How Long Should a Video Script Be? Working Back from Your Runtime
Deciding to make a 10-minute explainer doesn't tell you how long the script should be. Write too much and you end up rushing; write too little and it drags. This article covers typical narration speeds, how to work back from a runtime to a script length, and how to check the length before you record. The speeds are for Japanese, measured in characters, but the method works in any language once you know your own pace.
Typical characters per minute
Japanese narration generally falls around 300–350 characters per minute. Because pauses can be tightened in editing, a video can run a little faster than a live speech and still be easy to follow. Explaining diagrams on screen, on the other hand, slows you down.
| Situation | Per minute | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Video narration | About 335 chars | Pauses can be tightened in editing |
| Internal presentation | About 310 chars | Slide changes need a moment |
| Morning meeting / 1-minute speech | About 300 chars | The pace of speaking on one topic |
| Conference / research talk | About 280 chars | Allows for stopping to explain figures |
| Wedding speech | About 250 chars | Longer pauses feel more graceful |
These figures measure only the time spent reading the script. A video's runtime also includes silent pauses, sound effects, screen transitions and shots that play without narration, so the time you calculate from a script will normally be shorter than the finished video.
Working back from runtime to script length
- 1
Set the finished runtime first
Decide on "9 minutes 30 seconds" rather than "about 10 minutes." Without a firm limit, the script grows as you write. If the platform you're posting to has a length limit, start from that.
- 2
Subtract the time nobody is talking
Add up the opening, visual-only shots, pauses and ending, and take them off first. That's 10–20% of the runtime for an explainer, and can be 30% or more for a video driven by footage.
- 3
Multiply the remaining time by your speed
With 8 minutes of talking at a narration speed of 335 characters per minute, 8 × 335 = 2,680 characters is your maximum. That's the ceiling for the script.
- 4
Aim for 90% of the maximum
Ninety percent of 2,680 gives a target of about 2,400 characters. Nerves and retakes stretch the time when you record, so a script written right up to the limit will almost certainly overrun.
- 5
Assign a length to each chapter
Divide the 2,400 characters up front, for example 300 for the opening, 1,700 for the body and 400 for the closing. Writing to a set allowance is quicker than cutting afterward.
The Reading & Speaking Time Calculator has this calculation built in. Enter your time slot and choose a situation to see the script maximum, the 90% target and an estimate in manuscript pages. Ticking "Subtract time for pauses, slide changes, and Q&A" calculates from 70% of the slot, but for a video whose pauses can be edited, it's more accurate to leave it off and subtract a percentage suited to your own video in step 2 above.
Script lengths and structures by runtime
| Runtime | Script (Japanese) | What fits |
|---|---|---|
| 15–30 sec | 80–170 chars | One conclusion, no preamble |
| 1 min | 250–300 chars | Conclusion → 1 reason → summary |
| 3 min | 750–900 chars | Intro → 2–3 points → summary |
| 10 min | 2,400–2,900 chars | Intro → 4–6 chapters → summary, with a mini-conclusion in each chapter |
| 20 min | 4,800–5,800 chars | Chapters are essential; add a contents shot |
The shorter the video, the more the real work is cutting. You can only say one thing in 30 seconds; add a second and neither gets through. After writing, check whether you can say what the video is about in one sentence.
- Put your conclusion in the first 15 seconds. This is where the most viewers drop off.
- Keep each sentence to 40–60 Japanese characters. Long sentences strung together with commas are hard to parse by ear.
- Write the pronunciation of numbers and names into the script. Hesitating during recording means a retake.
- Plan for 1 second of silence at each chapter break, and include it in your runtime.
On-screen text and subtitle length
If you turn the narration straight into subtitles, viewers can't finish reading them, because speaking speed and reading speed aren't the same. Readers can process 400–600 Japanese characters a minute, but each line is on screen for only a limited time.
- Limit each line to 13–20 full-width characters. Beyond that, text wraps awkwardly on a phone held upright.
- Show no more than 2 lines at a time. A third line starts to cover the picture.
- Leave each caption up for at least 2 seconds. Any shorter and it disappears before people finish reading.
- Use emphasis captions for keywords, not the full narration. Show everything and viewers concentrate on reading and stop listening.
When you count the characters in a line, mixing full-width and half-width text throws off the visual width. The differences in how they're counted are covered in Full-Width and Half-Width Characters.
Checking the length before you record
- 1
Read it aloud and time it
Silent reading is too fast to tell you anything. Speak it out loud and use a stopwatch. If it overruns now, it will overrun in the recording too.
- 2
Rewrite the awkward parts
Where you stumble, the sentence is usually too long or too dense. Fixing the script is faster than recording it again.
- 3
Listen to it read back
When you read your own words, they sound natural because you already know what they mean. Paste the script into a text-to-speech tool and listen to the machine voice, and you'll catch odd phrasing and words that could be misheard.
- 4
Record one chapter at a time
If you record the whole script in one take, a slip late on tempts you to start over. Record by chapter, and a fix only affects that chapter.
Cutting a script works much like the approach in Tips for Trimming Text. Removing repeated subjects, restated points and wordy phrases such as "the fact that" or "is able to" shrinks a script by about 10% without changing what it says. For scripts delivered live, see also Script Length for Speeches.
FAQ
- How long is the script for a 1-minute video?
- To fill a whole minute with narration, about 300–350 Japanese characters is the guide. Real videos, though, also have an opening, visual-only shots, pauses and an ending. If talking takes up 45 seconds after those are removed, the script is about 250 characters. Set the finished runtime first, subtract the time without talking, then multiply what's left by your characters per minute.
- My script won't fit the runtime. How should I cut it?
- First give each chapter a target length, then cut only the chapters that are over. Thinning everything evenly leaves every chapter short on explanation. At sentence level, removing repeated subjects, restated points and wordy phrases shrinks it by about 10% without changing the content. If it still won't fit, you'll get a better result by cutting one whole point and saving it for another video.
- Is talking faster better?
- It depends on the content. With pauses tightened in editing, about 335 Japanese characters a minute is still easy to follow, but when you're showing diagrams or data, slow down so viewers have time to look. Going faster packs in more information, but viewers leave if they can't keep up. Since many watch at higher playback speeds anyway, keeping your pauses and speaking in a way that holds up at speed works better than raising the original pace.
- How do I measure my own reading speed?
- Take a script, read it aloud and note how many seconds it takes. Divide the character count by that time in minutes to get characters per minute. If you've already published a video, you can simply divide its script length by the seconds of narration. Some people speak at 250 characters a minute and others at 400, so measuring once makes your runtime calculations more accurate than any general guide.
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