Turn a script into a Short

1. 1Pick an idea for your channel, and ViewGum writes the script at the length you set.
2. 2Record it on the teleprompter in your browser, upload a take you filmed on your phone, or have it voiced.
3. 3The first cut follows the script: pauses and filler words come out, and each insert and graphic starts on its line.
4. 4Captions and sound go in, sized and placed for each app.
5. 5Change anything by chatting with the editor, then export for each app.

• A hook of 5 to 12 words for the first 2.5 seconds, with the topic or a number in its first 6 words, and other hooks to choose from.
• On-screen text of 3 to 8 words that carries the hook for people watching with the sound off.
• A second line that hints at what the end holds, then a first real fact or step by about 8 seconds.
• Beats that each add something new, joined by but, so or therefore, with a re-hook before the answer: one in a script of up to 30 seconds, two up to 50 seconds, and three in a longer one.
• The payoff the hook promised, then at most one line: a loop back to the hook, a real either-or question, or one call to action.
• For every line, what's on screen: you on camera, an insert, or a graphic such as a number, a list, a comparison or a timeline, timed to start on a word in its line.
• A teleprompter version of the whole script.

Scripts run from 10 to 90 seconds, and the word count follows from the length. Jump cuts take out the pauses, so a talking script is budgeted at 195 words a minute after the cut, a story at 160 and a voiceover at 165. A 45-second talking script comes to about 146 words.

Film yourself reading it and upload the take. ViewGum edits it like any talking-head video: pauses and filler words out, captions, graphics and sound in. The line-by-line plan for inserts and graphics comes with a script ViewGum wrote, since that is where it lives.

Each idea comes with a structure, such as a list, a myth bust, a story, a tutorial or a before and after, and the script follows it. A list saves its best item for last, a myth bust names the belief before the evidence, and a tutorial shows the result first.

• No greeting or channel intro at the start, and no wrap-up or moral at the end.
• Sentences of about 9 words on average, none over 16, in plain words.
• No engagement bait, and calls to action that ask for something real, such as a send, a save or an answer to a question.
• No invented statistic, result or quote. A general fact or a worked example goes in only once a fact check confirms it, and anything else is marked as needing a source.

• 3 and 6 secondsTikTok's guidance for ads: state what the video offers in the first 3 seconds and land the hook in the first 6As of June 2025, source 1
• Under 3 secondsis a quick skip, one of the outcomes Instagram's Reels ranking predictsAs of November 11, 2025, source 2
• Up to 3 minutesis how long a YouTube Short can run, and one over a minute with an active copyright claim is blockedAs of October 18, 2026, source 3