Gixo Quill · content guide
Video Script Templates
A video script is not an article read aloud. It is paced for speech, front-loads the payoff, and is written to be spoken. The structures below cover the four business video types, and all of them share one rule: say what the viewer gets in the first ten seconds or they leave.
Last reviewed: August 2026
The rule every format shares
- Ten seconds to the payoff. Say what the viewer will get, or show it. Intros, logos and channel housekeeping all cost you the audience.
- Write for the ear. Short sentences, one idea each. Anything that needs re-reading fails when spoken.
- One idea per video. Two competing points in a short video means neither lands.
- Speak the numbers. 'Roughly a third' is easier to hear than '31.4%'.
- Time it before recording. Around 130 to 150 spoken words per minute — a two-minute video is roughly 280 words.
Four structures
| Type | Shape | Typical length |
|---|---|---|
| Explainer | Problem, why it persists, the idea, one example, takeaway | 60–120 seconds |
| Product demo | The job, the current pain, the flow on screen, the result | 90–180 seconds |
| Testimonial | Who they are, the situation before, what changed, the number | 45–90 seconds |
| Short-form | Hook, one point, payoff | 15–45 seconds |
Video script example
A complete 30-second explainer, written the way a script should arrive: what is on screen beside what is said, so nobody writes narration the footage cannot support. The product below is invented; the shape is the point.
| On screen | Voiceover |
|---|---|
| 0:00 Cursor over a 40-row expense spreadsheet, a receipts folder open beside it | Matching receipts to an expense report takes most finance teams an afternoon a month. |
| 0:04 Three rows highlighted, each with no receipt attached | The slow part is not the arithmetic. It is finding the three lines with no receipt. |
| 0:09 The receipts folder dragged onto the app window | Drop the whole folder in and every receipt is read and matched to a line. |
| 0:15 Unmatched rows flag amber one at a time, amount and date visible | Anything that cannot be matched is flagged with its amount and date, so you chase four things instead of forty. |
| 0:22 The approved report, timestamp visible | The afternoon becomes about six minutes. |
| 0:27 Product name and one line of text, held still | Close the month without the receipt hunt. |
That is 81 words, which at a normal 140 words a minute lands just under thirty-five seconds: close enough to record and trim. The payoff arrives at four seconds, the demonstration at nine, and nothing at all is spent on an introduction.
Explainer video script template
The same script with the specifics removed. Fill the right-hand column first and write the on-screen column against it, never the other way round.
| Beat | On screen | What the line has to do |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:04 The cost | The situation as it looks today | Name the job and what it currently costs in time or money. No greeting, no company name. |
| 0:04–0:09 The real reason | The point of failure, isolated | Say in one sentence why it persists. This is the line that earns the next twenty seconds. |
| 0:09–0:15 The move | The single action, performed | Show the thing being done. One action, not a tour of the product. |
| 0:15–0:22 The evidence | The result appearing on screen | What changed, stated as something countable. |
| 0:22–0:27 The outcome | The finished state | The before figure against the after figure. Speak the numbers roughly rather than precisely. |
| 0:27–0:30 The close | Name and one line, held still | One instruction or one claim. Never both. |
Seventy-five to ninety spoken words fills thirty seconds. Write past it and cut, because the lines that survive a cut are the specific ones.
How Gixo Quill handles this
VideoScript is a distinct Quill content type rather than an article variant, so the output is paced for speech from the start. The speaking-time calculator converts a draft to spoken minutes before you record, which is the check most scripts skip.
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a video script?
Front-load the payoff into the first ten seconds, write short sentences for the ear, keep to one idea, and time the draft in spoken minutes before recording.
How long is a two-minute script?
Roughly 280 words at a normal speaking pace of 130 to 150 words per minute. Counting words is more reliable than estimating from the page.
What goes in the first ten seconds?
What the viewer will get. Intros, logo animations and channel housekeeping in that window are the most common cause of early drop-off.
Can I use my blog post as a script?
Only as source material. Written sentences are longer and more subordinate than spoken ones, so reading an article aloud sounds like reading an article aloud.
Should a script include the visuals?
Yes for demos and explainers — noting what is on screen beside each line prevents writing narration that the footage cannot support.
What does a video script look like?
Two columns with a timestamp against each beat: what is on screen on the left, what is said on the right. Written as prose instead, it produces narration the footage cannot support.
How do you write an explainer video script?
Name the cost in the first four seconds, say why the problem persists, show one action rather than a tour, then state the result as something countable. Around 75 to 90 spoken words fills thirty seconds.
Related content guides
Write it as a script, not an article
Quill produces video scripts as their own content type, paced for speech and timed before you record.
Inside Quill
Reuse the source artifact without losing its context
