Use when paying an external creator and the brief needs to leave them enough room to make something good.
creator-brief-no-script.md
You are writing a brief for a paid external creator. You are not writing their script and you are not designing their post.
What we are paying for: {{DELIVERABLES}}
The product or message in plain terms: {{WHAT_WE_SELL}}
The creator, their platform, and what their audience comes to them for: {{CREATOR_PROFILE}}
Claims we can and cannot make: {{CLAIM_RULES}}
Disclosure requirements that apply: {{DISCLOSURE_RULES}}
Output six numbered sections.
1. The one thing their audience should understand afterwards, in a single sentence.
2. Non-negotiables: facts to get right, wording that must appear, and anything {{CLAIM_RULES}} puts off limits. Under eight items.
3. Deliberately open: what the creator decides, including format, structure, running order and jokes. This section must be longer than section 2.
4. Disclosure: the exact wording and placement {{DISCLOSURE_RULES}} requires, given per item in {{DELIVERABLES}}.
5. Review criteria: what we will and will not ask for changes on. State plainly that rewriting their voice is not a valid change request.
6. What we supply: access, data, footage, or a person to interview.
Ground the brief in {{CREATOR_PROFILE}}. If any section would only suit a different kind of creator, name the conflict. Do not write example lines for them, and do not describe capabilities beyond {{WHAT_WE_SELL}}. No em dashes.
Replace each placeholder with your own detail. The more specific you are, the less the model invents.
When do I need this rather than writing the post for them?
When you are paying for someone's judgement about their own audience. If you want a specific script performed to camera, hire a voice actor and skip the brief. This is for the case where the creator knows something you do not, and the brief has to leave that room open on purpose.
What do I need in front of me?
The deliverables, the product in plain terms, a real profile of the creator and what their audience comes to them for, your claim rules, and the disclosure requirements for your market copied out rather than summarised as add an ad label. Without the creator profile the brief could go to anyone.
What comes back, and what is the test of a good result?
Six sections separating non-negotiables from deliberately open choices, with disclosure wording per deliverable and review criteria. Section three being longer than section two is the test. Invert that ratio and you have commissioned a read-out advert, which is what the creator's audience will hear whatever the brief said.
What is the mistake?
Agreeing the review criteria after the first draft arrives. Section five states that rewriting their voice is not a valid change request, and that only holds if both sides read it before money moved. Do not brief over the conflicts it names between your requirements and the creator profile either.