🤦 But go with me here!)

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Why this matters

When you actually speak the words you’ve written, it casts them in a whole new light.

  • You recognise when you’re giving loads of exposition without any payoffs.
  • You notice things that looked good on the page but feel awkward to say.
  • You realise when you’re repeating yourself because you can hear it.

Which brings me back to you.

And the absolutely invaluable step you need to take with your scripts from now on:

Read them aloud.

It might feel OTT, but I promise you this…

There’s at least one thing in the script you’re working on right now that you would delete if you heard it read aloud.

The thing is, you already know this.

In the past, you’ve probably had to make these edits while you’re trying to record.

But catching this stuff early, rather than discovering it while the camera’s rolling, makes filming scripts 10x easier.

But this only works if you commit to it.

Say the words as if you were performing them on camera.

Because you won’t know how it feels unless you really go for it.

And it doesn’t have to be boring either.

You can be creative, like Jake…


Trust me, when you actually say the words…

…you’ll see every sentence in a new light.

⚡️ Action Item

When you finish your next script…

  1. Read it aloud after 24 hours without looking at it, or…
  2. Record it and listen back to it 24 hours later.

Look out for: repetition, awkward phrases, boring bits.

That’s all for now!

Speak soon,

George 👋

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