TikTok and Shorts Scripts: The Structure That Works in 60 Seconds (With Examples)

A short-form script is about 150 words, with the hook in the first two seconds, one idea in the middle, and a last line that either asks for one thing or sends the viewer back to the start. That's it. Everything that goes wrong with Shorts goes wrong by breaking one of those three.

Here's the structure in detail, the word counts that fit, and three scripts you can read as they are.

How long is a TikTok or Shorts script?

Sixty seconds is about 150 words at a conversational pace, and most Shorts run 160 to 170 because people talk faster when they know the clock is short. Thirty seconds is about 75 words. Fifteen seconds is 35 to 40, which is one sentence and a punchline.

Written scripts run long out loud, so write under. A 60-second script of 140 words leaves room for the pause before the payoff, which is where the video either lands or doesn't.

If you want the number instead of the estimate, paste the script into the script timer. It shows the time as you type, and at a fast pace (175 words a minute, which is what a Short sounds like) it tells you whether you're over. It'll also cut the script to 60 seconds in your own words if you're at 200 and don't want to do it by hand.

What's the structure of a short-form script?

Four beats, and the first one is most of the work.

The hook (0 to 2 seconds). The most interesting thing in the video, said first, with no greeting. The viewer decides in the first swipe-length whether this is for them. "Hey guys" is a swipe.

The turn (2 to 10 seconds). Why this matters, or what most people get wrong. One sentence. This is the bridge from "interesting" to "I want the answer."

The payoff (10 to 50 seconds). The one idea, with one reason and one example. Not three tips. Not a list of five. One. A second idea is the next video.

The last line (50 to 60 seconds). Either one ask ("the full version is on the channel") or a line that loops back to the hook so a rewatch feels natural ("so that's why the first number is wrong"). A loop rewatches; a "thanks for watching" doesn't.

How do you write a hook for TikTok?

Say the thing. Four shapes that work, with the version I'd use for a real-estate or a trading video:

• The claim. "The listing price is a negotiating position, not a value."
• The question they already have. "Why does every house in this neighborhood sit for 40 days?"
• The result first. "This is the chart from Tuesday. Here's what I saw at 9:31."
• The number. "One hundred and fifty words. That's a 60-second video, and you're writing 300."

The test for a hook: if the first line could open any video, it isn't one. "Today I want to talk about scripts" opens any video. "You're writing your Shorts twice as long as they should be" opens this one.

Three example scripts you can read

Each of these is 70 to 90 words, about 30 to 35 seconds read aloud: shorter than the full minute on purpose, because one idea rarely needs it. A 60-second version would be about 150 words. They're marked up with the section tags ScriptFox uses, so they paste into the editor as chapters; drop the tags if you're reading from anywhere else.

A tip, about 35 seconds

## Hook {Hook}
Your Short is too long, and it's not the editing. It's the script.

## Body {MainPoint}
Sixty seconds is about 150 words. Most people write 250 and then talk fast to fit, and fast is what reading sounds like. Here's the fix. Write it, paste it into a timer, and if it says 90 seconds, cut a whole idea, not a few words. You'll feel like you're losing something. You're losing the part nobody stayed for.

## Outro {Outro}
One idea, 150 words, and the pause before the point. That's a Short.

A story, about 35 seconds

## Hook {Hook}
I read my first fifty videos off a laptop screen, and you can see it in every single one.

## Body {MainPoint}
Eyes down, eyes up, eyes down. I thought nobody noticed. Everybody noticed. The fix wasn't memorizing, I tried that and it came out flat. It was putting the words next to the lens and letting them move at my pace instead of the app's. The first take I did that way is still the one I'd show you.

## Outro {Outro}
Put the words by the camera. Let them follow you. Your eyes stay up.

A list that's secretly one idea, about 30 seconds

## Hook {Hook}
Three things a video script needs, and they're all the same thing.

## Body {MainPoint}
A hook, a promise, and a payoff. The hook opens a question. The promise says you'll answer it. The payoff answers it. Three names, one job: don't make the viewer wait for a reason to stay. Every Short that dies, dies in the first two seconds, waiting.

## Outro {Outro}
Open the question. Promise the answer. Answer it. In that order.

How do you read a script on your phone without looking like you're reading?

Two things: where the text is, and who sets the pace.

Put the text as close to the lens as you can. On a phone that means the top of the screen, right under the camera, in a few big lines rather than a wall. The further the words sit from the lens, the more your eyes travel, and the viewer reads the travel.

Then let the words move at your pace. A fixed-speed prompter makes you chase the text or wait for it, and both show. A prompter that follows your voice only advances when you say the words, so a pause for effect is a pause, not a scramble. The ScriptFox phone app does this on iPhone and Android, with the script in a window beside the camera while you record.

The long version of the eye-contact problem, with the setups that work, is in how to not look like you're reading a teleprompter.

The takeaway

One idea. The hook in the first two seconds, no greeting. About 150 words, written a little under. A last line that asks for one thing or loops to the first. Time it before you film, read it from next to the lens, and let the text follow you rather than the other way around.

Pick one of the three scripts above, paste it into the timer, and read it once out loud. Then write yours.