An editor told me my first paragraph was trash and I completely changed how I start videos now

I was doing this whole dramatic intro thing with slow music and a cold open, thought it was super engaging. They straight up said "nobody cares about your setup, get to the point in 5 seconds." Took me like 3 months to unlearn that habit but my retention jumped like 40% after I started jumping straight into the action. Anyone else get harsh feedback that totally flipped their style?

3 comments

3 Comments

mary_west1mo agoProlific Poster

Have you ever had that moment where something someone said just sticks with you and you know they're right even if you don't want to admit it? I had a similar thing with my own work. A friend of mine who runs a small workshop told me I was spending way too much time setting things up instead of just showing the finished product. It was like a lightbulb went off. I started getting way more done and people actually paid attention to what I was showing them instead of getting bored waiting for the real content.

margareto261mo ago

Wait wait, your friend just told you that to your face? Like straight up said you're wasting time setting things up? Dang, that's brutal but I bet he was dead on. I would've been mad for a day then realized he did me a favor.

lilyp371mo ago

nobody cares about your setup" hits different when you see those numbers change, right? I had a similar thing with a cooking video I made, someone told me people just want to see the food, not me chopping veggies for 30 seconds. @margareto26 your friend was blunt but honestly sometimes that's what you need to hear to actually change things up.