How to write a short video script for TikTok, Reels and Shorts
A short video is decided in its opening. The first seconds decide whether people stay, and everything after that only matters to the ones who stayed. A script is how you make those seconds count before you press record, instead of hoping they work out in the edit.
This guide covers what a good short script holds: the hook in three layers, a structure for 15, 30 and 60 seconds, lines written for the ear, text on screen, showing instead of telling, the close and how to film it alone with a phone. The generator above writes a first draft in that shape, so you can spend your time on the parts only you can judge.
The hook is three things at once
On a feed of short videos, the hook is not only the first sentence. It is the line you say, the text on screen in the first frame and what the camera shows, all at the same moment. A viewer meets the three together, and the strongest openings make them point at the same thing.
Picture a bakery owner. The camera shows a tray of burnt croissants on the counter. The text on screen reads "Our first Saturday". She says: "We opened with forty croissants and burnt every single one." Each layer adds something the others do not, and none of them gives away what happened next.
- The spoken line carries the story: who, where, one concrete detail.
- The on-screen text works with the sound off and names the moment in a few words.
- The first frame shows something specific, never a face waiting to talk.
Open a story, not a lesson
The most common weak opening announces what the video will teach: "How to keep your plants alive", "Three tips for a cleaner kitchen", "Here is my best advice". It names a topic and asks the viewer to want a lesson. Most people do not, so they keep scrolling.
A story hook drops the viewer into a moment instead. It has a person the story happens to, a moment you could film, one concrete detail and an outcome that is left open. The teaching still happens, but it rides inside the story.
| Lesson hook (weak) | Story hook (stronger) |
|---|---|
| "How to keep your houseplants alive" | "A customer brought this fern back to my shop in a carrier bag, and it was not dead." |
| "Three tips for faster haircuts" | "My first client sat in this chair for two hours, and I was the one sweating." |
| "My best advice for new runners" | "I bought these shoes at 52 and could not run to the corner." |
| "Here is how we pack orders" | "This box went to the wrong country, and the customer still ordered again." |
- Lesson hook (weak)
- "How to keep your houseplants alive"
- Story hook (stronger)
- "A customer brought this fern back to my shop in a carrier bag, and it was not dead."
- Lesson hook (weak)
- "Three tips for faster haircuts"
- Story hook (stronger)
- "My first client sat in this chair for two hours, and I was the one sweating."
- Lesson hook (weak)
- "My best advice for new runners"
- Story hook (stronger)
- "I bought these shoes at 52 and could not run to the corner."
- Lesson hook (weak)
- "Here is how we pack orders"
- Story hook (stronger)
- "This box went to the wrong country, and the customer still ordered again."
A structure for each length
The length changes how much story you can tell, not the shape of it. Every script opens on the hook, moves through a few beats and ends on a close. A beat is one small step: a moment, a turn or a reveal, with its own line and its own picture.
Keep to one idea per video. If you have two things to say, you have two videos. A 60 second script with one idea and room to breathe beats a 60 second script with four ideas squeezed in.
| Length | Shape | What it fits |
|---|---|---|
| 15 seconds | Hook, one beat, payoff | A single reveal or a before and after |
| 30 seconds | Hook, two or three beats, close | A short story with one turn in it |
| 60 seconds | Hook, four to six beats, close | A story with a setback and the moment it changed |
- Length
- 15 seconds
- Shape
- Hook, one beat, payoff
- What it fits
- A single reveal or a before and after
- Length
- 30 seconds
- Shape
- Hook, two or three beats, close
- What it fits
- A short story with one turn in it
- Length
- 60 seconds
- Shape
- Hook, four to six beats, close
- What it fits
- A story with a setback and the moment it changed
Write for the ear
A script is spoken, not read. Lines that look fine on paper often trip you up when you say them aloud, so keep each line short enough to say in one breath. If you run out of air halfway, split it.
Use the words you would use with a customer at the counter. Short words, one thought per sentence, no lists of three adjectives. Read the whole script aloud once before filming; every place you stumble is a line to rewrite.
Text on screen is read with the sound off
Many people watch with the sound off, at least for the first seconds. The text on screen is how they decide whether to turn it on. It should not repeat the spoken line word for word; it should name the moment or the stake in a handful of words that read at a glance.
Keep the text away from the bottom of the frame and the right edge, where the app puts its own buttons and the caption. One short line at a time is plenty. If a beat needs two lines of text, the beat is doing too much.
Show it, then say less
If the camera can show it, you do not need to say it. "The garden was a mess" is weaker than a shot of the knee-high weeds with you saying nothing. Use the spoken line for what the picture cannot carry: the feeling, the number, the thing you did not expect.
For every beat in your script, write what the camera shows next to what is said. If the picture column says "me talking" five times in a row, look for an object, a place or a hand doing something you can cut to instead.
The close
End on one of two things: a last line that lands the story, or one clear ask. A line that lands might be the outcome you held back, or what the moment taught you, said in a sentence. An ask might be to follow for the next part or to save the video for later.
Pick one ask, never several, and skip the stock "like and subscribe". It reads as bait and gives the viewer no reason. If the story was good, the ask can be small.
Filming it alone with a phone
The scripts the generator writes are made for one person and a phone. A few habits make that easier.
- Film each beat as its own clip. If one line goes wrong, you only redo that line.
- Prop the phone at eye height and face the light, a window works well.
- Film the pictures that carry no speech (the object, the place, your hands) separately, then lay them over the talking clips.
- Do the hook last, once you are warmed up. It is the take that matters most.
- Watch the first seconds back with the sound off. If they still make sense, the hook works.
What the generator follows, and what it leaves to you
The script follows the same rules as this guide: a story hook, lines you can say in one breath, one idea per video, a single ask or a line that lands, and no hashtags. It never invents clients, prices, statistics or results, so any figure in your video should be one you can stand behind. If you only need the opening, the hook generator gives you several first lines to choose from.
The generator gives you two free runs once you accept cookies, with no signup. Quetzal, the software behind it, writes scripts like this for a brand to film on its own phone, picks the opening from a library of tested visual hooks, and can also make the video for you with an AI actor, captions and music, then publish it. The free demo shows what it makes from your website.