34 ChatGPT prompts for Instagram Reels scripts
Most Reel scripts a model writes are unfilmable. These prompts start from what one person with a phone can actually shoot in twenty minutes.
Ask a model for an Instagram Reel script and you usually get something unfilmable. It opens on a slow aerial shot. It needs a second person to hold the camera. It calls for b-roll of a busy shop floor at golden hour. It runs ninety seconds when you have twenty minutes between customers and a phone leaning against a jar of pens.
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The writing is rarely the problem. The problem is that the prompt never said who is filming, with what, and for how long, so the model wrote for a production it has read about a thousand times and you have never had.
Pick the shape before you prompt
Every prompt in this guide asks which of five shapes you are making, because a Reel that has not decided what it is turns into someone talking without a plan. These five are the ones that survive being filmed alone.
| Script shape | Runs | How you film it | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Three tips | 20 to 30 seconds | One fixed shot, three cuts | You know something your customers reliably get wrong |
| Myth and correction | 15 to 20 seconds | One fixed shot, talking to camera | The same objection comes up on every enquiry |
| Before and after | 10 to 15 seconds | Two clips, no speaking at all | The result of your work is visible in a photograph |
| Over the shoulder | 30 to 45 seconds | Phone on a tripod behind or beside you | The process is more interesting than the outcome |
| Answer one question | 15 to 25 seconds | One shot, phone at arm's length | Somebody genuinely asked it this week |
Start here: the Reels brief
This is the same idea as the brand brief in our wider set of ChatGPT prompts for social media, narrowed to video. Run it once, keep the answer, and paste it above every prompt that follows. Without it the model writes for a generic business, which is the root cause of captions and scripts that sound like AI wrote them.
1. Build a reusable Reels brief
I run [business] in [place]. We sell [what] to [who]. I film alone on a phone, usually [where], and I can give it about [minutes] at a time. I am comfortable doing [talking to camera / showing my hands working / neither]. The things I can physically show on camera are [list]. The things I cannot show are [list]. Write a six line Reels brief I can paste above future prompts, covering my audience, my shooting limits and the three subjects I am credible on. Ask me up to three questions first if anything is missing.
The line about what you cannot show does the heavy lifting. A model that does not know your kitchen is off limits to customers will keep writing scripts set in it.
2. Strip the brief back to what is actually true
Here is the Reels brief you wrote. Mark any line that is aspiration rather than fact, and any line that would be true of a competitor down the road. Rewrite only those lines, asking me for whatever detail you need. Do not add anything that makes us sound more impressive.
Prompts for the first three seconds
Almost everyone who quits Reels quits because of retention, and retention is decided before the third second. Write the hook separately, on purpose, and treat it as a shot rather than a sentence.
3. Ten hooks that are not questions
Using the brief above, write 10 opening lines for a Reel about [subject]. Rules: under 9 words each, no questions, no greetings, no the word secret, no phrase that could open a Reel for a different business in my industry. Five should state something surprising and true. Five should start in the middle of an action. After each, say in five words why it would stop a scroll.
4. Hooks taken from what you actually say out loud
Here are three things I find myself saying to customers every week: [paste them]. Turn each into a Reel hook that keeps my exact phrasing wherever possible. Do not make them punchier at the cost of sounding like me. Show the original line and the hook side by side so I can see what you changed.
5. The hook as a shot, not a sentence
Take hook number 3. Describe the first frame of the Reel: what is in shot, where the phone is, what I am doing with my hands, and what text sits on screen. The spoken words and the picture must not say the same thing. I am filming alone with no editing beyond cuts, so the frame has to be achievable by a phone that is already propped up before I start.
6. A hook that survives the sound being off
Rewrite hook number 3 so it still works with no sound. Give me the on screen text for the first three seconds, maximum 7 words, plus what has to be visibly happening in the frame for the text to make sense. Assume the viewer never turns sound on.
7. Make it rank its own hooks
Score each of the 10 hooks from 1 to 5 on two things separately: how specific it is to my business, and how easy it is for me to film in one take alone. Show both scores. Do not average them. Then tell me which one to film first and why, in one sentence.
Asking for two separate scores stops the model hiding a hook that is brilliant and unfilmable behind a decent average. Filmability is a hard constraint, not a factor to be traded off.
Prompts for the script itself
Each of these maps onto one row of the table above. Give the model the hook you picked, the brief, and nothing else, and it will stay inside the shape.
8. Three tips in thirty seconds
Write a 30 second Reel using the three tips shape. Format as a two column table: spoken words on the left, what is on screen on the right, broken into lines of no more than 8 spoken words. Open with the hook I chose. Each tip must be something a viewer could do today without buying anything. Total spoken words under 75. One fixed camera position throughout, three cuts maximum. No call to action beyond a single short line at the end.
9. Myth and correction
Write a 20 second Reel that states one belief my customers hold, says plainly that it is wrong, and gives the correct version with the reason. Two column table, spoken and on screen. Do not be smug about the myth. Name what it costs someone to keep believing it. Under 55 spoken words, one shot, talking to camera.
10. Before and after with no talking
I have two clips: [describe before] and [describe after]. Write a 12 second silent Reel. Give me only the on screen text, timed by second, maximum 6 words per card. The text must add the information the pictures cannot show, such as how long it took or what it cost, and must never describe what is already visible.
11. Over the shoulder while you work
Write a 40 second over the shoulder Reel about [task I do regularly]. The phone is fixed behind me and never moves. Give me a voiceover I can record afterwards rather than lines I have to say while working, because I cannot talk and do this at the same time. Mark where each sentence lands against what I will be doing. Under 100 words.
12. Answer one real question
A customer asked me this yesterday: [paste the question, in their words]. Write a 20 second Reel that answers it properly. Open by repeating the question roughly as they asked it, including any clumsiness. Answer it in one breath. Then say the one situation where the answer would be different. No preamble, no thanks for asking.
13. The story that lands on a lesson
Here is something that happened at work: [describe it in three sentences, badly, do not tidy it up]. Turn it into a 35 second Reel. Keep every concrete detail I gave you, especially the numbers and the names of things. Cut anything I did not tell you. End on what it changed about how we work, not on a moral.
14. A Reel about a price
Write a 25 second Reel that says what [service] costs and why. State the number in the first five seconds. Then break the number into what the customer is actually paying for, in three parts. Say who it is not worth it for. No defensiveness, no comparison to cheaper competitors.
Leading with the price is the whole point. Withholding it is what makes people scroll, and being the business that says the number is a real advantage. The same argument, in more detail and from the buying side, is in what social media management actually costs.
15. A Reel about a mistake you made
Write a 25 second Reel about a mistake we made and fixed: [describe it]. Do not turn it into a humblebrag. The admission has to cost something. End with the specific thing we changed so it cannot happen again, stated plainly enough that a customer could hold us to it.
16. The list you can film in one take
Write a 30 second Reel listing five things, on the subject of [subject]. Constraint: it must be filmable in a single unbroken take with no cuts, so every item has to be something I can say or point at from one standing position. If an item needs a cut, replace it.
Prompts for on-screen text
Most Reels are watched without sound at least some of the time, and the usual mistake is putting the spoken words on screen word for word. That gives a viewer two identical channels and no reason to keep both open.
17. Text that is not the script again
Here is my script. Write the on screen text for it. Rule: the text must never repeat the spoken line underneath it. It should carry the numbers, names and labels while my voice carries the explanation. Maximum 6 words per card. Tell me the second each card appears and disappears.
18. The one frame someone screenshots
Which single frame of this Reel is the one a viewer would screenshot to send to somebody else, and what would need to be on screen for that to work? Design that frame. If nothing in this script is worth screenshotting, say so instead of inventing something.
19. Sound off from the first second
Rewrite the on screen text so the entire Reel is understandable with no audio at all. Keep the spoken script unchanged. Flag any moment where a silent viewer would be lost, and fix it with text rather than by changing what I say.
Prompts for the shoot
20. Turn the script into a shot list
Turn this script into a shot list for one person filming alone. For each shot: where the phone goes, whether it is portrait handheld or propped, what is in frame, what I am doing, and roughly how long it runs. Order the list so I never move the phone twice to the same place. Add a short list of anything I need to have within reach before I start.
21. Strip out anything you cannot film
Go through this script and mark every line that assumes something I have not got: a second person, a location change, drone or overhead footage, editing beyond simple cuts, or props I did not mention in my brief. Rewrite each marked line so it is filmable with a propped phone in one room. Show me what you removed.
22. Batch five Reels into one sitting
Here are five approved Reel ideas. Group them into a single filming session of no more than 45 minutes. Order them so I change position as few times as possible and wear the same clothes throughout. For each, give me the hook and a one line reminder of what I am doing, nothing longer, because I will be reading this off a phone while filming.
Batching is what makes video sustainable, in the same way it makes everything else sustainable. The reasoning behind working in batches rather than daily is in how often a small business should actually post, and what a batch looks like once it exists is in approving a week of content in five minutes.
Prompts for the post around the Reel
23. A caption that does not repeat the video
Write the Instagram caption for this Reel. It must not summarise the video, because anyone reading it has already watched it. Add the detail that did not fit: the price, the exception, the thing that took longest, or where to find the item. Under 60 words. No hashtags in the body.
24. The first comment
Write the comment I should post under my own Reel. It should answer the question this video will obviously provoke, before anyone asks it. One or two sentences, in the same voice as the caption.
25. The cover frame and the title on it
Suggest what the cover frame of this Reel should show, and up to 5 words of text to sit on it. It has to make sense as a small square on my profile grid next to my other posts, not just as a thumbnail in the feed.
Hashtags are deliberately not in any of these prompts. Whether they are worth adding at all is a longer argument, and we made it in do hashtags still work.
Prompts for getting more out of one Reel
26. One Reel into a week of posts
Take this Reel script and give me four other posts from the same material: a still image post, a carousel, a text only post, and a Story sequence. Each must stand alone for someone who never saw the Reel, and none of them may reuse its opening line.
27. Reel to carousel
Turn this 30 second Reel into a carousel of 6 slides. Slide one is the hook. Slides two to five carry one idea each with a maximum of 15 words. Slide six is the thing the Reel had no room for. Tell me what image goes on each slide, choosing only images I could take myself.
28. Reel to something that is not social media
Rewrite the content of this Reel as a short section for my website, written to be read rather than watched, around 150 words. Keep the specifics. Remove every phrase that only makes sense in a video, such as references to what is on screen.
That last one matters more than it looks now that assistants read your site to decide what your business is. We wrote about what actually determines that in how to get your business to show up in ChatGPT.
Prompts for fixing a Reel that is not working
29. Diagnose the drop off
My Reel loses most viewers at around 4 seconds. Here is the script. List the three most likely causes, ordered by how likely they are, and for each say what you would change. Do not rewrite the whole thing. If the most likely cause is the footage rather than the words, say that instead of finding a writing problem.
30. Rewrite for retention without turning it into bait
Rewrite the first 8 seconds to hold attention longer. You may not use a countdown, you may not promise something at the end, you may not say wait for it or you need to see this. Hold attention by getting to the useful part sooner, not by delaying it.
31. Cut ten seconds
Cut this script by ten seconds without losing any concrete detail. Remove setup sentences before the point, transitions, and anything restating what is already on screen. If something has to go, remove opinion and keep fact. Show me the cut version and a list of what you dropped.
32. Make it sound like a person said it
Read this script out loud in your head and mark every line no human would say while working. Rewrite those lines the way I would actually say them to a customer standing in front of me. Contractions are fine. Sentence fragments are fine. Do not add personality, just remove the writing.
33. Check it against the brief
Score this script out of 10 against my Reels brief and say what would need to change to reach 10. Do not rewrite it. If it already scores 8 or more, say so and stop.
34. Decide whether to post it at all
Give me the honest case for not posting this Reel. Is it something my audience already knows, something that makes us look bad without a payoff, or something that has no reason to exist beyond filling a slot? If the case against is weak, say so in one line and stop.
That last prompt earns its place more often than the other thirty three. A model asked to improve something will improve it forever, including well past the point where the honest answer was that the idea was thin.
Do these work for TikTok and YouTube Shorts
Yes, with one change each. For TikTok, drop the word Reel from the prompt and let the script run looser, because a slightly rougher opening is normal there rather than a flaw. For YouTube Shorts, ask for a spoken title in the first two seconds, since more Shorts viewers arrive with sound on. The shot lists and the constraint lines carry over unaltered.
Instagram allows reels of up to three minutes, according to Instagram's own help pages, but almost nothing in this guide asks for more than forty five seconds. That is not a platform limit, it is a limit on what one person can film well alone.
What none of these prompts can do
They cannot give you something to film. Every genuinely good Reel a small business publishes comes from work that was happening anyway, and the prompt is only the thing that shapes it. If you are stuck for material, the problem is upstream, and what a small business should actually post about is the better place to start.
They also do not solve the second month. Running thirty four prompts by hand is pleasant once and tedious by the fourth week, at which point you are the bottleneck rather than the writing. If that is where you are, the options are compared in the ten AI social media tools worth knowing, and what a tool can and cannot learn about you first is in how AI learns your brand voice.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best ChatGPT prompt for an Instagram Reel script?
The one that states the shooting constraint before the writing task. A prompt that says one person, one phone, one location, cuts only, and then asks for spoken words beside on screen text in two columns, will give you something filmable. The same prompt without those constraints gives you a script that assumes a crew, which is the usual reason a good script never gets shot.
Why do my ChatGPT Reel scripts sound generic?
Because the prompt contained nothing only you know. Without a brief describing your business, your customers and what you can physically show on camera, the model writes the average of every Reel script it has read. Run the Reels brief once, keep the answer, and paste it above every other prompt.
How long should an Instagram Reel be for a small business?
Between fifteen and forty five seconds for almost everything in this guide. Instagram permits up to three minutes, but the constraint that matters is not the platform, it is that one person filming alone rarely holds a longer piece together in one sitting. Short also means you can film five in an hour rather than one.
Can ChatGPT write a viral Reel?
No, and treat any prompt list promising it with suspicion. Reach depends on the footage, the subject, the timing and the account, none of which a script controls. What a good prompt reliably changes is whether the Reel gets filmed at all, which is where most small businesses actually stall.
Do these prompts work in Claude or Gemini?
Yes. Nothing here depends on ChatGPT. Claude tends to write longer and add caveats you will want to cut, and Gemini follows hard limits like word counts and shot counts more literally. The brief matters far more than which model you use, and we have a set written around each one's habits for Claude and for Gemini.
Should the on-screen text match what I am saying?
No. Repeating the spoken line word for word wastes the screen. Let the text carry the numbers, names and labels while your voice carries the explanation, and make sure the Reel still makes sense with sound off, because a good share of viewers never turn it on.
How many Reels should I film in one session?
Five is a realistic batch for most people, in about forty five minutes, provided you group them so the phone barely moves and you stay in the same clothes. Filming one at a time is what makes video feel like a second job.
How we researched this
- Every prompt below was run in a chat window against three real businesses we work with, a physiotherapy clinic, a bike repair shop and a small accountancy practice, and then judged by one test only: could the person who owns that business film the result this week, alone, with the phone they already have. Prompts that produced good writing and an impossible shoot were rewritten until they stopped, or cut.
- That test is why the prompts read the way they do. Almost all of them state the shooting constraint before they state the writing task, because a model that is not told there is one person and one camera will quietly assume a crew.
- The five script shapes in the table are not a framework we invented to have one. They are what was left after we grouped every Reel these three businesses actually managed to publish over several months. Shapes that only worked when someone else was holding the camera are not in the table.
- Nothing here claims a prompt makes a Reel perform. Reach depends on things no script controls, and any article telling you otherwise is selling something. What a good prompt changes is whether the Reel gets filmed at all, which is the step most small businesses actually fail at.
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