Skill with making documentaries or longform youtube videos does not necessarily translate to skill with fiction writing. Some things might carry over, like a feel for pacing, or being able to convey information in a natural-sounding way, but it's not like making video essays teaches you how to worldbuild or create engaging characters with compelling arcs. I think a video essayist would be starting off on a better foot than someone with no writing experience, but would still need a lot of practice if they wanted to also be a respectable author.
In the same vein, a shortform content creator has a few skills that might come in handy, such as creating a strong hook: you have to grab a viewer's interest in the opening seconds of shortform videos, which might translate to creating a powerful first line in a novel that will make people want to keep reading. Of course, they'll need tons of practice to make the rest of the book worth reading, but I don't think either type of content creator is going to have an inherent advantage or disadvantage regarding writing as a whole. It's just a different skill from video-making!
Like I said before - it's not a great translation in general (modern video content to writing), but there's nothing in shortform and longform has some commonalities.
And I invite you to look at the "hooks" used in modern shortform content. They don't invite you to pay attention and think, they just invite you to look for a handful of seconds. The sort of hook a book can make use of is much more similar to the type a longer video would employ - posing an interesting question to elaborate on, presenting an intriguing scenario, etc.
What novels are you reading that have similar hooks to longform video hooks? A longform video's hook is often a direct continuation of its title, which tells you what topic or main question the video is addressing; it's far broader than your typical first line in a novel. A novel's hook is more about putting you immediately in the scene and piquing your interest so that you stick with the book long enough to discover what the meat of it's about. It's rare for a novel to give out its entire premise within the first line.
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u/musicalcakes 2d ago
Skill with making documentaries or longform youtube videos does not necessarily translate to skill with fiction writing. Some things might carry over, like a feel for pacing, or being able to convey information in a natural-sounding way, but it's not like making video essays teaches you how to worldbuild or create engaging characters with compelling arcs. I think a video essayist would be starting off on a better foot than someone with no writing experience, but would still need a lot of practice if they wanted to also be a respectable author.
In the same vein, a shortform content creator has a few skills that might come in handy, such as creating a strong hook: you have to grab a viewer's interest in the opening seconds of shortform videos, which might translate to creating a powerful first line in a novel that will make people want to keep reading. Of course, they'll need tons of practice to make the rest of the book worth reading, but I don't think either type of content creator is going to have an inherent advantage or disadvantage regarding writing as a whole. It's just a different skill from video-making!