Storytelling principles for newer YouTubers in 2026

Brief storytelling advice for newer YouTubers, from my experience working on a large number of multi-million view videos across different niches: 1. The title and thumbnail filter your viewer done to a very specific intent. A lot of “retention” is just making sure that you’re filling that exact intent in a way that’s great and interesting. The most common and simple issues that cause retention loss are usually because the viewer is either having to eat something they didn’t order, or because they’re getting bored with a lack of stimulation (e.g. lack of jokes, lack of insights, too much repetition, whatever). 2. The idea sets up the story. You generally can’t make a good story without a good idea in the first place. I guess conceptually, it’s like this. Let’s say I give you the task of travelling exactly 3km as fast as you can. Some people would think, oh I’ve got to run real fast. Some others would think, maybe I should get a car? But actually, the fastest way to travel that distance is to skydive from a plane, and then your max speed falling is about 193km/h. You’ll travel 3km extremely quickly. Please think of YouTube ideas in the same way. The setup was simply that one is going on flat ground, and one was falling from a plane. If you set yourself up with an incredible idea from the start, it is WAY easier to make a good video. Every part of scripting, filming, editing etc. will feel more fun and just feel good. But, like the plane scenario, it’s worthwhile thinking outside of the box to achieve that aim. Thinking like a normal person is boring. If you’re struggling to come up with a solid idea, come up with the most extreme version of that idea as a thought experiment. This works for both entertainment and educational niches, and is a classic principle of virality. 3. Stories are most easily thought of as questions and answers. There must ALWAYS be an open question. If there isn’t, why would people keep watching? Most bad content is people who focus too much on answer-only content. Payoffs/punchlines need setups. Those setups are things that you should marinate in different ways. Conceptually: YouTubers are NOT always the best at finding solutions. But what great YouTubers are world-class at, is creating interesting *problems*. YouTubers are trouble-makers at their core. Elaborating on the question is the meat of the content, and then answering those questions is the delivery of the reward. 4. Respect and understand your viewers. You always should watch your video as if you’ve never watched it before. You need to wear multiple different hats when reviewing. If I’m an expert in this niche, is this still interesting? If I’m a beginner in this niche, do I still understand what’s going on? Expert YouTubers have their core audience — their die-hard fans — and then their high view videos have broader audiences, who are more casual and may not know the YouTuber. Always think about the different types and levels of your viewers. 5. Try to somewhat systemise storytelling. What separates a pure artist from a functionally good and high performing YouTuber (a few million subs), is usually there’s some component of developing a system for making content. The reason is not just to “repeat what was done before”. If you make a system, a system is something you can actively observe and improve. Storytelling is no different. The systems you develop are things like, how do I make hooks that are nice for my audience? How do I structure my story? What tone and vibe? The thing is, these will change a lot as you learn and experiment, too. The point of a system is actually not rigidity, but *flexibility*. With no system, everything’s a chaotic mess, and there’s no way to improve because you wouldn’t be able to articulate what you even did in the last video. Systems give you the flexibility to create something durable, that can be molded into a better and better shape over time.