TRUE CRIME PROMPT BANK
FORMAT: 6-Part True Crime Documentary Breakdown
🧵👇 Steal this format.
Prompt:
“Create a 6-part documentary-style outline for [insert topic].
Write a 30-second intro that teases a brutal crime with an unexpected twist. Introduce the victim or suspect with one shocking fact, and end with a cliffhanger question.
Include these 6 sections:
Hook
Tease the mystery. Drop a disturbing visual, a bizarre fact, or a chilling quote. Your job? Spike curiosity and scream “you have to see this.”
Victim Backstory
Humanize the victim. Who were they really? Reveal habits, secrets, or strange behavior that hint something was off, even if no one saw it coming.
The Crime Scene
Recreate it. Paint the scene with eerie detail. What was found? What didn’t make sense? Build discomfort. Every clue should raise more questions.
Suspect and Motive
Introduce the suspect. Don’t just tell us who, tell us why. Get psychological. Trauma, obsessions, strange rituals, make it feel inevitable in the creepiest way.
Plot Twist or Revelation
Here’s where you twist the knife. The suspect isn’t who they seemed. The motive doesn’t match. Or the real monster hasn’t even been caught.
Aftermath + Unresolved Questions
What changed? Who's still haunted? And what question still burns in the viewer’s mind as the screen fades to black?"
“Create a 6-part documentary-style outline for [insert topic].
Write a 30-second intro that teases a brutal crime with an unexpected twist. Introduce the victim or suspect with one shocking fact, and end with a cliffhanger question.
Include these 6 sections:
Hook
Tease the mystery. Drop a disturbing visual, a bizarre fact, or a chilling quote. Your job? Spike curiosity and scream “you have to see this.”
Victim Backstory
Humanize the victim. Who were they really? Reveal habits, secrets, or strange behavior that hint something was off, even if no one saw it coming.
The Crime Scene
Recreate it. Paint the scene with eerie detail. What was found? What didn’t make sense? Build discomfort. Every clue should raise more questions.
Suspect and Motive
Introduce the suspect. Don’t just tell us who, tell us why. Get psychological. Trauma, obsessions, strange rituals, make it feel inevitable in the creepiest way.
Plot Twist or Revelation
Here’s where you twist the knife. The suspect isn’t who they seemed. The motive doesn’t match. Or the real monster hasn’t even been caught.
Aftermath + Unresolved Questions
What changed? Who's still haunted? And what question still burns in the viewer’s mind as the screen fades to black?"
Bonus Twist: Profiler-Style Psychology
Describe the criminal’s psyche. Use language like a forensic expert. Ask:
What trauma shaped them?
What dark habit gave it away?
What made this inevitable, and who ignored the signs?
Describe the criminal’s psyche. Use language like a forensic expert. Ask:
What trauma shaped them?
What dark habit gave it away?
What made this inevitable, and who ignored the signs?
Keep Them Hooked With ONE Central Mystery
Pick ONE question and make it echo throughout the entire story.
Make everything orbit that one question. Leave breadcrumbs. Let the audience solve it with you.
Pick ONE question and make it echo throughout the entire story.
Make everything orbit that one question. Leave breadcrumbs. Let the audience solve it with you.
Optional: 3 Viral B-Roll Scenes for the Hook
Here are 3 go-to B-roll ideas that scream true crime energy:
A lone highway at dusk, with flashing police lights in the distance.
(Visual metaphor: isolation, something wrong just out of reach.)
An abandoned house with crime scene tape fluttering in the wind.
(Sets mood and mystery instantly.)
Archival family video footage of the victim laughing, then abruptly cutting to static.
(Nothing hits harder than innocence turned cold.)
Here are 3 go-to B-roll ideas that scream true crime energy:
A lone highway at dusk, with flashing police lights in the distance.
(Visual metaphor: isolation, something wrong just out of reach.)
An abandoned house with crime scene tape fluttering in the wind.
(Sets mood and mystery instantly.)
Archival family video footage of the victim laughing, then abruptly cutting to static.
(Nothing hits harder than innocence turned cold.)
Use it for murders, missing persons, scams, stalkers, whatever rabbit hole you’re building.
Let me know the niche you want me to cover next. 👇
Let me know the niche you want me to cover next. 👇
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