4 Tips for Writing Good Scenario for Your Training Videos

When you think of your favorite movies or TV shows, they probably have one thing in common: a great script. A solid script covers the story and characters, clarifies the setting and tone, and includes all character dialogue. Moreover, it can be thought of as the blueprint for all the creative work that goes into filmmaking, from the budget, location, visual design to the costumes, makeup and special effects.

But what does filmmaking have to do with education? Most training teams have neither access to a multi-million dollar budget nor a multi-year production timeline, but this should not affect the quality of the script for the training videos. In fact, you should take a cue from the filmmakers and first of all create a good script in your head, because a good script is absolutely essential to creating an effective video tutorial. After all, an educational video needs to do more than just entertain people; influencing human behavior.

So how can you add “Hollywood-level screenwriting” to your educational skills set? We've put together four tips below to get you started.

1. Determine the type of training video you need

Educational videos come in a variety of genres, from pure showiness with short screen recordings that take users through an app or highlight product features, to cinematic experiences with story lines and detailed drawn characters.

Sometimes educational videos include a narrator who tells students what is most important, while some videos describe situations similar to the situations students encounter at work, allowing students to draw their own conclusions about key messages by following the characters.

There are almost endless ways to mix and match all the different types of training videos. But before you start writing anything, consider the best way to use video to get the results you're looking for. Finding examples of different training videos on YouTube can be a helpful way to get inspired if you're not sure where to start.

2. Draft before the script

Much like writing a quick design brief for an e-learning course, a video script sketch is a great way to present your ideas to the team before they start writing a full screenplay.

A video outline can be a simple one-page document that provides a brief summary of the characters and key events in the story. An effective video outline should be inclusive enough for stakeholders to read and understand quickly, and detailed enough to draw a picture of the video's story and setting. More specifically, an effective video outline should be able to:

• Clarifying the desired learning outcomes of the training video
• Include the structure and key events of the story
• Highlighting characters and their roles in the story
• Help you identify potential plot shortcomings or areas of confusion before you begin writing the screenplay
• For these reasons and more, taking a few moments to consider the goals of the training video and create a short script is not only a valuable creative exercise, but a smart strategy to avoid time-consuming rework.

3. Keep your videos short and concise

It's always best to keep the content of an e-learning course or a training video (or both) concise. Just as long courses can weaken your student's attention, long videos—no matter how well written—can do the same.

We recommend videos between 3 and 8 minutes. However, sometimes a longer video may be required to support the learning objectives of the project; in these cases you can try to write short scenes and create transitions between different scenarios. Doing so makes it easy to edit a large video into smaller ones in post production and ensures that your story doesn't feel too bumpy.

4. Be realistic

An easy way to spot a poorly written video script is to spot a robotic and forced dialogue. This is definitely not what we want.

Avoid this by producing content that can be encountered in real life. If you're still having problems writing screenplays, here's some more advice:

Write the script in a conversational tone. Read your dialogue aloud as you write. Listen to yourself as you read, try replacing the official language with colloquial words (for example, use “can't” instead of “cannot”).
Talk to the audience. When people watch videos in a ready-to-learn way, they expect to be addressed to themselves, not the public. This means writing in engaging and personal ways. For example, avoid third-person phrases such as "Before you begin, viewers should note that the volume can be adjusted by clicking the + or - icons" and be careful to use more direct and personal statements such as "You can adjust the volume by clicking the + or - icons".
Use active constructs. Passive structures sound incredibly strange, especially when speaking. For example, try reading the following sentence aloud:

"The car was started by Tom."
Strange, isn't it? Now read this written sentence out loud:

"Tom started the car"
This is much better, isn't it? The active sentence is not only clearer and easier to understand, but also shorter.

• Do not use dialogue to explain what the audience can already see for themselves. For example, avoid the protagonist saying things like, "The customer looked angry while walking," while the actor playing the customer role is walking. This is not only clear and forced dialogue, but also an ineffective instruction for the person playing the customer role. Adding this to a character's dialogue is confusing and can cause the cast to decipher the moods and motivations of their characters to the audience.

To summarize

Writing a video script that is engaging, effective for students, and easy to follow for the cast and crew of the video can be difficult, but with a little practice, you're sure to get it done. Using the tips we share here, there's no reason why you shouldn't create a blockbuster video tutorial!