5 Unique Writing Tips Straight From YouTube

Time is running out. The sand keeps pouring from everywhere. Your desperate calls “My stones are drowning!” aren’t enough for the crowds to help. So you helplessly watch your diamonds disappear in the sand forever.

Your Stories are diamonds but if you treat them as stones no one would read them.

Writing has existed for centuries, but some of the rules that we follow to this day hinder our success. The Internet has changed the rules of the game because Writing isn’t only reserved for magazines or books. Everybody writes and your Story is just one grain of sand in the desert of content that is the Internet.

The purpose of every content creator on the Internet is to keep their audience consuming their content for longer. It’s similar between all social media realms but one we can truly learn about for writing is actually for videos.

Building a brand on YouTube teaches you a lot of things; marketing, video editing, filming, talking, analytical thinking, and other realms mashed into one. And it also teaches you that sharing videos on the Internet isn’t that different from publishing stories.

Writing and YouTube are more similar than you think. If you take tactics used to keep viewers watching more and for longer, and replace the word watching for reading, you’ll get the same thing.

Being anonymous left me with the huge challenge of growing myself only through my soul and talent. The tips I’ll share are ones you’ve never heard before, some of which will be controversial, but have worked to great success for me.

And pay attention to the story itself, because in a meta way, it uses the same principles through and through.

Nobody Knows You

This one seems straightforward but it’s pretty hard to do.

We all escape to formality and politically correct writing because nobody loves opening up. Being vulnerable sucks. However, it’s exactly what turns a small list of tips into a full-blown personal story.

Sure, it’s easier for me because I’m on an anonymous account, but I do it as well on my nonanonymous accounts. By adding my quirks and humor to my stories I make them mine. People are drawn to people, not robots.

How it would look like is adding personal stories.

Your story has a purpose you wish to share with the world. If it’s a personal story, then great. But most of the time it’s a lesson you want to share or teach everybody.

That’s what I do here. Share insights and tips from my life lessons.

The easiest thing is to shake our heads when we’re about to share a personal story. I can’t share that. That’s too personal. Nobody cares.

If it’s too personal, create a similar life story with another character and draw examples for it. I’ve done it in some of my stories and it worked flawlessly. Stories can be made up, as long as they truly serve a point.

But if it isn’t too personal, then share it.

Sharing your outlook on things and your life is what makes your content yours, and not just another copy-paste look-alike in the sea of stories on the internet. Your vibe attracts your tribe. And it’s what ultimately draws engagement from readers.

Stop looking at claps as a measure of success. If one title works better than another it doesn't mean one story is better. It just means it wasn’t interesting enough.

But if people leave comments on your story, you hit the jackpot. That’s the biggest indication that you’re making progress as a writer. It’s also another place for you to be more personal and answer people with true honest answers.

Avoid answering generic thank yous unless the answer is truly short.

This cycle of adding personality to your stories and comments is what will build your audience. Your stories might be interesting, but people only come back for other people. Make them interested in you.

Stop Concluding

This is the worst thing to exist here.

You’re probably raising your eyebrows and scratching your head. How can this be a valid point since we’ve all been taught at school to finish our stories with conclusions? Everybody is also doing it here on Medium.

They are wrong.

Conclusions are the worst thing in a YouTube video because it signals the viewer that the video is over. I’ve seen the drop in watch time over and over until I gave up conclusions altogether. Once a viewer gets what he wants from a video, he has no point to keep watching.

Readers are the same.

If you think about it in a cold logical manner, why do we need a conclusion? Your story already laid out all the points in a good and concise way. A conclusion is just a repetition of what a reader already read.

We’re wasting our time writing these redundant summaries. We’re wasting the reader’s time by reading a digest summary of what they already read. It’s pointless.

And it’s modern.

I’m sure you’ve heard of decreased attention spans. It’s an evolution towards being more efficient. By removing conclusions we are joining the modern world and allowing our readers to be efficient.

But there is also one thing that is great about removing a conclusion.

It’s sudden. It’s driving your car down a road expecting a sign to warn you from a cliff realizing you’re already flying in the air. Nobody expects that.

Flying off a cliff isn’t fun, but coming to a sudden halt of a story leaves room for more. It’s a cool hack because instead of easing a user into the ending, we’re pulling the rug under their feet. And although not proven, they have more chance to reach our call to action.

Just look at how suddenly I stopped the previous point. I’m doing the same thing here.

Hook Up

With an abundance of content on the Internet, it’s hard to compete. You might be the best writer in the world, but no one would read your stories if you can't make them compelling.

We all add our five tags to our Medium story, but how few of us change the description of the story? How few of us think of an interesting proposition instead of a lame intro?

You have to hook your reader from the beginning.

Readers are like slippery worms, escaping your fingers quickly unless you have a good hook. Then you can get the big fish. This metaphor is an example of a hook by itself.

Instead of describing it in a boring way I’ve put a picture in your head and added a small joke to it. I’ve always loved creating jokes out of conversational context so I’ve become pretty good at it. However, it doesn’t mean you must become a joke guru.

You just need to practice.

So how do you hook a reader? These are some of my favorite ways taken straight from the codex of YouTube. Hooking up a viewer to watch your video is the same as getting your reader to start reading.

Be Weird

“Unmasked But Free — Win Our Two Faced Culture”

This is a story discussing anonymity and the correct way to use it in today’s society. It points out the implications and downsides of being anonymous.

But naming it “Anonymity In Today’s Society” won’t have anybody click on it. Why? Because barely anyone today is anonymous. We’re all transparent in today’s social fabric.

We also need to remember the title is just the door opening up slightly to peek into the room. The title gets a reader in, but the intro gets them reading. Your title needs to be followed by a compelling reason to read.

It’s exactly what I intend to do in all of my stories as well. I always write a compelling story or description that piques a reader’s curiosity. This is the pre-intro for the story about anonymity:

“We can wear our insides out, but that won’t be pleasant to anybody. I mean, who wants to see guts hanging out?”

That’s the pre-intro right after the title. Then I can write my intro as we all do, to ease the reader in. Skipping the pre-intro risks us losing the reader after clicking our story.

Title Hook -> Pre-Intro Hook -> Image -> Intro -> Story

This is the only format I use for my pre-intros and it has worked flawlessly. I love telling stories, so it’s a good opportunity to test that, and it resonates with the audience.

The four other tips are mainly about titles, but can also be easily translated to pre-intros.

Be Curious

“Is AI Killing Your Genius?”

This is a story about misusing AI and how intent matters. I share a firm point of view against AI for writing with examples for and against it. The intention is to start a discussion about it.

But who would click it if it was named “Using AI For Writing”? It would be too vague or misleading. Perhaps people will mistake it for a story giving tips about AI for writing.

You know your story well. Ask a question that summarizes its main point. Imagine you are a random reader on the Internet; If you click your story, then it’s a good title. If you’re not sure, go back to the drawing board.

Drop Names

You can keep your family name. I swear no names were hurt during the writing of this story.

What I mean is famous people.

This only works if your story is somehow related to an important figure a lot of people might know. The interest in the name alone is a great hook for those who are curious about them.

I wrote a story about how we can learn from Casey Nesitat, a famous vlogging YouTuber and I made sure to leverage his name.

“Casey Neistat has taught me a lesson about writing”

Regret

“5 Mistakes Every Writer Must Fix”

I hardly use this title type but it’s great when you’re out of options. Most of my stories are flowing from my mind effortlessly, but stories such as this one are making things harder. I knew what points I wanted to convey but I lacked the title and pre-intro that I left for last.

In a pinch, always ask yourself — what is the point of your story?

Mine is to make you a better writer. However, writing “5 Tips To Make You A Better Writer” won’t work because we all think we’re the best. It’s a sad truth but we’re all cocky to one point or another.

We just hate admitting it to ourselves.

A great rule of thumb is to take a generic title like that and flip it. Convey the same message but from a negative point of view. That way our cocky nature will work against us because we don’t want to make mistakes.

We want to be the best.

It’s also adding a bit of curiosity. What negative thing can happen if I don’t read this story? Suddenly, your reader must find out what it’s all about.

Of course, for this publication this title is too vague so I had to change it to curiousity: “5 Unique Writing Tips Straight From YouTube”. It has the same goal in mind but adds something unusual you don’t see every day.

Contradict

“Get Better By Doing Nothing”

This is a story about the importance of rest. In it, I discuss how sometimes the best advancements happen after a good rest, and how we should be easy on ourselves.

I could have called it “The Importance Of Rest” but who would have read that? We all know how rest is important. Readers will miss the great unusual tips of this story simply by reading the title.

I don’t expect you to rack your brain for hours to find a good contradiction for your story. Don’t force it. Practice it.

You can start by writing small contradictions in your stories and build up confidence. Treat each story as a chapter in the long book of your writings rather than a single piece. It will be your training ground.

Your Story Will Never Be Perfect

Great writers weren’t born in a day.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of perfecting every comma and word in our stories until they reach peak perfection. But it might hinder our progress. Wasting time on the remaining 1% could cause another story to never be born.

When you’re starting out it’s easy to let perfectionism get the better of you. It sure did for me. But with time I’ve realized I am building a catalogue of videos or a collection of stories.

Your story isn’t in a vacuum.

It’s a piece of the big book that is called your life’s work, or the current chapter of your life. Each story teaches you something and is a precursor for the next one. So one story not going so well, might be a teaching moment for the next to go better.

Treat each story like a chapter. Focus on building a body of work. Readers are attracted to famous writers because they have a lot of work behind them.

So your single story might be the best out there, but it’s just a single chapter.

Stop Executing Your Readers

It’s a disease nobody talks about. You can see it in every Medium post. Thousands of readers just die.

I’m sorry. You killed them too. You killed their readership.

Sure, some of them might have clapped or clicked your newsletter link, but the chance of them reading your stories is zero.

One of the most important metrics on YouTube is the amount of videos a user watches from a single creator. It’s become common to drop conclusions for hooks to related or similar videos right at the end. We drop the rug under the viewer to offer him another rug present in the next video.

Stories are the same.

Link your reader to a similar story. Not only are you keeping them satisfied but you’re also making sure your stories get more eyes. And do it in a smart interesting way with a small hook instead of just dropping the URL and calling it quits.

This is how the structure of every story should be:

Title -> Pre Intro -> (Image) -> Intro -> Story -> Next Story Proposition -> Call To Action

You’ll probably also find it useful to read about a famous YouTuber called Casey Neistet and how I took his style and adapted it to writing:

Casey Neistat has taught me a lesson about writing

5 Mistakes Every Writer Must Fix was originally published in The Writing Cooperative on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.