Keeping Scripts Fluid When Recording Video Tutorials
One of the first tasks in creating video tutorials involves writing a script. In informal situations, you can simply use an outline or wing it, but corporate settings require higher professional standards.
I absolutely hate it when project managers get too involved in the video scripts. I’ve been on projects where the project manager decides to pull in several other team members and all write the script together alongside the technical writer. I can think of fewer situations that I detest more. (Maybe following behind horses in a parade and scooping manure in the hot sun — maybe.)
One problem is that script-writing by committee invariably trends toward frankenstein-like copy. But there’s an even larger issue. When you’re writing a script, you often don’t realize all the weaknesses of the script until you actually read it aloud in the simulation.
For example, let’s say you painstakingly create a script and print it off. Then you go to your recording room and begin the simulation, narrating the script. When I do this, invariably I find myself making little alterations here and there to the script based on things I didn’t catch as I wrote it.
If you’re a voiceover artist reading copy for a commercial, you can’t change the script. Even if it’s poorly written, you pretty much have to stick with what’s there.
But if you’re a tech writer creating a video tutorial, you can change the script on the spot. I actually bring in two computers into my recording room — one computer with the script, and one computer where I do the simulation. As I read the script, I can make adjustments to what I’m saying on the spot.
Here’s my setup in my recording room. Since I have both a Mac and PC, I’m a little constrained. The Mac just records sound better (it’s quieter and more stable). But my regular computer is a PC, hence the two.
I record the simulation on the Mac laptop, and I adjust the script on my PC. It’s great having the script in an editable location while I read.
For example, I may decide that I have too many explanatory sentences and need to get to the action more quickly, so I delete a sentence or two. I may realize that I don’t need phrases like “click the Edit button in the upper-right corner”; I can just say “Click Edit” because the user can see exactly where and what I’m clicking, so location phrases may be unnecessary.
Sometimes I realize that a phrase that may have seemed smooth in writing doesn’t — for whatever reason — read well. So I change it. Each time I read the script, I make some more refinements to it.
The ability to make adjustments to the script based on what you hear as you read provides incredible advantages in creating scripts. In Peter Elbow’s Vernacular Eloquence, Elbow quotes two writers who explain how speaking writing causes you to make adjustments:
When writers are able to talk their text into a computer, speech errors may suddenly appear in writing. But other things may also happen. Writing, as some linguists and computer experts suggest, may change form and become more speechlike, more like a talking text than we now know, but yet not “speech writ down.” There is also the possibility that what will emerge will be a “friendlier” text than could or would be produced by the pen or typewriter. (Horowitz and Samuels, intro)
In other words, when we speak the words, we trend towards friendly text. We don’t always catch this when we work solely in writing mode. In writing mode, it’s easy to slip into euphemisms, indirectness, or sophisticated structures. But when we hear ourselves saying these things, it just doesn’t sound right. We need to make adjustments to make the text actually sound human.
Whatever you have, whether one computer on two monitors, or two computers and two monitors, or something else, the point is this: keep your script somewhat fluid in the recording room. You won’t know exactly how it sounds until you read it. That little voice in your head that you heard when writing the words often plays tricks on you. It’s a different voice from the one coming out of your mouth.
YES! This is excellent advice. l frequently do voiceovers for technical videos and it’s the curse of death for me to have an inflated script.
First, I’m not a pro. I can’t read through a page of text without stuttering or mis-pronouncing something. On Thursday, I was recording a video and there was a line that read “large blogs” that I kept pronouncing as “blargs” — I finally had to omit ‘large’ to get through the take. (I record in tiny pieces instead of one large file.)
Second, inflated scripts are just plain BORING. I narrate software demos so if I have to read three paragraphs of content on a particular screen, that means the action stops – nothing is happening. I either have to manually insert callouts or emphasis and then sync it to the narration or my viewers will click out and check their email while I drone on for two minutes.
We do produce scripts by committee, though. That’s because it’s much easier to edit the script before I do all the recording. Once a video is done, I hate having to add to it or make changes. It’s never quite as good as if it’s done in one take.
One compromise I want to investigate further? The idea of embedding a video in a video. If I want the dull dry explanation, I can click on the embedded link and expand that portion of the video similar to expanding a glossary definition. Otherwise, it never plays.
Great post, Tom. Reading content out loud is now something I do for my fiction work. It helps identify when I’ve written too much narrative or exposition, forgot commas, or used words that trip up the tongue.
Excellent points on written vs oral speech.
It’s true that writing text that is meant to be read aloud versus writing other more, “silent” types of texts often highlights major differences in authoring tendencies. As you mention, we tend to be more informal when we speak. Yet, when writing “silent” texts, the writing style changes over to more formal, “heavy” language… Strange.
It makes me wonder:
Would it be beneficial to read even just regular tech docs out-loud before sending them off for testing/validation? Some writers already do this, but mainly in a context of spontaneous self-correction in the event of linguistic doubt (oh the doubt) or even when pre-proofreading.
SO: Why not integrate the reading aloud checks into the actual revision process and quality checks?
Just a crazy idea on a Monday evening…
Thanks for the article
This may be going a bit far, and taking things to the extreme, but the article got me thinking about more interesting ways to KISS (keep it simple …).
Excellent post! Many years ago, I was on a team of tech writers creating scripts for video tutorials. We smugly submitted our drafts, which were immediately returned to us with the admonition “Read iyour script out loud.” When we did, we were all dutifully humbled.
I love the idea from Sarah about reading all our docs out loud.
And I’d recommend a variation on KISS for audio scripts – Keep It Simple and Succinct!
Yes, keeping the script simple and reading it out loud are probably two of the most important techniques. The great thing about videos is that by their very nature they can’t get too complex. If you can’t demonstrate it on the screen, then it doesn’t really work in a video.
Tom, you’re absolutely right that the speaker should have the freedom to tweak the script while reading the voiceover. That can become problematic, however, in a regulated environment where every word has to be vetted by the Legal department (or whoever). In that case I’d echo what others have already said: read the copy out loud – both before seeking approval, and again afterward.
Yes, it takes extra work. But it’s worth it, because it can save your listener from a truly unpleasant experience (one not unlike following behind horses in a parade).
Larry, thanks for commenting. Re seeking approval, I am glad I’m not in such a regulated environment. If that were the case, I think the voiceover performance must accommodate for stiff copy. Being able to edit the copy during the recording makes it easier to do the voiceover.
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