Can I just read my blog post on camera?

You can, but it usually sounds stiff. Written sentences are longer and denser than spoken ones. Rewrite them for speaking first.

How long will the video be?

A 1,500-word article rarely becomes a 10-minute video. Most turn into a three to six minute video after cutting and rewriting.

Should I make one long video or several short ones?

Both can work. Many articles split naturally into one longer video plus several short clips, one per key point.

How to Turn a Blog Post Into a Video Script

Repurpose written articles into video without just reading them aloud. A step-by-step method for cutting, rewriting and structuring a blog post as a script.

If you already write articles, you have a library of video ideas. The research is done and the structure exists. What you need is to turn writing for the eye into speaking for the ear.

Step 1: Find the one idea

Most blog posts contain several ideas. A video works best with one. Ask: what is the single thing a viewer should remember? Build the script around that and cut the rest, or save it for another video.

Step 2: Pull the structure

List the headings of the article. These are your video sections. Keep three to five, merge the rest. Each section becomes a short spoken chunk.

Step 3: Rewrite every sentence

Written sentences are long, with clauses and qualifiers. Spoken ones are short. Rewrite each paragraph as you would say it to a friend.

Written: "While there are numerous approaches to improving audio quality, the most cost-effective option for most creators is an external lavalier microphone." Spoken: "Want better audio? Get a clip-on mic. It is the cheapest upgrade that makes the biggest difference."

Our guide to writing for the ear covers this in detail.

Step 4: Add a hook

Articles often open with context. Videos cannot. Write a new opening that makes a promise or asks a question in the first three seconds. See video hook formulas.

Step 5: Replace visuals with words or shots

Articles use images, lists and tables. On video, decide for each one: show it on screen, describe it simply, or cut it. Tables rarely survive the move to video.

Step 6: Cut by a third

Read the script aloud with a timer. Most first drafts are a third too long. Cut repetition, side points and anything that only made sense as text.

Step 7: Mark up delivery

Add pauses, emphasis and section breaks. In Cue, bold marks emphasis, [pause] adds a direction and # headings create sections, none of which are read aloud or counted as words.

Bring the text in easily

If your article lives in a doc or a web page, paste it into your prompter and tidy it up. Cue can tidy text pasted from a web page or a PDF, which saves cleaning up line breaks by hand.

Make clips too

Each section of the article can become a short vertical clip. One article, one main video, three or four short ones. That is how a single piece of research turns into a week of content. See our guide to batch recording.