Finding Peace in Patience: Slowing Down Your Online Video Experience on YouTube (60 Chars, a Bit Long but Full of Helpful Info)

YouTube Slow: How to Slow Down YouTube Videos [3 Ways]

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Have you ever wanted to learn something from a YouTube video, but found that the video is too fast? If you are wondering how to slow down YouTube videos, then you’re in the right place. Well, there are different ways to slow down YouTube videos and in this article, we will show you how to slow down the YouTube videos with 3 most effective ways: slow down the YouTube videos by changing playback video speed at playback, slow down YouTube video using YouTube’s Video Editor tools or change YouTube video speed to slow down or speed up with Wondershare Filmora video editor .

• Part 1: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion
• Part 2: Add Slow Motion with Wondershare Filmora (originally Wondershare Video Editor)
• Part 3: Add Slow Motion with YouTube Video Editor

Part 1: YouTube Slow Down: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion

While, you can now change the speed of any YouTube videos easily and watch YouTube videos in slow motion in a few steps. Below is how to slow down YouTube Videos:

• Open the video in YouTube
• Click the Settings icon on the bottom right and then you will see Autoplay, Annotations, Speed, Subtitles, and Quality options. By default, the speed is set to Normal. Click Speed and open the speed change options. The speed options are in multiples.

• Choose the target video speed from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x to slow down the play back speed of the YouTube video. You can also select 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x or 2x to fast forward this YouTube video depending on how fast or slow you want the playback of the YouTube video to be.
• That’s it how to make a YouTube video slow down by changing the playback speed. If you selected 0.5X, you will see the playback speed is half of the original speed. You can now see the YouTube video is played back in a slower speed.

You May Also Like: Take good use of YouTube’s Enhancements feature to improve your video quality.

Besides, watching YouTube videos in slow motion, you can also make a slow motion video and upload to YouTube. The Flash from Zootopia is so impressive and you can see a lot of memes and gifs online about this funny cute sloth. In the following part, we will show you how to make a slow motion YouTube video like the sloth Flash in two ways by adding slow motion effects.

Part 2: Add Slow Motion to YT Videos with Wondershare Filmora video editor [3 Steps]

Wondershare Filmora is an easy-to-use yet powerful video editing tool to which let beginners edit their YouTube videos in minutes. It includes every classic video editing functions including adjust playback speed, trim, crop, rotate, split as well as many special editing features like Jump Cut, Mosaic Blur and Tilt Shift. Now let’s see how to add slow motion with this video editing software.

Step 1. Import Video Footage to Filmora Video Editor

First of all, you need to import all your video footage for YouTube videos to Filmora. If you want to slow down a video downloaded from online, like youtube, please make sure there is copyright issue for you to use the video before processing. In case that you want to download YouTube with free youtube downloader, you can try Wondershare Free Youtube Downloader and Video DownloadHelper (Firefox Add-on).

After downloading YouTube videos on hard disk, you can now import it to this YouTube video editor. The downloaded YouTube videos is usually in FLV format, and Filmora has a wide range of support for video formats, which includes FLV as well. You can either click “Import” on the primary windows and select YouTube FLV video file from your computer, or simply drag and drop YouTube FLV file to the User’s Album. Next, drag YouTube video from User’s Album to Timeline for editing.

Step 2. One click to add slow motion to YouTube video

On the Timeline, click on the added YouTube video and select Speed and Duration to open up the video custom speed window. You will see the Speed option, Duration, Reverse Speed and Ripple Edit options. and the speed number indicates fast or slow motion. To slow down the YouTube video, drag the speed slider to left and you get a slow down version of the YouTube video. You can slow down the YouTube video in 0.01x. Click the OK button to save the slow motion settings and then click the Play button in the preview windows to have a look at the new YouTube slow down video. You can also change the duration of the YouTube video to change the YouTube video speed. For example, if you want to slow down a 30-second YouTube video to half speed, you can just enter the duration to 60 seconds to get a slow down motion effect.

With Filmora youtube video editor, you can also add the slow motion effects to some certain clips of the video footage. What you need to do is use the split feature to split the video first. Learn more details about How to Cut / Split / Trim Videos without Quality Loss

Step 3. Export slow down YouTube video

You could continue editing YouTube videos. When all done, click “Export” to save the result. You can save YouTube video in any popular formats on the computer by clicking “Format”. If you want to play YouTube video on iPod, iPhone, iPad, click “Device” and select your device. You can also share the YouTube video up to YouTube or Vimeo directly or burn YouTube video to DVD.

See, with Filmora video editor you can slow down YouTube videos with ease, what’s more, you can also apply reverse effects to play Youtube videos backwards. Download and try this YouTube Slow motion effect and you will master how to slow down YouTube videos.

Related:How to Make Slow/Fast Motion Videos

Part 3: Slow down YouTube videos with Slow Motion in YouTube Video Editor

Updated: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide.

If you’ve ever been annoyed by the speed of your user-generated videos on YouTube, try out its own video editor. As YouTube has added a new “slow motion” tool to its YouTube Editor, it does pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Here is a simple guide on how to add slow motion with it.

Step 1: Get Access to YouTube Video Editor. You can either go directly to the URL, which is https://www.youtube.com/editor , or click “Upload”>”Edit” to the Video Editor tab.

Step 2: Drag your video on the timeline and double click it. In the pop up window, you will see the “Slow Motion” option. Enable it and then select how slow you want the video to be. This applies the effect to the entire video that you’ve selected.

If you just want to slow down parts of the video, go back to the main editing tab, clip it from the original video using the slicing tool and add the slow-motion effect to that clip only. You can then arrange the different clips you have in the editor to create your final video.

Step 3: Tick the option “Preview effects side-by-side” with original video and then you can see how the original video plays compared to the one you’ve slowed down. If you’re happy with the result, hit “Done” to save the settings.

Conclusion

Above are the 3 ways that you can watch a YouTube video in slow motion, and slow down YouTube videos. You can directly change the playback speed of the YouTube video on Youtube, or download the YouTube video first and then slow down the speed of the YouTube video with some video editing software for YouTube like Filmora. No matter which way you prefer, we hope these information can help you slow down youtube videos.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Have you ever wanted to learn something from a YouTube video, but found that the video is too fast? If you are wondering how to slow down YouTube videos, then you’re in the right place. Well, there are different ways to slow down YouTube videos and in this article, we will show you how to slow down the YouTube videos with 3 most effective ways: slow down the YouTube videos by changing playback video speed at playback, slow down YouTube video using YouTube’s Video Editor tools or change YouTube video speed to slow down or speed up with Wondershare Filmora video editor .

• Part 1: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion
• Part 2: Add Slow Motion with Wondershare Filmora (originally Wondershare Video Editor)
• Part 3: Add Slow Motion with YouTube Video Editor

Part 1: YouTube Slow Down: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion

While, you can now change the speed of any YouTube videos easily and watch YouTube videos in slow motion in a few steps. Below is how to slow down YouTube Videos:

• Open the video in YouTube
• Click the Settings icon on the bottom right and then you will see Autoplay, Annotations, Speed, Subtitles, and Quality options. By default, the speed is set to Normal. Click Speed and open the speed change options. The speed options are in multiples.

• Choose the target video speed from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x to slow down the play back speed of the YouTube video. You can also select 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x or 2x to fast forward this YouTube video depending on how fast or slow you want the playback of the YouTube video to be.
• That’s it how to make a YouTube video slow down by changing the playback speed. If you selected 0.5X, you will see the playback speed is half of the original speed. You can now see the YouTube video is played back in a slower speed.

You May Also Like: Take good use of YouTube’s Enhancements feature to improve your video quality.

Besides, watching YouTube videos in slow motion, you can also make a slow motion video and upload to YouTube. The Flash from Zootopia is so impressive and you can see a lot of memes and gifs online about this funny cute sloth. In the following part, we will show you how to make a slow motion YouTube video like the sloth Flash in two ways by adding slow motion effects.

Part 2: Add Slow Motion to YT Videos with Wondershare Filmora video editor [3 Steps]

Wondershare Filmora is an easy-to-use yet powerful video editing tool to which let beginners edit their YouTube videos in minutes. It includes every classic video editing functions including adjust playback speed, trim, crop, rotate, split as well as many special editing features like Jump Cut, Mosaic Blur and Tilt Shift. Now let’s see how to add slow motion with this video editing software.

Step 1. Import Video Footage to Filmora Video Editor

First of all, you need to import all your video footage for YouTube videos to Filmora. If you want to slow down a video downloaded from online, like youtube, please make sure there is copyright issue for you to use the video before processing. In case that you want to download YouTube with free youtube downloader, you can try Wondershare Free Youtube Downloader and Video DownloadHelper (Firefox Add-on).

After downloading YouTube videos on hard disk, you can now import it to this YouTube video editor. The downloaded YouTube videos is usually in FLV format, and Filmora has a wide range of support for video formats, which includes FLV as well. You can either click “Import” on the primary windows and select YouTube FLV video file from your computer, or simply drag and drop YouTube FLV file to the User’s Album. Next, drag YouTube video from User’s Album to Timeline for editing.

Step 2. One click to add slow motion to YouTube video

On the Timeline, click on the added YouTube video and select Speed and Duration to open up the video custom speed window. You will see the Speed option, Duration, Reverse Speed and Ripple Edit options. and the speed number indicates fast or slow motion. To slow down the YouTube video, drag the speed slider to left and you get a slow down version of the YouTube video. You can slow down the YouTube video in 0.01x. Click the OK button to save the slow motion settings and then click the Play button in the preview windows to have a look at the new YouTube slow down video. You can also change the duration of the YouTube video to change the YouTube video speed. For example, if you want to slow down a 30-second YouTube video to half speed, you can just enter the duration to 60 seconds to get a slow down motion effect.

With Filmora youtube video editor, you can also add the slow motion effects to some certain clips of the video footage. What you need to do is use the split feature to split the video first. Learn more details about How to Cut / Split / Trim Videos without Quality Loss

Step 3. Export slow down YouTube video

You could continue editing YouTube videos. When all done, click “Export” to save the result. You can save YouTube video in any popular formats on the computer by clicking “Format”. If you want to play YouTube video on iPod, iPhone, iPad, click “Device” and select your device. You can also share the YouTube video up to YouTube or Vimeo directly or burn YouTube video to DVD.

See, with Filmora video editor you can slow down YouTube videos with ease, what’s more, you can also apply reverse effects to play Youtube videos backwards. Download and try this YouTube Slow motion effect and you will master how to slow down YouTube videos.

Related:How to Make Slow/Fast Motion Videos

Part 3: Slow down YouTube videos with Slow Motion in YouTube Video Editor

Updated: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide.

If you’ve ever been annoyed by the speed of your user-generated videos on YouTube, try out its own video editor. As YouTube has added a new “slow motion” tool to its YouTube Editor, it does pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Here is a simple guide on how to add slow motion with it.

Step 1: Get Access to YouTube Video Editor. You can either go directly to the URL, which is https://www.youtube.com/editor , or click “Upload”>”Edit” to the Video Editor tab.

Step 2: Drag your video on the timeline and double click it. In the pop up window, you will see the “Slow Motion” option. Enable it and then select how slow you want the video to be. This applies the effect to the entire video that you’ve selected.

If you just want to slow down parts of the video, go back to the main editing tab, clip it from the original video using the slicing tool and add the slow-motion effect to that clip only. You can then arrange the different clips you have in the editor to create your final video.

Step 3: Tick the option “Preview effects side-by-side” with original video and then you can see how the original video plays compared to the one you’ve slowed down. If you’re happy with the result, hit “Done” to save the settings.

Conclusion

Above are the 3 ways that you can watch a YouTube video in slow motion, and slow down YouTube videos. You can directly change the playback speed of the YouTube video on Youtube, or download the YouTube video first and then slow down the speed of the YouTube video with some video editing software for YouTube like Filmora. No matter which way you prefer, we hope these information can help you slow down youtube videos.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Have you ever wanted to learn something from a YouTube video, but found that the video is too fast? If you are wondering how to slow down YouTube videos, then you’re in the right place. Well, there are different ways to slow down YouTube videos and in this article, we will show you how to slow down the YouTube videos with 3 most effective ways: slow down the YouTube videos by changing playback video speed at playback, slow down YouTube video using YouTube’s Video Editor tools or change YouTube video speed to slow down or speed up with Wondershare Filmora video editor .

• Part 1: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion
• Part 2: Add Slow Motion with Wondershare Filmora (originally Wondershare Video Editor)
• Part 3: Add Slow Motion with YouTube Video Editor

Part 1: YouTube Slow Down: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion

While, you can now change the speed of any YouTube videos easily and watch YouTube videos in slow motion in a few steps. Below is how to slow down YouTube Videos:

• Open the video in YouTube
• Click the Settings icon on the bottom right and then you will see Autoplay, Annotations, Speed, Subtitles, and Quality options. By default, the speed is set to Normal. Click Speed and open the speed change options. The speed options are in multiples.

• Choose the target video speed from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x to slow down the play back speed of the YouTube video. You can also select 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x or 2x to fast forward this YouTube video depending on how fast or slow you want the playback of the YouTube video to be.
• That’s it how to make a YouTube video slow down by changing the playback speed. If you selected 0.5X, you will see the playback speed is half of the original speed. You can now see the YouTube video is played back in a slower speed.

You May Also Like: Take good use of YouTube’s Enhancements feature to improve your video quality.

Besides, watching YouTube videos in slow motion, you can also make a slow motion video and upload to YouTube. The Flash from Zootopia is so impressive and you can see a lot of memes and gifs online about this funny cute sloth. In the following part, we will show you how to make a slow motion YouTube video like the sloth Flash in two ways by adding slow motion effects.

Part 2: Add Slow Motion to YT Videos with Wondershare Filmora video editor [3 Steps]

Wondershare Filmora is an easy-to-use yet powerful video editing tool to which let beginners edit their YouTube videos in minutes. It includes every classic video editing functions including adjust playback speed, trim, crop, rotate, split as well as many special editing features like Jump Cut, Mosaic Blur and Tilt Shift. Now let’s see how to add slow motion with this video editing software.

Step 1. Import Video Footage to Filmora Video Editor

First of all, you need to import all your video footage for YouTube videos to Filmora. If you want to slow down a video downloaded from online, like youtube, please make sure there is copyright issue for you to use the video before processing. In case that you want to download YouTube with free youtube downloader, you can try Wondershare Free Youtube Downloader and Video DownloadHelper (Firefox Add-on).

After downloading YouTube videos on hard disk, you can now import it to this YouTube video editor. The downloaded YouTube videos is usually in FLV format, and Filmora has a wide range of support for video formats, which includes FLV as well. You can either click “Import” on the primary windows and select YouTube FLV video file from your computer, or simply drag and drop YouTube FLV file to the User’s Album. Next, drag YouTube video from User’s Album to Timeline for editing.

Step 2. One click to add slow motion to YouTube video

On the Timeline, click on the added YouTube video and select Speed and Duration to open up the video custom speed window. You will see the Speed option, Duration, Reverse Speed and Ripple Edit options. and the speed number indicates fast or slow motion. To slow down the YouTube video, drag the speed slider to left and you get a slow down version of the YouTube video. You can slow down the YouTube video in 0.01x. Click the OK button to save the slow motion settings and then click the Play button in the preview windows to have a look at the new YouTube slow down video. You can also change the duration of the YouTube video to change the YouTube video speed. For example, if you want to slow down a 30-second YouTube video to half speed, you can just enter the duration to 60 seconds to get a slow down motion effect.

With Filmora youtube video editor, you can also add the slow motion effects to some certain clips of the video footage. What you need to do is use the split feature to split the video first. Learn more details about How to Cut / Split / Trim Videos without Quality Loss

Step 3. Export slow down YouTube video

You could continue editing YouTube videos. When all done, click “Export” to save the result. You can save YouTube video in any popular formats on the computer by clicking “Format”. If you want to play YouTube video on iPod, iPhone, iPad, click “Device” and select your device. You can also share the YouTube video up to YouTube or Vimeo directly or burn YouTube video to DVD.

See, with Filmora video editor you can slow down YouTube videos with ease, what’s more, you can also apply reverse effects to play Youtube videos backwards. Download and try this YouTube Slow motion effect and you will master how to slow down YouTube videos.

Related:How to Make Slow/Fast Motion Videos

Part 3: Slow down YouTube videos with Slow Motion in YouTube Video Editor

Updated: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide.

If you’ve ever been annoyed by the speed of your user-generated videos on YouTube, try out its own video editor. As YouTube has added a new “slow motion” tool to its YouTube Editor, it does pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Here is a simple guide on how to add slow motion with it.

Step 1: Get Access to YouTube Video Editor. You can either go directly to the URL, which is https://www.youtube.com/editor , or click “Upload”>”Edit” to the Video Editor tab.

Step 2: Drag your video on the timeline and double click it. In the pop up window, you will see the “Slow Motion” option. Enable it and then select how slow you want the video to be. This applies the effect to the entire video that you’ve selected.

If you just want to slow down parts of the video, go back to the main editing tab, clip it from the original video using the slicing tool and add the slow-motion effect to that clip only. You can then arrange the different clips you have in the editor to create your final video.

Step 3: Tick the option “Preview effects side-by-side” with original video and then you can see how the original video plays compared to the one you’ve slowed down. If you’re happy with the result, hit “Done” to save the settings.

Conclusion

Above are the 3 ways that you can watch a YouTube video in slow motion, and slow down YouTube videos. You can directly change the playback speed of the YouTube video on Youtube, or download the YouTube video first and then slow down the speed of the YouTube video with some video editing software for YouTube like Filmora. No matter which way you prefer, we hope these information can help you slow down youtube videos.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Have you ever wanted to learn something from a YouTube video, but found that the video is too fast? If you are wondering how to slow down YouTube videos, then you’re in the right place. Well, there are different ways to slow down YouTube videos and in this article, we will show you how to slow down the YouTube videos with 3 most effective ways: slow down the YouTube videos by changing playback video speed at playback, slow down YouTube video using YouTube’s Video Editor tools or change YouTube video speed to slow down or speed up with Wondershare Filmora video editor .

• Part 1: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion
• Part 2: Add Slow Motion with Wondershare Filmora (originally Wondershare Video Editor)
• Part 3: Add Slow Motion with YouTube Video Editor

Part 1: YouTube Slow Down: How to Play YouTube Videos in Slow Motion

While, you can now change the speed of any YouTube videos easily and watch YouTube videos in slow motion in a few steps. Below is how to slow down YouTube Videos:

• Open the video in YouTube
• Click the Settings icon on the bottom right and then you will see Autoplay, Annotations, Speed, Subtitles, and Quality options. By default, the speed is set to Normal. Click Speed and open the speed change options. The speed options are in multiples.

• Choose the target video speed from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x to slow down the play back speed of the YouTube video. You can also select 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x or 2x to fast forward this YouTube video depending on how fast or slow you want the playback of the YouTube video to be.
• That’s it how to make a YouTube video slow down by changing the playback speed. If you selected 0.5X, you will see the playback speed is half of the original speed. You can now see the YouTube video is played back in a slower speed.

You May Also Like: Take good use of YouTube’s Enhancements feature to improve your video quality.

Besides, watching YouTube videos in slow motion, you can also make a slow motion video and upload to YouTube. The Flash from Zootopia is so impressive and you can see a lot of memes and gifs online about this funny cute sloth. In the following part, we will show you how to make a slow motion YouTube video like the sloth Flash in two ways by adding slow motion effects.

Part 2: Add Slow Motion to YT Videos with Wondershare Filmora video editor [3 Steps]

Wondershare Filmora is an easy-to-use yet powerful video editing tool to which let beginners edit their YouTube videos in minutes. It includes every classic video editing functions including adjust playback speed, trim, crop, rotate, split as well as many special editing features like Jump Cut, Mosaic Blur and Tilt Shift. Now let’s see how to add slow motion with this video editing software.

Step 1. Import Video Footage to Filmora Video Editor

First of all, you need to import all your video footage for YouTube videos to Filmora. If you want to slow down a video downloaded from online, like youtube, please make sure there is copyright issue for you to use the video before processing. In case that you want to download YouTube with free youtube downloader, you can try Wondershare Free Youtube Downloader and Video DownloadHelper (Firefox Add-on).

After downloading YouTube videos on hard disk, you can now import it to this YouTube video editor. The downloaded YouTube videos is usually in FLV format, and Filmora has a wide range of support for video formats, which includes FLV as well. You can either click “Import” on the primary windows and select YouTube FLV video file from your computer, or simply drag and drop YouTube FLV file to the User’s Album. Next, drag YouTube video from User’s Album to Timeline for editing.

Step 2. One click to add slow motion to YouTube video

On the Timeline, click on the added YouTube video and select Speed and Duration to open up the video custom speed window. You will see the Speed option, Duration, Reverse Speed and Ripple Edit options. and the speed number indicates fast or slow motion. To slow down the YouTube video, drag the speed slider to left and you get a slow down version of the YouTube video. You can slow down the YouTube video in 0.01x. Click the OK button to save the slow motion settings and then click the Play button in the preview windows to have a look at the new YouTube slow down video. You can also change the duration of the YouTube video to change the YouTube video speed. For example, if you want to slow down a 30-second YouTube video to half speed, you can just enter the duration to 60 seconds to get a slow down motion effect.

With Filmora youtube video editor, you can also add the slow motion effects to some certain clips of the video footage. What you need to do is use the split feature to split the video first. Learn more details about How to Cut / Split / Trim Videos without Quality Loss

Step 3. Export slow down YouTube video

You could continue editing YouTube videos. When all done, click “Export” to save the result. You can save YouTube video in any popular formats on the computer by clicking “Format”. If you want to play YouTube video on iPod, iPhone, iPad, click “Device” and select your device. You can also share the YouTube video up to YouTube or Vimeo directly or burn YouTube video to DVD.

See, with Filmora video editor you can slow down YouTube videos with ease, what’s more, you can also apply reverse effects to play Youtube videos backwards. Download and try this YouTube Slow motion effect and you will master how to slow down YouTube videos.

Related:How to Make Slow/Fast Motion Videos

Part 3: Slow down YouTube videos with Slow Motion in YouTube Video Editor

Updated: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide.

If you’ve ever been annoyed by the speed of your user-generated videos on YouTube, try out its own video editor. As YouTube has added a new “slow motion” tool to its YouTube Editor, it does pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Here is a simple guide on how to add slow motion with it.

Step 1: Get Access to YouTube Video Editor. You can either go directly to the URL, which is https://www.youtube.com/editor , or click “Upload”>”Edit” to the Video Editor tab.

Step 2: Drag your video on the timeline and double click it. In the pop up window, you will see the “Slow Motion” option. Enable it and then select how slow you want the video to be. This applies the effect to the entire video that you’ve selected.

If you just want to slow down parts of the video, go back to the main editing tab, clip it from the original video using the slicing tool and add the slow-motion effect to that clip only. You can then arrange the different clips you have in the editor to create your final video.

Step 3: Tick the option “Preview effects side-by-side” with original video and then you can see how the original video plays compared to the one you’ve slowed down. If you’re happy with the result, hit “Done” to save the settings.

Conclusion

Above are the 3 ways that you can watch a YouTube video in slow motion, and slow down YouTube videos. You can directly change the playback speed of the YouTube video on Youtube, or download the YouTube video first and then slow down the speed of the YouTube video with some video editing software for YouTube like Filmora. No matter which way you prefer, we hope these information can help you slow down youtube videos.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

The Art of Plotting Success on YouTube

The Best Storytelling Techniques to Grow Your YouTube Channel

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

In the distracting world, we live in, you need to be a good storyteller to grow your YouTube channel. Your audience is not going to stick around to watch your whole video if your content isn’t enticing or relatable. If you want to get people to watch all your videos, you need to get them emotionally invested with your stories.

Here are 3 methods for creating an awesome story:

• Method 1: CREATE SUSPENSE
• Method 2: USE EMPATHY
• Method 3: TAKE THE AUDIENCE ON A MEANINGFUL JOURNEY

1. Create Suspense

The hero has an objective, but the plan might fail.

The likelihood of something going wrong is what makes a story suspenseful. When you tell a suspenseful story, your audience will have a heightened focus and a strong motivation to continue listening. They want to know if the hero succeeds. Keep the audience waiting and expecting. Don’t give away the ending right away.

What Does a Suspenseful Story Sound Like?

When we talk about a story that is dragging on, it is because there is no suspense. There is nothing at stake, there are no obstacles, there is no problem and, with no problem, there is no promise of resolution.

Here are a few examples you can use to pump more suspense into your story:

- Address a fear (example: being alone for the prom)

- An objective (example: asking the crush out to the dance)

- Consequences of failing (example: being embarrassed in front of the whole school)

- Limited time (example: prom is next week)

- Obstacles (example: the crush has an aggressive ex.)

You can feel your heart rate speeding up simply thinking about the character’s story in the example. Does it have a happy ending or not? We want to know!

Raise Questions After Questions

A good storyteller knows that as soon as they answer a question for their audience, they need to present another one. The audience will always need to have a puzzle in their mind, one that needs to be solved. That is what will keep their interest.

For example: If the hero ends up going to the prom with his crush, the next big question can be: Will they kiss at the last dance?

This continues building on the tension and increasing the stakes evermore.

Check out the suspenseful story from YouTuber, MissRemiAshten . The way she tells the story, we discover more and about her psycho neighbor and the incident gradually. A little bit of information about the neighbor is revealed at a time… not all at once.

Include a Cliffhanger

We’ve all had those moments at the end of an intense television show where we are shouting at the screen because it suddenly cut to black as the main characters were left in a precarious position. That emotional outburst is brought to us by a good cliffhanger, and a good cliffhanger can assure us that the audience will return for more.

But there needs to be more! A cliffhanger is a promise to the viewer that eventually they will be rewarded for their patience and it will be satisfying.

In this cliffhanger from Casey Neistat, he simply asks us a question, “Was that good?” This calls upon us to recall all the awesome YouTube videos we have seen created by filmmakers that aren’t considered “prestigious.” A cliffhanger does not have to end with an epic reveal; it can wrap up with loose ends and allow the audience to tie it up themselves.

How to Deliver a Good Cliffhanger

Applying good cliffhangers to your YouTube videos is a balancing act. You want to draw your audience in, but you also need to have a payoff that is worth the wait.

Done well, a cliffhanger will leave your audience wanting more. Done poorly, a cliffhanger will leave your audience feeling to mislead and a little ripped off, hesitant to listen to more stories from you.

A good cliffhanger does not have to be life or death, but it does have to be the moment the story has been leading up to.

Before you start telling your story, consider the key details that are most impactful.

Once you have the points you want to hit, plan out the reveal. Weave the story together, but withhold the pivotal details until the cliffhanger. Thendeliver it on camera confidently .

Here are two ways you can present your cliffhanger for amplified effect:

1. Slow Down and Have Pauses

As your story intensifies, bring the pace down — or stop completely. The silence becomes the cliffhanger. It can last a second or more, depending on how confident you are in the tension you have built.

Your next words or shots can be the reveal. If you are skilled enough, you can lead into another story one that connects to the previous. If you are trying this, make sure that in the end, the payoff has double the impact. The reveal needs to be twice as powerful if you are going to take the audience on another journey before wrapping up and answering the long-awaited questions.

2. Use Repetition

Whether you want to misdirect your audience or hammer home a point, using repetition throughout your story will help you build the tension you need to establish the cliffhanger.

In this example, we see YouTuber, A little bit of Monika uses both pace and repetition in her storytelling method.

The video starts off at a speedy pace, all the way until the last scene where the confrontation occurs. That’s her slowing down the story so that we are all anticipating the reveal. Is she or is she not actor, Saoirse Ronan?

Through this short video, the repetition of the name is used to show her confidence that her roommate is not who she said it is. The more affirming she becomes, the more likely we as the viewers are going to side with her. This is a simple example of misdirection.

The more you say something or show something, the more important it becomes for the audience — at least, you want it to appear important.

2. Use Empathy

A storyteller must be empathetic.

If your audience cannot empathize with what you are communicating, it would not have the intended effect. Storytelling is all about taking people out of their bodies and putting them in someone else’s.

If you are telling a story about the time your car broke down, you want people to empathize and feel the helplessness of being stuck on a highway, waving cars down to help.

Empathy makes people feel more human. Telling a story people can relate to, even if it didn’t happen to them, is a sign of a quality storyteller.

Don’t Use Too Many Facts and Figures

If you began your story by saying that 1/1,000 cars on the highway break down, that doesn’t evoke any major emotion. There is nothing human about it.

It’s an interesting stat, sure, but the audience is unsure how they should respond. Is that a lot? Is that because of the highway? Is it because of the drivers? Nobody knows… it’s numbered with no context.

However, if you told the story about that time you had to abandon your vehicle and walk down the highway in order to make your important appointment. Suddenly, the audience can empathize with the tribulations you have gone through.

Facts and figures are useful in reports, but not as much in compelling stories.

Evoke the Senses

If I talk about hot melting chocolate, standing in the rain, or the smell of your grandmother’s bedroom, your senses are activated. From all your life experiences, your brain is able to form familiar sensations without any physical changes to your surrounding. That’s the power of storytelling.

Good storytellers use these sensory details and descriptive imagery to spice up a story. This draws the audience in and gives them a more immersive experience when listening to your stories.

Ask yourself these questions:

- What does it smell like?

- What can you hear?

- What do you see?

- What can you physically feel?

This example from YouTuber, Kiril Dobrev perfectly exemplifies what sensory igniting storytelling can do. He illustrates the sensation of being in Hong Kong, not simply through visuals but physical motions and audio effects.

Use Metaphors

As a YouTube storyteller, sometimes you will have to communicate complex ideas. When that happens, use a metaphor to increase the impact.

If you are telling a story about how much you dislike your teacher, you can list off all the ways she is unlikable or you can sum it up with a line like this: “My teacher makes the school a prison.”

That is a metaphor comparing school to prison. Most people haven’t been to prison, but understand what the metaphor is insinuating. School is not a fun place to be because of that teacher.

By connecting two different things, you allow the audience to paint the image in their mind quickly. It doesn’t take a lot of words to create a memorable metaphor. I encourage you to use metaphors anytime you need to address something complicated.

3. Take the Audience on a Meaningful Journey

Perhaps the most important element of a good story is that the journey is meaningful.

- Is it educational?

- Is it entertaining?

- Is it motivational or inspiring?

Knowing how you want to leave your audience feeling is foresight that will improve your YouTube storytelling abilities. Before you start telling your tale, ask: How do I want to change my audience?

YouTuber, Jamie Windsor tells a few stories connected to creativity and plagiarism. Anyone who has ever created anything can relate to his story and thus his audience can empathize.

It is also clear as a viewer that at the end of this 15-minute long video, his audience will have gone on a meaningful journey with him.

His story is a cautionary tale. He wants to educate us so that we can avoid making the same mistakes he did. He used his real-life experience to teach us and that makes it a meaningful video to watch. That was a good story.

Are there any YouTubers that you consider to be fantastic storytellers? Please share it in the comments box below.

Select a Versatile Video Editing Software to Stand Up from Numerous YouTubers

Users worldwide highly recommend Filmora because it comes loaded with various features, which helps to discover the editing skills, add an image to the imagination, and empower creativity.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

In the distracting world, we live in, you need to be a good storyteller to grow your YouTube channel. Your audience is not going to stick around to watch your whole video if your content isn’t enticing or relatable. If you want to get people to watch all your videos, you need to get them emotionally invested with your stories.

Here are 3 methods for creating an awesome story:

• Method 1: CREATE SUSPENSE
• Method 2: USE EMPATHY
• Method 3: TAKE THE AUDIENCE ON A MEANINGFUL JOURNEY

1. Create Suspense

The hero has an objective, but the plan might fail.

The likelihood of something going wrong is what makes a story suspenseful. When you tell a suspenseful story, your audience will have a heightened focus and a strong motivation to continue listening. They want to know if the hero succeeds. Keep the audience waiting and expecting. Don’t give away the ending right away.

What Does a Suspenseful Story Sound Like?

When we talk about a story that is dragging on, it is because there is no suspense. There is nothing at stake, there are no obstacles, there is no problem and, with no problem, there is no promise of resolution.

Here are a few examples you can use to pump more suspense into your story:

- Address a fear (example: being alone for the prom)

- An objective (example: asking the crush out to the dance)

- Consequences of failing (example: being embarrassed in front of the whole school)

- Limited time (example: prom is next week)

- Obstacles (example: the crush has an aggressive ex.)

You can feel your heart rate speeding up simply thinking about the character’s story in the example. Does it have a happy ending or not? We want to know!

Raise Questions After Questions

A good storyteller knows that as soon as they answer a question for their audience, they need to present another one. The audience will always need to have a puzzle in their mind, one that needs to be solved. That is what will keep their interest.

For example: If the hero ends up going to the prom with his crush, the next big question can be: Will they kiss at the last dance?

This continues building on the tension and increasing the stakes evermore.

Check out the suspenseful story from YouTuber, MissRemiAshten . The way she tells the story, we discover more and about her psycho neighbor and the incident gradually. A little bit of information about the neighbor is revealed at a time… not all at once.

Include a Cliffhanger

We’ve all had those moments at the end of an intense television show where we are shouting at the screen because it suddenly cut to black as the main characters were left in a precarious position. That emotional outburst is brought to us by a good cliffhanger, and a good cliffhanger can assure us that the audience will return for more.

But there needs to be more! A cliffhanger is a promise to the viewer that eventually they will be rewarded for their patience and it will be satisfying.

In this cliffhanger from Casey Neistat, he simply asks us a question, “Was that good?” This calls upon us to recall all the awesome YouTube videos we have seen created by filmmakers that aren’t considered “prestigious.” A cliffhanger does not have to end with an epic reveal; it can wrap up with loose ends and allow the audience to tie it up themselves.

How to Deliver a Good Cliffhanger

Applying good cliffhangers to your YouTube videos is a balancing act. You want to draw your audience in, but you also need to have a payoff that is worth the wait.

Done well, a cliffhanger will leave your audience wanting more. Done poorly, a cliffhanger will leave your audience feeling to mislead and a little ripped off, hesitant to listen to more stories from you.

A good cliffhanger does not have to be life or death, but it does have to be the moment the story has been leading up to.

Before you start telling your story, consider the key details that are most impactful.

Once you have the points you want to hit, plan out the reveal. Weave the story together, but withhold the pivotal details until the cliffhanger. Thendeliver it on camera confidently .

Here are two ways you can present your cliffhanger for amplified effect:

1. Slow Down and Have Pauses

As your story intensifies, bring the pace down — or stop completely. The silence becomes the cliffhanger. It can last a second or more, depending on how confident you are in the tension you have built.

Your next words or shots can be the reveal. If you are skilled enough, you can lead into another story one that connects to the previous. If you are trying this, make sure that in the end, the payoff has double the impact. The reveal needs to be twice as powerful if you are going to take the audience on another journey before wrapping up and answering the long-awaited questions.

2. Use Repetition

Whether you want to misdirect your audience or hammer home a point, using repetition throughout your story will help you build the tension you need to establish the cliffhanger.

In this example, we see YouTuber, A little bit of Monika uses both pace and repetition in her storytelling method.

The video starts off at a speedy pace, all the way until the last scene where the confrontation occurs. That’s her slowing down the story so that we are all anticipating the reveal. Is she or is she not actor, Saoirse Ronan?

Through this short video, the repetition of the name is used to show her confidence that her roommate is not who she said it is. The more affirming she becomes, the more likely we as the viewers are going to side with her. This is a simple example of misdirection.

The more you say something or show something, the more important it becomes for the audience — at least, you want it to appear important.

2. Use Empathy

A storyteller must be empathetic.

If your audience cannot empathize with what you are communicating, it would not have the intended effect. Storytelling is all about taking people out of their bodies and putting them in someone else’s.

If you are telling a story about the time your car broke down, you want people to empathize and feel the helplessness of being stuck on a highway, waving cars down to help.

Empathy makes people feel more human. Telling a story people can relate to, even if it didn’t happen to them, is a sign of a quality storyteller.

Don’t Use Too Many Facts and Figures

If you began your story by saying that 1/1,000 cars on the highway break down, that doesn’t evoke any major emotion. There is nothing human about it.

It’s an interesting stat, sure, but the audience is unsure how they should respond. Is that a lot? Is that because of the highway? Is it because of the drivers? Nobody knows… it’s numbered with no context.

However, if you told the story about that time you had to abandon your vehicle and walk down the highway in order to make your important appointment. Suddenly, the audience can empathize with the tribulations you have gone through.

Facts and figures are useful in reports, but not as much in compelling stories.

Evoke the Senses

If I talk about hot melting chocolate, standing in the rain, or the smell of your grandmother’s bedroom, your senses are activated. From all your life experiences, your brain is able to form familiar sensations without any physical changes to your surrounding. That’s the power of storytelling.

Good storytellers use these sensory details and descriptive imagery to spice up a story. This draws the audience in and gives them a more immersive experience when listening to your stories.

Ask yourself these questions:

- What does it smell like?

- What can you hear?

- What do you see?

- What can you physically feel?

This example from YouTuber, Kiril Dobrev perfectly exemplifies what sensory igniting storytelling can do. He illustrates the sensation of being in Hong Kong, not simply through visuals but physical motions and audio effects.

Use Metaphors

As a YouTube storyteller, sometimes you will have to communicate complex ideas. When that happens, use a metaphor to increase the impact.

If you are telling a story about how much you dislike your teacher, you can list off all the ways she is unlikable or you can sum it up with a line like this: “My teacher makes the school a prison.”

That is a metaphor comparing school to prison. Most people haven’t been to prison, but understand what the metaphor is insinuating. School is not a fun place to be because of that teacher.

By connecting two different things, you allow the audience to paint the image in their mind quickly. It doesn’t take a lot of words to create a memorable metaphor. I encourage you to use metaphors anytime you need to address something complicated.

3. Take the Audience on a Meaningful Journey

Perhaps the most important element of a good story is that the journey is meaningful.

- Is it educational?

- Is it entertaining?

- Is it motivational or inspiring?

Knowing how you want to leave your audience feeling is foresight that will improve your YouTube storytelling abilities. Before you start telling your tale, ask: How do I want to change my audience?

YouTuber, Jamie Windsor tells a few stories connected to creativity and plagiarism. Anyone who has ever created anything can relate to his story and thus his audience can empathize.

It is also clear as a viewer that at the end of this 15-minute long video, his audience will have gone on a meaningful journey with him.

His story is a cautionary tale. He wants to educate us so that we can avoid making the same mistakes he did. He used his real-life experience to teach us and that makes it a meaningful video to watch. That was a good story.

Are there any YouTubers that you consider to be fantastic storytellers? Please share it in the comments box below.

Select a Versatile Video Editing Software to Stand Up from Numerous YouTubers

Users worldwide highly recommend Filmora because it comes loaded with various features, which helps to discover the editing skills, add an image to the imagination, and empower creativity.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

In the distracting world, we live in, you need to be a good storyteller to grow your YouTube channel. Your audience is not going to stick around to watch your whole video if your content isn’t enticing or relatable. If you want to get people to watch all your videos, you need to get them emotionally invested with your stories.

Here are 3 methods for creating an awesome story:

• Method 1: CREATE SUSPENSE
• Method 2: USE EMPATHY
• Method 3: TAKE THE AUDIENCE ON A MEANINGFUL JOURNEY

1. Create Suspense

The hero has an objective, but the plan might fail.

The likelihood of something going wrong is what makes a story suspenseful. When you tell a suspenseful story, your audience will have a heightened focus and a strong motivation to continue listening. They want to know if the hero succeeds. Keep the audience waiting and expecting. Don’t give away the ending right away.

What Does a Suspenseful Story Sound Like?

When we talk about a story that is dragging on, it is because there is no suspense. There is nothing at stake, there are no obstacles, there is no problem and, with no problem, there is no promise of resolution.

Here are a few examples you can use to pump more suspense into your story:

- Address a fear (example: being alone for the prom)

- An objective (example: asking the crush out to the dance)

- Consequences of failing (example: being embarrassed in front of the whole school)

- Limited time (example: prom is next week)

- Obstacles (example: the crush has an aggressive ex.)

You can feel your heart rate speeding up simply thinking about the character’s story in the example. Does it have a happy ending or not? We want to know!

Raise Questions After Questions

A good storyteller knows that as soon as they answer a question for their audience, they need to present another one. The audience will always need to have a puzzle in their mind, one that needs to be solved. That is what will keep their interest.

For example: If the hero ends up going to the prom with his crush, the next big question can be: Will they kiss at the last dance?

This continues building on the tension and increasing the stakes evermore.

Check out the suspenseful story from YouTuber, MissRemiAshten . The way she tells the story, we discover more and about her psycho neighbor and the incident gradually. A little bit of information about the neighbor is revealed at a time… not all at once.

Include a Cliffhanger

We’ve all had those moments at the end of an intense television show where we are shouting at the screen because it suddenly cut to black as the main characters were left in a precarious position. That emotional outburst is brought to us by a good cliffhanger, and a good cliffhanger can assure us that the audience will return for more.

But there needs to be more! A cliffhanger is a promise to the viewer that eventually they will be rewarded for their patience and it will be satisfying.

In this cliffhanger from Casey Neistat, he simply asks us a question, “Was that good?” This calls upon us to recall all the awesome YouTube videos we have seen created by filmmakers that aren’t considered “prestigious.” A cliffhanger does not have to end with an epic reveal; it can wrap up with loose ends and allow the audience to tie it up themselves.

How to Deliver a Good Cliffhanger

Applying good cliffhangers to your YouTube videos is a balancing act. You want to draw your audience in, but you also need to have a payoff that is worth the wait.

Done well, a cliffhanger will leave your audience wanting more. Done poorly, a cliffhanger will leave your audience feeling to mislead and a little ripped off, hesitant to listen to more stories from you.

A good cliffhanger does not have to be life or death, but it does have to be the moment the story has been leading up to.

Before you start telling your story, consider the key details that are most impactful.

Once you have the points you want to hit, plan out the reveal. Weave the story together, but withhold the pivotal details until the cliffhanger. Thendeliver it on camera confidently .

Here are two ways you can present your cliffhanger for amplified effect:

1. Slow Down and Have Pauses

As your story intensifies, bring the pace down — or stop completely. The silence becomes the cliffhanger. It can last a second or more, depending on how confident you are in the tension you have built.

Your next words or shots can be the reveal. If you are skilled enough, you can lead into another story one that connects to the previous. If you are trying this, make sure that in the end, the payoff has double the impact. The reveal needs to be twice as powerful if you are going to take the audience on another journey before wrapping up and answering the long-awaited questions.

2. Use Repetition

Whether you want to misdirect your audience or hammer home a point, using repetition throughout your story will help you build the tension you need to establish the cliffhanger.

In this example, we see YouTuber, A little bit of Monika uses both pace and repetition in her storytelling method.

The video starts off at a speedy pace, all the way until the last scene where the confrontation occurs. That’s her slowing down the story so that we are all anticipating the reveal. Is she or is she not actor, Saoirse Ronan?

Through this short video, the repetition of the name is used to show her confidence that her roommate is not who she said it is. The more affirming she becomes, the more likely we as the viewers are going to side with her. This is a simple example of misdirection.

The more you say something or show something, the more important it becomes for the audience — at least, you want it to appear important.

2. Use Empathy

A storyteller must be empathetic.

If your audience cannot empathize with what you are communicating, it would not have the intended effect. Storytelling is all about taking people out of their bodies and putting them in someone else’s.

If you are telling a story about the time your car broke down, you want people to empathize and feel the helplessness of being stuck on a highway, waving cars down to help.

Empathy makes people feel more human. Telling a story people can relate to, even if it didn’t happen to them, is a sign of a quality storyteller.

Don’t Use Too Many Facts and Figures

If you began your story by saying that 1/1,000 cars on the highway break down, that doesn’t evoke any major emotion. There is nothing human about it.

It’s an interesting stat, sure, but the audience is unsure how they should respond. Is that a lot? Is that because of the highway? Is it because of the drivers? Nobody knows… it’s numbered with no context.

However, if you told the story about that time you had to abandon your vehicle and walk down the highway in order to make your important appointment. Suddenly, the audience can empathize with the tribulations you have gone through.

Facts and figures are useful in reports, but not as much in compelling stories.

Evoke the Senses

If I talk about hot melting chocolate, standing in the rain, or the smell of your grandmother’s bedroom, your senses are activated. From all your life experiences, your brain is able to form familiar sensations without any physical changes to your surrounding. That’s the power of storytelling.

Good storytellers use these sensory details and descriptive imagery to spice up a story. This draws the audience in and gives them a more immersive experience when listening to your stories.

Ask yourself these questions:

- What does it smell like?

- What can you hear?

- What do you see?

- What can you physically feel?

This example from YouTuber, Kiril Dobrev perfectly exemplifies what sensory igniting storytelling can do. He illustrates the sensation of being in Hong Kong, not simply through visuals but physical motions and audio effects.

Use Metaphors

As a YouTube storyteller, sometimes you will have to communicate complex ideas. When that happens, use a metaphor to increase the impact.

If you are telling a story about how much you dislike your teacher, you can list off all the ways she is unlikable or you can sum it up with a line like this: “My teacher makes the school a prison.”

That is a metaphor comparing school to prison. Most people haven’t been to prison, but understand what the metaphor is insinuating. School is not a fun place to be because of that teacher.

By connecting two different things, you allow the audience to paint the image in their mind quickly. It doesn’t take a lot of words to create a memorable metaphor. I encourage you to use metaphors anytime you need to address something complicated.

3. Take the Audience on a Meaningful Journey

Perhaps the most important element of a good story is that the journey is meaningful.

- Is it educational?

- Is it entertaining?

- Is it motivational or inspiring?

Knowing how you want to leave your audience feeling is foresight that will improve your YouTube storytelling abilities. Before you start telling your tale, ask: How do I want to change my audience?

YouTuber, Jamie Windsor tells a few stories connected to creativity and plagiarism. Anyone who has ever created anything can relate to his story and thus his audience can empathize.

It is also clear as a viewer that at the end of this 15-minute long video, his audience will have gone on a meaningful journey with him.

His story is a cautionary tale. He wants to educate us so that we can avoid making the same mistakes he did. He used his real-life experience to teach us and that makes it a meaningful video to watch. That was a good story.

Are there any YouTubers that you consider to be fantastic storytellers? Please share it in the comments box below.

Select a Versatile Video Editing Software to Stand Up from Numerous YouTubers

Users worldwide highly recommend Filmora because it comes loaded with various features, which helps to discover the editing skills, add an image to the imagination, and empower creativity.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

In the distracting world, we live in, you need to be a good storyteller to grow your YouTube channel. Your audience is not going to stick around to watch your whole video if your content isn’t enticing or relatable. If you want to get people to watch all your videos, you need to get them emotionally invested with your stories.

Here are 3 methods for creating an awesome story:

• Method 1: CREATE SUSPENSE
• Method 2: USE EMPATHY
• Method 3: TAKE THE AUDIENCE ON A MEANINGFUL JOURNEY

1. Create Suspense

The hero has an objective, but the plan might fail.

The likelihood of something going wrong is what makes a story suspenseful. When you tell a suspenseful story, your audience will have a heightened focus and a strong motivation to continue listening. They want to know if the hero succeeds. Keep the audience waiting and expecting. Don’t give away the ending right away.

What Does a Suspenseful Story Sound Like?

When we talk about a story that is dragging on, it is because there is no suspense. There is nothing at stake, there are no obstacles, there is no problem and, with no problem, there is no promise of resolution.

Here are a few examples you can use to pump more suspense into your story:

- Address a fear (example: being alone for the prom)

- An objective (example: asking the crush out to the dance)

- Consequences of failing (example: being embarrassed in front of the whole school)

- Limited time (example: prom is next week)

- Obstacles (example: the crush has an aggressive ex.)

You can feel your heart rate speeding up simply thinking about the character’s story in the example. Does it have a happy ending or not? We want to know!

Raise Questions After Questions

A good storyteller knows that as soon as they answer a question for their audience, they need to present another one. The audience will always need to have a puzzle in their mind, one that needs to be solved. That is what will keep their interest.

For example: If the hero ends up going to the prom with his crush, the next big question can be: Will they kiss at the last dance?

This continues building on the tension and increasing the stakes evermore.

Check out the suspenseful story from YouTuber, MissRemiAshten . The way she tells the story, we discover more and about her psycho neighbor and the incident gradually. A little bit of information about the neighbor is revealed at a time… not all at once.

Include a Cliffhanger

We’ve all had those moments at the end of an intense television show where we are shouting at the screen because it suddenly cut to black as the main characters were left in a precarious position. That emotional outburst is brought to us by a good cliffhanger, and a good cliffhanger can assure us that the audience will return for more.

But there needs to be more! A cliffhanger is a promise to the viewer that eventually they will be rewarded for their patience and it will be satisfying.

In this cliffhanger from Casey Neistat, he simply asks us a question, “Was that good?” This calls upon us to recall all the awesome YouTube videos we have seen created by filmmakers that aren’t considered “prestigious.” A cliffhanger does not have to end with an epic reveal; it can wrap up with loose ends and allow the audience to tie it up themselves.

How to Deliver a Good Cliffhanger

Applying good cliffhangers to your YouTube videos is a balancing act. You want to draw your audience in, but you also need to have a payoff that is worth the wait.

Done well, a cliffhanger will leave your audience wanting more. Done poorly, a cliffhanger will leave your audience feeling to mislead and a little ripped off, hesitant to listen to more stories from you.

A good cliffhanger does not have to be life or death, but it does have to be the moment the story has been leading up to.

Before you start telling your story, consider the key details that are most impactful.

Once you have the points you want to hit, plan out the reveal. Weave the story together, but withhold the pivotal details until the cliffhanger. Thendeliver it on camera confidently .

Here are two ways you can present your cliffhanger for amplified effect:

1. Slow Down and Have Pauses

As your story intensifies, bring the pace down — or stop completely. The silence becomes the cliffhanger. It can last a second or more, depending on how confident you are in the tension you have built.

Your next words or shots can be the reveal. If you are skilled enough, you can lead into another story one that connects to the previous. If you are trying this, make sure that in the end, the payoff has double the impact. The reveal needs to be twice as powerful if you are going to take the audience on another journey before wrapping up and answering the long-awaited questions.

2. Use Repetition

Whether you want to misdirect your audience or hammer home a point, using repetition throughout your story will help you build the tension you need to establish the cliffhanger.

In this example, we see YouTuber, A little bit of Monika uses both pace and repetition in her storytelling method.

The video starts off at a speedy pace, all the way until the last scene where the confrontation occurs. That’s her slowing down the story so that we are all anticipating the reveal. Is she or is she not actor, Saoirse Ronan?

Through this short video, the repetition of the name is used to show her confidence that her roommate is not who she said it is. The more affirming she becomes, the more likely we as the viewers are going to side with her. This is a simple example of misdirection.

The more you say something or show something, the more important it becomes for the audience — at least, you want it to appear important.

2. Use Empathy

A storyteller must be empathetic.

If your audience cannot empathize with what you are communicating, it would not have the intended effect. Storytelling is all about taking people out of their bodies and putting them in someone else’s.

If you are telling a story about the time your car broke down, you want people to empathize and feel the helplessness of being stuck on a highway, waving cars down to help.

Empathy makes people feel more human. Telling a story people can relate to, even if it didn’t happen to them, is a sign of a quality storyteller.

Don’t Use Too Many Facts and Figures

If you began your story by saying that 1/1,000 cars on the highway break down, that doesn’t evoke any major emotion. There is nothing human about it.

It’s an interesting stat, sure, but the audience is unsure how they should respond. Is that a lot? Is that because of the highway? Is it because of the drivers? Nobody knows… it’s numbered with no context.

However, if you told the story about that time you had to abandon your vehicle and walk down the highway in order to make your important appointment. Suddenly, the audience can empathize with the tribulations you have gone through.

Facts and figures are useful in reports, but not as much in compelling stories.

Evoke the Senses

If I talk about hot melting chocolate, standing in the rain, or the smell of your grandmother’s bedroom, your senses are activated. From all your life experiences, your brain is able to form familiar sensations without any physical changes to your surrounding. That’s the power of storytelling.

Good storytellers use these sensory details and descriptive imagery to spice up a story. This draws the audience in and gives them a more immersive experience when listening to your stories.

Ask yourself these questions:

- What does it smell like?

- What can you hear?

- What do you see?

- What can you physically feel?

This example from YouTuber, Kiril Dobrev perfectly exemplifies what sensory igniting storytelling can do. He illustrates the sensation of being in Hong Kong, not simply through visuals but physical motions and audio effects.

Use Metaphors

As a YouTube storyteller, sometimes you will have to communicate complex ideas. When that happens, use a metaphor to increase the impact.

If you are telling a story about how much you dislike your teacher, you can list off all the ways she is unlikable or you can sum it up with a line like this: “My teacher makes the school a prison.”

That is a metaphor comparing school to prison. Most people haven’t been to prison, but understand what the metaphor is insinuating. School is not a fun place to be because of that teacher.

By connecting two different things, you allow the audience to paint the image in their mind quickly. It doesn’t take a lot of words to create a memorable metaphor. I encourage you to use metaphors anytime you need to address something complicated.

3. Take the Audience on a Meaningful Journey

Perhaps the most important element of a good story is that the journey is meaningful.

- Is it educational?

- Is it entertaining?

- Is it motivational or inspiring?

Knowing how you want to leave your audience feeling is foresight that will improve your YouTube storytelling abilities. Before you start telling your tale, ask: How do I want to change my audience?

YouTuber, Jamie Windsor tells a few stories connected to creativity and plagiarism. Anyone who has ever created anything can relate to his story and thus his audience can empathize.

It is also clear as a viewer that at the end of this 15-minute long video, his audience will have gone on a meaningful journey with him.

His story is a cautionary tale. He wants to educate us so that we can avoid making the same mistakes he did. He used his real-life experience to teach us and that makes it a meaningful video to watch. That was a good story.

Are there any YouTubers that you consider to be fantastic storytellers? Please share it in the comments box below.

Select a Versatile Video Editing Software to Stand Up from Numerous YouTubers

Users worldwide highly recommend Filmora because it comes loaded with various features, which helps to discover the editing skills, add an image to the imagination, and empower creativity.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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