BASIC RULES OF STORYTELLING

The length of each script is 1500-2500 words, including live embeds.

CATCHY BEGINNING

Your story should start with action + emotion. Immerse your readers/viewers into a specific situation, e.g. transfer them to the crime scene.

Example of a good catchy beginning:

Mortally frightened, Tracy Edwards was running the night streets of Milwaukee. He’d just escaped the clutches of a murderous weirdo who threatened to eat his heart. His left hand was still handcuffed. He saw a police car and rushed to it.

Officers Robert Rauth and Rolf Mueller listened to Tracy's story and shook their heads. It was so shocking, gruesome, and bizarre it sounded more like a fabrication of a deranged mind. And this is what the man had to go through:

Example of a weak beginning, not very catchy:

Maria del Carmen was tired. So many chores! And no one to help the lonely old lady!.. She shuffled to the door and saw a smiling face in the peephole. A nurse was offering free massage as part of a social program. Well, what do you know! Someone finally came to aid old Maria. She gladly let the nurse in. ‘I’ll make you a cup of tea, my dear! I also got some cookies…’ the granny said and turned away to search her cupboards. Instantly, the nurse’s face changed, and she charged at the hospitable lady.
Soon, Maria del Carmen was found dead – strangled with a stethoscope.

Weak beginning reworked:

Maria del Carmen was found dead – strangled with a stethoscope. Just a few minutes before death, she hosted a guest at her home. She opened the door by herself, she wasn’t trying to escape. It must have been someone she never met before, but that person managed to gain this little old lady’s trust at the first sight.

Our videos with best and worst intros:

BODY OF THE STORY

1. The story should be told in an investigative manner. Engage the viewers to participate in the parallel investigation. Here are some simple steps on how to do it:

• Examine the crime scene, collect the evidence

• Tell more about the victim: who was this person? What did they do in everyday life? What do friends and relatives say about their habits (but avoid quotes one after another)? Did they have any enemies? Where could they meet the murderer?

• Name the suspect, tell more about this person

• Reconstruct the events before the crime

Example of a good story structure - our own story:

Script: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fyA_yJ4gY6SDwUY4pdUI_oE8_HAkAa3R/edit#heading=h.eo4b10hu1gez

1. The crime itself: what happened. A man won the lottery and then disappeared. Where has he gone? What happened? Let's figure it out

2. Prerequisites of disappearance. Who is our protagonist, how did he win this lottery; what did he do with money and how a bunch of people who were greedy for his money appeared in his life

3. Moment of disappearance: relatives/friends lost contact with him, and he stopped appearing in public.

4. A significant detail hints at what happened to him: the relatives started getting letters from him. But he is illiterate. So who is writing these letters?

5. And here we enter the antagonist. We find out that the lottery winner was swindled by a woman. At first, she went to a conference in a wheelchair and pretended to be a writer. But actually, she wanted to get access to his finances.

6. The antagonist’s background: who is she, and how did she become the criminal?

7. Her arrest/ interrogation, interesting details

8. The conclusion with a positive/meaningful aspect of this story: now you can be more careful.

Example of a good story structure - competitors' video:

Competitors' video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHqQHPK9GJE

1. The crime itself: what happened. The girl got killed simply for being goth. Really? Let’s find out more details about the case.

2. Enter the protagonists/victims.

3. Details of the crime which are already known to the police: the girl and a guy were beaten and is in the hospital.

4. The investigation starts, we are collecting the evidence.

5. The main suspects: who are they, and why do we suspect them?

6. New angle, the trigger for investigation: girl dies in the hospital.

7. Arrest/ interrogation, interesting details (why did they do it, what came to light)

8. Conclusion with

9. The conclusion with a positive/meaningful aspect of this story: the guy survived.

CALL TO ACTION:

Every script should end with the CTA.

Examples:

• Thank you for watching the video; Please, like and subscribe, and let us know in the comments if you want us to do more stories like this

• Thanks for watching this video. Stay safe, and see you!

• We publish new videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please, subscribe and turn on the notification bell to stay tuned!

• Thank you for watching the video; and see you next time on Call It Crime!

• Thank you for watching this video. We would be pleased if you like it, subscribe and share your thoughts on the following in the comments below: What would you do if you met someone like Menhaz online?

STOP WORDS AND TOPICS

As social media platforms are not friendly for true crime content, to avoid being flagged we must exclude the following words and topics in our titles, descriptions, community posts, social leads.

We should also avoid them wherever it’s possible in our scripts:

Weapons:

• names of weapons (gun, riffle, bomb etc)

• mentioning the ways to buy or create weapons

Drugs, medications:

• names of drugs and medications (Prozak, Phenozepam еtс)

Instead we can mention the class of drugs if it’s crucial for the story (the drink was stuffed with tranquilizers)

• mentioning the ways of drug/medication usage (taking pills, making injections etc)

Adult content:

• wordings that include words like sex, sexuality, sexual assault, rape

Instead we can say assault, took advantage of them, did the worst, the worst thing happened

or hide the part of the word (*exuality, *ex trafficking)

• body parts (ass, butt, penis, cock, boobs etc)

Instead, we can say private parts

• mentioning of pornography, adult movies, actors, and scenes.

• mentioning of naked photos, videos

Instead, we can say intimate pictures, private pictures

Self-harm, suicide:

• mentioning of dangerious actions, physical harm (hand cuts, asphyxiation etc)

• mentioning the attempted suicide

• mentioning the reasons for suicide

• mentioning the ways to commit suicide (overdose, cuts, etc)

Ways of murdering:

• Strangulation, suffocation, stabbing

Instead, we say took a life, k*lled, m*urdered

Kidnapping

• The word Kidnapped is allowed

Vulgar language