Writing TikToks as Poems
The Story
When asked about her TikTok creation strategy on The Pathless Path podcast, Kyla answered: “I write them as poems” (Source 1).
The beats, the tempo, and the format of her short-form videos are written with the cadence and short lines of poems (Source 1). Growth in Reverse noted this was a framing they hadn’t heard another short-form creator use (Source 1).
Her interest in poetry isn’t incidental to her writing style. “I also really love poetry, like really love philosophy. So that shaped a lot of like my recent writings is like reading poems and then reading philosophy too” (Source 2).
The execution is ruthlessly compressed. “So a lot of people complain about how fast it is, but people have found value in watching it twice or three times. So the whole goal is, like, how succinctly can you explain things in 60 seconds and still have, like, big takeaways at the end? So that’s why it does go so fast. So like when I edit, I see the audio waves and I cut out space between the audio waves, so it’s like very intentionally fast” (Source 3).
She layers the video against the script. “I’ve really tried to use all aspects of the multimedia. So having pictures, having text, having audio, having clips if needed. So like with video, it’s so powerful because you can have facial expressions, you can have the pictures, you can have the text. And so that enables me to say things even quicker because I am talking at people from like 3 different angles” (Source 2).
Her stated framing of why this matters: “you’re battling the algorithm. You’re battling attention spans” (Source 3).
Lesson for Creators
Most creators write short-form video as compressed essays — fewer words, same prose rhythm. Kyla writes it as a different form entirely. Poetry treats line breaks, cadence, and silence as load-bearing. That’s why she can edit out the gaps between audio waves: the line, not the sentence, is the unit. If your short-form content feels like a long video that’s been cut down, the script is probably the wrong genre. Borrow from the genre that already lives in 60-second blocks — poetry, comedy beats, song hooks — instead of trying to shrink prose.
Related
- The 5 Ss of attention — a related taxonomy for short-form attention craft
- Quantity ≠ Quality ≠ Usefulness — the prior step: deciding what the message is before compressing it
- The Snacks and Entrees Content System — Alex Garcia: short-form as a distinct format with its own design rules, not a shrunken version of long-form