Transcription
I'm going to let you in on something. Nearly every long video on this channel, well, I'm reading it. There's a script scrolling right next to the lens. And hopefully, you'd never know. And well, it's not just me. Nearly every big YouTuber that you watch, well, they're all doing the same thing, and you just can't tell.
So, how do you read every word and still sound like you're not? So, first off, what is it that gives someone away? Well, a reading voice just kind of happens. You look at one word and then the next word and then the next. Every word can be right, but you strip out all the melody, the speed, the little changes in how you'd normally say it if you are chatting to a friend and the point just doesn't land because reading the words isn't the same as meaning them. You've seen it. Someone sounds like one person when they're chatting and a completely different person the second they're on camera. Our job is to make those two people the same person. I don't want you to feel that join where I'm reading, where I'm just riffing. It's the same voice. Hopefully, we can lose that seam.
Right. The first thing that helps isn't really a trick. It's the writing. I keep my language dead simple, roughly at a seven-year-old's reading level. Short sentences. Have a look at LinkedIn and you'll see people writing synergy and all that. I'd never say synergy to a mate, would you? And there's actual science that says people trust simple language more. You won't look less clever. You'll look more like you know your stuff. So simple words and short lines. It lands harder and it's far easier to read out loud without tripping up.
So, what am I actually using? Let me show you rather than tell you. A tripod, a Mag Safe mount, the iPhone on the front, and the app doing all the clever bit is Prompt Smart Pro. And it's listening to me. Watch as I say these words. It scrolls along at exactly my pace. That's it. The whole rig. No settings. The camera's on auto. The mic's on auto. My only job is to frame up and press go and talk.
Now, this is the bit that changes everything. Let me prove it to you. This is me on a prompter set at a fixed speed. The words are sliding up and I'm chasing them. If I slow down to make a point, oh, now I'm behind, so I've got to race to get the next bit. And if I change it the other way round, and then this, it's a prompter that listens. I can slow right down on this bit and even throw in some kind of adlibly. I could go off script for a couple of sentences and then pick it back up. See, I just threw that in. And then we are going to pick that script straight back up. I wrote the words on both versions, but I changed completely. One of them is chasing, one of them is talking. And that's the whole difference.
But why does that chasing the scroll ruin it? Because, well, if the speed's fixed, then your average speed must stay the same the whole way through a video. So, the second you slow down to emphasize something, your brain goes, "Right, how the heck are we going to get this back on track?" And that's it. Now, you're thinking about the scroll, not about what you're actually saying. and the meaning kind of falls straight out of your words and onto the floor.
When the prompter listens instead, that pressure is just well gone. I can take my time over an entire section, if I fancy it, and all that spare brain power goes back into the one thing that truly matters, the meaning. Right onto the eyes. And it's something that I've not heard anyone else talk about. Honestly, it's also quite hard to describe because I'm not sure I even think about it anymore. But here's what I think I do. I read a little bit ahead. So, while I'm saying this line, I've already grabbed the first few words of the next one. And then I look away like I'm remembering it. And then I come back to you to say it. I'm not staring you down. I'm not staring down the barrel. I'm looking away, having a think, and then coming back. Same as I would be if I was talking to a friend. Just those little eye movements, and it stops looking like I'm reading.
The other trick I'm doing here is if you're in a studio, you're in a fixed position and I'm trying to trick you that I'm not reading because I'm further away. How could I be reading a prompter from here? But I'm just remembering those first couple of lines and then coming in and saying what I need to say.
And now the adlibs. This is where it gets good. My script has line breaks whenever I have a new thought and where that starts. It's not one big wall of text. In those gaps, there's room to throw something in if I want to. I could talk about um TV presenters that I really admire because I watch them go on and off script so much just with ease. I think I've mentioned Zoe B before, but she has a way of just reading and then ad living and coming back on that just feels so natural. And that's what all the best presenters do. And these adlibs, they don't need to be big. They just need to be tiny. And here's a bit of useful information because if I fluff a line, I don't sit there berating myself. I pause, look away, and I find a way to weave that sentence back into the main script. I've even cocked up this very take, but I've worked my way around it because the goal was never to say every word perfectly. It was to get the whole meaning across. And sometimes the adlib is better than the line I wrote.
Here's a practical tip. I film in tiny chunks, one or two minutes. And it's not just for the edit. It makes the reading easier, too. Because if I mess up, I've only lost 2 minutes, not 20. So, the pressure's off and I can go, you know what? Let me give myself another go at that one. And in the edit, I just look for the big gaps in the audio waveforms. That's where I stopped and reset and trim it down to the good take. Try recording 20 minutes in one go and you'll see the difference. You get bored. You overthink it. you start to pick holes in yourself, small chunks every time.
So now someone's thinking reading a script is cheating. Just speak from the heart. And look, speaking from the heart is a lovely place to be. But here's how I see it. If I just riff to make my life easier, I'm not respecting your time. Scripting it, getting it right, keeping it simple. That's me showing you some love. That's the respect. It's in the pre-production. A thousand short form videos taught me that the prep is the whole game. Skimp on it and your content does suffer. Honestly, my best videos have never the ones that I've just winged. And I keep those little ums in the little pauses on purpose because if you ever meet me, I RL, I want you to feel like you've met the same person who's on the screen. We can fight AI by creating certified organic content. That's what I'm going for.
So, here's your one thing before the next video. Write a script just a minute long. Put the extra line breaks in. Little spots where you can look away and have a think and get comfortable being on camera when you're not talking. Because that pause, the bit where you say nothing, that's where it starts to look real. I'm still working on this, too. Right. Go and script something and then go and forget it's a script. If this helped, hit subscribe. One of these every week. And if you want the setup that goes with this, how I look confident and not fake on camera, that's the one to watch next. and tell me in the comments, do you use a prompter or are you still winging it? I read every single comment.