YouTube Shorts Script Template: A Fill-In Plan for 45 to 60 Seconds, With 3 Examples

How long should a YouTube Shorts script be?

YouTube now lets you upload Shorts up to 3 minutes long, as long as the video is square or vertical. That doesn't mean an explainer should use all of it. A single "why" question usually has one answer, and 45 to 60 seconds is enough to set it up, complicate it and pay it off without padding.

Plan in words. At a calm narration pace of about 2.5 words a second (150 a minute), 45 seconds is about 112 words and 60 seconds is 150. Time yourself reading any paragraph of 150 words; if it takes 66 seconds, you speak about 10% slower, so aim 10% shorter.

The same math gives you a picture count. If a new picture appears every ~5 seconds, a 60-second Short needs about 12 pictures, each carrying about 12 words of narration.

The YouTube Shorts script template, beat by beat

Here are the seven beats with their timing and word budget at both lengths. The 45-second column is the 60-second budget times 0.75, rounded.

The fill-in line is a starting shape, not a rule. What matters is the job of each beat: if a line does the job in fewer words, take the savings.

What to fill in before you write the script

Most bad Shorts scripts go wrong before the first sentence, because the writer starts drafting with a topic instead of an answer. Fill in these five lines first. If you can't fill one, research more before writing.

1. The question: one "why" or "how" question a curious person would type. "Why is a marathon 26.2 miles?", not "marathon history".
2. The answer in one sentence: if it takes two, the topic is two Shorts.
3. The wrong answer people believe: this becomes beat 2.
4. The strangest true detail, with its source: this becomes beat 1 or beat 5.
5. The callback: a word or image from the hook that can return in the last line with a new meaning.

Example 1 (history): Why is a marathon 26.2 miles?

The planning lines: the wrong answer is the Greek messenger legend, which explains the name but not the number. The real answer is the course of the 1908 London Olympics, which started at Windsor Castle and finished in front of the Royal Box, a distance later made official in 1921.

The script below is 138 words, so it runs about 55 seconds. Labels are the hand-lettered words on screen.

• Beat 2 kills the legend fast instead of retelling it, which saves about 20 words.
• Beat 4 ("nobody had fixed an exact distance") is the complication that makes 1908 matter.
• Beat 7 turns "castle" from the hook into a physical place on the course.

Example 2 (science): Why do onions make you cry?

The planning lines: the common assumption is that onion juice splashes your eyes. The real answer is a chain reaction: cutting rips the onion's cells open, enzymes turn a sulfur compound into a gas, and that gas becomes a weak acid in your eyes. The chemistry here follows this explainer in The Conversation.

This one is 145 words, about 58 seconds. Notice that the complication arrives as a second enzyme: the first answer is true but incomplete.

Example 3 (personal finance): How long does money take to double?

The planning lines: the answer is the rule of 72: divide 72 by the yearly rate to estimate the years it takes to double. The complication is that it also works against you, for fees. This Short teaches arithmetic, not investment advice, and the script keeps it that way.

The numbers are derived, so you can check them: 72 ÷ 8 = 9 years; the exact figure at 8% is 9.006 years, and 0.006 of a year is about 2 days. At 50%, the rule gives 1.44 years against an actual 1.71, a gap of about 3 months. This script is 124 words, about 50 seconds.

How do you adapt the template to other lengths?

The seven beats stretch and shrink by changing the middle, never the ends. The hook and callback stay short at every length because their job doesn't grow with the runtime.

Common mistakes when filling in a Shorts template

Templates make drafting faster, and they also make some mistakes faster. These are the ones that show up most when the brackets get filled in a hurry.

If you make Shorts with StickTale, the script is drafted to a similar plan (a hook in the first line, an open loop, escalation, a twist and a payoff that calls back to the hook) and fact-checked against its research notes. Use the list below as your edit pass on that draft, and rewrite any line in the editor; it gets re-voiced automatically.

• A greeting in beat 1. "Hey everyone" uses the most valuable two seconds of the Short.
• Answering in beat 2. If the full answer comes at second 5, the viewer has no reason to stay for second 30.
• A complication that isn't one. "And there's more" is not a "but". Beat 4 must make the first answer incomplete.
• Numbers without a source. Every number on screen should trace to a page you opened.
• A callback that only repeats. Echo a word from the hook, but give it a new meaning, like "castle" or "72" above.
• Lines nobody can picture. If a line can't become one clear drawing, rewrite it until it can.