How to write a YouTube script (and check every fact)

A good YouTube script is written for the ear and in blocks: an opening that says within a few seconds what the viewer is going to get, a body divided into sections with one idea each and a close that pays off the promise in the title. Before recording, pull out of the text the list of checkable claims (dates, figures, names, causes) and give each one its source. Whatever has no source is removed or presented as what it is: a hypothesis or an opinion.

Before writing: brief and research

The script begins before the first sentence. Write a half-page brief with four answers: what question the video answers, who it is aimed at, what the title promises and which sources you will use. If you cannot answer the first one, the idea is not ready yet; you can find criteria for choosing it in ideas for a YouTube channel.

Then research with a list of questions, not with a draft. Note each fact with its source and the date you consulted it. Prefer primary sources (the body that publishes the statistic, the original document, the product's official page) to third-party summaries. And respect what your channel will never say: the channel bible exists for that.

A structure that works

1. Opening. One or two sentences that pose the question or the conflict. No long greetings and no “before we start, subscribe”.
2. Promise. What the viewer will know by the end of the video. It has to match the title and the thumbnail.
3. Body in sections. Three to six blocks, each with one idea, one example and a transition that announces the next.
4. Twist or strong fact. Halfway through the video, something that changes the perspective: a counterexample, a surprising figure or a new question.
5. Close. It answers the promise in one sentence and, if you like, suggests the next video.

An example for a history video about a railway line: an opening with the question of why it was built; a promise to explain how it changed the district; three sections (the project, the construction and the first year); a twist with the engine driver's diary; and a close with what remains of the line today. Each section has its title, which will later serve you for the chapters.

Writing for the ear

• Short sentences and one idea per sentence. What reads well does not always sound right.
• Rounded numbers, said as they are pronounced. Write figures just as you want them to sound, especially if a synthetic voice is going to read them.
• No brackets or footnotes. If something is secondary, take it out of the script.
• Read each section aloud before accepting it: where you stumble, the listener will stumble.
• Work out the length at your own pace. Time yourself reading a paragraph and divide the script's words by your words per minute. The Estudio de Canales, for example, uses 150 words per minute as a reference, the pace of a documentary narration in Spanish.

How to check every fact in the script

Verifying is not asking an AI model whether something is true: a model can give results that look plausible and are incorrect, and can even invent links to pages that have never existed. Verifying means placing next to each claim the source that supports it. A simple method:

1. Extract the claims. Copy into a list every sentence that contains a checkable fact: dates, quantities, proper names, records, cause-and-effect relationships.
2. Give each one a status. Verified (it has a reliable source that says exactly that), unsourced (you have not found one yet) or contradicted (a reliable source says something else).
3. Check that the source says the same thing. Same figure, same date, same scope. If the source says “around”, your script cannot say “exactly”.
4. Decide before recording. The verified ones stay; the contradicted ones are corrected; those that still have no source are removed or reworded as opinion or hypothesis.
5. Keep the list. It is useful for the video description and for answering a comment that asks where a fact comes from.

From script sections to chapters

If the script is well divided, the video's chapters almost write themselves. According to the official YouTube help on chapters (in Spanish), to add them by hand you put a list of timestamps with their titles in the description, with three conditions: the first timestamp starts at 00:00, there are at least three timestamps in ascending order and no chapter lasts less than 10 seconds. If you add chapters in the description, automatic chapters are overridden.

That is why it helps for each script section to have a short, descriptive title: it will be the chapter's name. Go over the remaining upload details with the checklist for publishing a YouTube video.

Writing the script with AI help

AI is useful for the outline, for proposing alternative openings or for shortening sentences. YouTube does not ask you to disclose this use: among the examples that do not require the AI-generated content disclosure it lists using generative AI tools to create or improve outlines, scripts, thumbnails, titles or infographics. And among the examples of content that can be monetised, its policies include content that uses AI to edit video scripts when it helps to offer a unique, well-documented or creative narrative.

The condition is that the judgement and the facts are yours. If you want to see how the script fits into the rest of the process, we cover it in how to make YouTube videos with AI, step by step.

Typical mistakes

• Writing like an article. Long paragraphs and subordinate clauses that get lost when read aloud.
• Promising in the title something the script does not deliver. The audience notices in the first minute.
• Giving a figure without a date. A statistic from years ago told in the present tense is a mistake, even if it was true.
• Quoting from memory. A verbatim quote without a source is an invention until proven otherwise.
• Changing the script after recording without re-recording. Voice and text stop matching, and so do the subtitles.

How the Estudio de Canales does it

In the Estudio de Canales the script is a phase with its own rules. The video goes through research, brief, outline, script, verification and approval, and everything that is generated or edited is a new version: the previous one is never overwritten. The AI only extracts the checkable claims from the script; they all start unsourced and become verified when a person adds a source to them. Verification can also be done without AI: the person notes the checkable claims and their sources. Approving the script requires having passed verification, and the program does not let you assemble a video whose script has not been approved.

Next, the storyboard divides the approved script into scenes without rewriting it: each scene's narration is, word for word, that of the approved script. The subtitles come from that script and the actual audio length of each scene, and the chapters come from its sections and are validated against YouTube's rules.

Sources consulted

Checked on 9 October 2026. We link to the original source so that you can consult the current text.

• Capítulos en vídeos. YouTube (Google LLC) · Centro de Ayuda.
• Avisar sobre el uso de contenido generado por IA. YouTube (Google LLC) · Centro de Ayuda.
• Políticas de monetización de canales de YouTube. YouTube (Google LLC) · Centro de Ayuda.
• ¿Qué son las alucinaciones de la IA?. Google Cloud.