How to Write a Video Script (for Reels and TikTok)

To write a video script for Reels or TikTok, pick one idea for one viewer, write a hook that lands in the first 3 seconds, make a single point in the body, and close with one call to action. For a 30-second video that's about 75 words. Then read it out loud and cut.

That's the whole method. The rest of this post is the detail that makes it work, from someone who wrote scripts for about 500 posts over three years and around 40 million views. More than 30 of those videos passed 100k views. Most didn't. The difference was almost never the camera or the editing. It was the script, and mostly the first line of it.

Step 1: Pick one idea and one viewer

Before you write a word, finish this sentence: "This video is for ___, and after watching it they'll know ___."

If you can't fill both blanks, you don't have a script yet, you have a topic. "Instagram tips" is a topic. "Why a bakery owner's Reels get 200 views, and the one change that fixes it" is an idea.

One viewer matters because a short video has no room to hedge. The moment you try to talk to beginners and experts at once, the hook gets vague and both groups scroll past.

Step 2: Write the hook first

The hook is the first 1 to 3 seconds: the line you say and the text on screen while you say it. I write it before anything else, because if the hook is weak nothing after it gets watched.

I've had the same idea get 1,300 views with one opening and 14,000 with another. Same idea, same person. Only the opening changed.

A few hook shapes that keep working:

My biggest Instagram video was 12 seconds long and hit 1.7M views. It worked because the hook and the payoff were almost the same moment. Short videos forgive a thin body. They don't forgive a slow start.

Step 3: Write the body around one point

The body delivers what the hook promised, and only that. One tip, one mistake, one story. If you have three tips, you have three videos.

Two rules keep a body tight:

• Write for the ear, not the page. Short sentences. Words you'd actually say. If a line makes you stumble when you read it aloud, rewrite it.
• Cut the warm-up. "Hey guys, so today I want to talk about..." burns the seconds your hook just earned. Start with the substance.

Platforms reward this directly. TikTok says a strong signal of interest is whether someone finishes watching a longer video from beginning to end. A body with no filler is how you get there.

Step 4: Close with one call to action

Give the viewer one thing to do, and pick it on purpose. Instagram says the most important predictions it makes for Reels are how likely you are to reshare a reel, watch it all the way through, like it, and open its audio page.

That lines up with what I saw on my own accounts. The videos that grew fastest weren't the ones with the most likes. They were the ones people sent to a friend or saved. So instead of "like this video", try:

• "Send this to the friend who keeps posting at 11pm."
• "Save this for the next time you're stuck on a hook."
• "Comment 'script' and I'll send you the template."

One CTA. Two makes the viewer choose, and they'll usually choose neither.

Step 5: Read it out loud and cut to length

Most people speak somewhere around 150 words a minute on camera, so word count is the easiest way to hit a length:

Read the script out loud with a timer running. Then cut 10%. In my experience a script almost never gets better by getting longer.

A video script template you can copy

I write every script in the same three blocks, with a note for what's on screen:

HOOK (0–3s)
Say:    [the first line, one sentence]
Screen: [the text overlay, 6 words max]

BODY (3–25s)
Say:    [the one point, in short sentences]
Show:   [what's on screen: you talking, a screen recording, B-roll]

CTA (25–30s)
Say:    [one action: send, save or comment]
Screen: [the same action as text]

The "Screen" line matters more than it looks. Plenty of people scroll with the sound off, and for them the text overlay is the only hook there is.

Example: a 30-second script, start to finish

Here's the template filled in for a dentist who wants patients, not just views. It's 69 spoken words, right around 30 seconds:

HOOK
Say:    "Your electric toothbrush is probably doing half its job."
Screen: Your toothbrush is doing half the work

BODY
Say:    "Most people press too hard and move it like a manual brush.
         Don't. Hold it at 45 degrees against the gumline and let the
         head do the work. Two seconds per tooth, then move on. If your
         brush has a pressure light and it keeps flashing red, that's
         you scrubbing."
Show:   Close-up of the angle, then the pressure light

CTA
Say:    "Send this to the person you share a bathroom with."
Screen: Send this to them

Notice what isn't there: no intro, no "in this video", no second tip. One viewer, one point, one action.

Common video script mistakes

• Saving the best line for the end. On short-form, the end is where nobody is left. Lead with it.
• Writing paragraphs. If a sentence has a comma and an "and", it's probably two sentences.
• A CTA that asks for nothing. "Hope this helps!" isn't an action.
• Skipping the read-aloud. A script that reads well silently can still sound stiff on camera.

How long should a video script be?

As long as the idea needs and not a second more. For Reels and TikTok that's usually 15 to 60 seconds, or 35 to 150 words. When you're starting out, shorter is safer: a 20-second video that people finish tells the algorithm more than a 60-second one they leave halfway.

Should you read your script word for word?

Write it word for word, then record in short takes, one or two sentences at a time. You get the precision of a script without sounding like you're reading one. Cut between the takes in editing. The jump cuts also help the pacing.

Can AI write a video script for you?

Yes, with a big condition: the AI is only as good as what it knows about you. A generic chatbot will give you a clean hook-body-CTA structure, but in a voice that isn't yours, on an idea that isn't from your niche. I wrote about where that falls short in ChatGPT for content creators.

That gap is why I built the AI script generator in Dalea AI. It starts from an analysis of your profile, then writes the script from an idea or adapts a video that already worked in your niche, in the way you talk. For me, going from a blank page to a posted video dropped from about 90 minutes to about 30.

Whether you use AI or a notes app, the structure above is the part that doesn't change. One idea, one hook, one point, one action. Write the hook first, and read it out loud before you hit record.

Written by

Bruno Kalil

Founder of Dalea AI. I write first-person posts about why I built the product, how it works under the hood, and what I learn helping creators grow on Instagram and TikTok with AI.