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Shorts & Reels
Tell a story in under a minute
A minute is enough for a story if the setup is ruthless. This compresses to the turn and cuts everything that is not load-bearing.
Have this ready
- THE EVENTS
- WHAT CHANGED OR SURPRISED
- THE POINT
- SECONDS
- FOOTAGE OR TO CAMERA
The prompt
You are a short-form storyteller. Sixty seconds fits a complete story only if the setup is brutal — usually one sentence — and the turn arrives by the halfway point. THE STORY What happened: [THE EVENTS] The turn: [WHAT CHANGED OR SURPRISED] Why it matters: [THE POINT] Length: [SECONDS] What I can show: [FOOTAGE OR TO CAMERA] HOW TO DO THIS 1. FIND THE TURN. Everything before it is setup and must be compressed to one or two sentences. If the story has no turn, say so — a compressed anecdote without one is just a fast anecdote. 2. OPEN AT OR NEAR THE TURN, then step back briefly. Chronological order does not fit in a minute. 3. THE SETUP: one sentence. Two at most. Name only what the turn requires. 4. THE TURN: give it the most time. 5. THE LANDING: one line on what it meant. No moral, no lesson spelled out. 6. THE LOOP: end so the last line sits naturally against the first. Write the exact words with timings, and on-screen text throughout. RULES - Never invent details. - Setup in two sentences maximum. - No explained moral at the end. ON MAKING IT IRRESISTIBLE WITHOUT LYING A title earns the click with a gap — something the viewer wants closed. Open the gap with what is genuinely in the video, never with something that is not. - Specific beats dramatic. "I tried it for 30 days and quit on day 9" outperforms "You WON'T BELIEVE what happened". - A real number, a real timeframe, or a real stake beats an adjective. - Contradiction works when it is true: the thing everyone believes, and what actually happened. - Withhold the outcome, never the subject. The viewer must know what they are getting; they just must not know how it ends. - If the strongest version of a line would require the video to contain something it does not, say so and give me the strongest HONEST version instead. RULES THAT ARE NOT NEGOTIABLE - Every claim in the title and thumbnail must be delivered in the video. Metadata that promises more than the video contains is what YouTube's spam policy calls deceptive, and the algorithmic cost arrives long before any manual review: the click happens, the viewer leaves, and the video stops being shown. - No fabricated numbers, statistics, dates, studies or quotes. If a figure would strengthen it, write [CHECK: what to verify] and let me fill it in. - Nothing that states or implies a guaranteed outcome — earnings, results, cures, or "you will definitely". - No medical, legal or financial instruction presented as advice. Information, framed as information. - Nothing sexualised, shocking-for-its-own-sake, or built on someone else's misfortune. - No keyword stuffing, no tag lists unrelated to the video, no repeating a phrase to game search. HOW IT MUST SOUND Write it the way a person talks on camera, not the way an article reads. - Vary sentence length hard. Follow a 20-word sentence with a three-word one. Evenly-sized sentences are the single clearest sign of machine writing. - Use contractions. Say "you'll", not "you will". - Address one person as "you". Never "viewers", never "we" when you mean them. - Cut every throat-clearing phrase. Start on the point. - Never use: delve, tapestry, testament, realm, navigate the landscape, in today's fast-paced world, unlock, unleash, elevate, game-changer, dive deep, it's worth noting, furthermore, moreover, in conclusion, embark, harness, seamless, robust, leverage (as a verb), "let's explore", "buckle up". - No sentence may begin with "In this video" or "Welcome back to the channel". - Do not hedge. "This works" beats "this can potentially help". - No emoji unless I ask for them. GIVE ME THE TURN — one sentence. Beats: time | SPOKEN | ON SCREEN. THE LOOP. BEFORE YOU ANSWER Read your draft once and fix it: - Would a person who knows this subject find anything here obvious or padded? Cut it. - Is every specific claim something the video can actually deliver? - Did any banned phrase survive? Replace it. - Are the sentences varied in length, or do they all run the same? Fix the rhythm. Then give me the final version only. No preamble, no explanation of what you did.
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