How it works

A structural read on your script — before you record.

Story Lint is a linter for video scripts. You paste a draft, choose a style to measure against, and get back a score and beat-by-beat notes on what is dragging or drifting. It coaches structure and pacing. It never rewrites your voice.

The problem it solves

A script can read fine in your head and still leak viewers. The open clears its throat. A beat runs a sentence too long. A whole section drifts off the thing people came for. These are nearly impossible to feel while you are the one writing — and expensive to fix once you have recorded. Story Lint reads your draft like a tough, supportive editor and surfaces those soft spots while they are still cheap to change.

1. Write in beats

A beat is the atomic unit of a script: one complete thought, one to three sentences, about one breath to read aloud. You mark structure with two simple conventions, and Story Lint reads the rest the way a viewer hears it.

  • ## starts a new section (Hook, Depth, Payoff…).
  • A blank line separates one beat from the next.
## Section 1 — Hook

We all carry a quiet list of the people
we were supposed to become.

And the list only gets longer every year.

## Section 2 — Depth

Which is, more or less, entropy with
better marketing.

2. Read the report

Every style defines a handful of goals. Story Lint scores each one out of 10, rolls them into an overall score, and draws a fingerprint so you can read the shape of a draft at a glance.

7.6
overall
Structure8
Beat format6
Humor balance9
Flow7
Writing quality8

Then it colors each beat by how much it needs your attention:

On style

The beat is doing its job — no highlight.

Worth revisiting

A soft spot: a beat that runs long, a stretch losing momentum.

Structural problem

Something the style depends on is missing — a pivot, a payoff, a stake.

3. Choose a style

Each template captures the structural DNA of a creator known for it — the pacing, the beat shape, the way they hold attention. Score against the one you are reaching for, or run your draft past several and compare.

Cosmic Absurdism

Inspired by Exurb1a

Philosophy smuggled in through jokes. Big melancholy ideas delivered sideways and undercut by absurdist humor right before they land — leaving viewers amused and quietly devastated.

The Retention Monster

Inspired by MrBeast

Zero throat-clearing, relentless forward motion. Every beat is a new stake, a new movement, a new reason not to click away. Engineered for watch-time.

The Video Game Autopsy

Inspired by Noah Caldwell-Gervais

Long-form, literary, unhurried. Treats a game like a novel worth dissecting — rhythmic prose, deep atmosphere, and what it all meant. The anti-TikTok essay.

The Curiosity Sandbox

Inspired by Vsauce

Starts with a question a child could ask, then refuses to answer it the easy way. Each beat cracks open a new door — linking the mundane to math, physics, and what it means to be a person asking at all.

The Curated Deep-Dive

Inspired by Johnny Harris

Visual-first investigative journalism. Opens on one human flashpoint, zooms out to map the system behind it, then lands the real-world cost. Every beat is built to be seen — show me on the map.

The Video Essay

Inspired by Nerdwriter1

Academic but accessible analysis. Isolates one frame or scene, expands it into a thesis about a body of work, then turns it back on you. Every beat earns its insight by showing the evidence first.

The Micro-Doc

Inspired by Jon Bois

Finds operatic drama in a forgotten niche — a 1970s runner, a dead world record, an internet feud. Establishes a normal world, tips it into chaos, and lands the moral. Single-sentence beats hit like cliffhangers.

The Cozy Tech Review

Inspired by MKBHD

Crisp, lifestyle-integrated product reviews from a trusted friend. Opens on the problem it solves, weighs the specs against real life, and ends with who it is actually for. Every judgment carries its counterweight.

Templates are inspired by these creators' publicly visible work. Story Lint is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any creator named here.

The one rule: it never rewrites you

Story Lint is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It will tell you a beat may be losing momentum; it will never tell you what to write instead. The phrasing, the jokes, the voice — those are yours, and protecting them is the entire point of the tool.

Common questions

Do I have to format my script a certain way?

Lightly. Use "##" to mark sections and a blank line between beats. That is all Story Lint needs to read your script the way a viewer hears it.

Will it ever change my words?

No. Story Lint only returns structural notes and scores. The rewriting — every word of it — stays with you.

Can I score the same script against different styles?

Yes. Run it against a retention-first style and a literary-essay style and compare the fingerprints to see which direction your draft is really pulling.

Start free — no card required

3 analyses a month · no credit card.