Scriptwriting Tools
Adding Pauses
You can provide short pauses in a script with the following syntax: <break time="[time]s" />. This syntax is only supported for Eleven Labs voices.
Example for a 1.5 second break: <break time="1.5s" />
Example for a 3 second break: <break time="3.0s" />
Example in a script: "Welcome to Boomtown Coffee, your destination for the finest specialty coffee in Houston, Texas. <break time="2.0s" /> Since 2011, we've been committed to providing a unique coffee experience."
Eleven Labs provides support for pauses up to 3 seconds and some consecutive pauses. Longer pauses or too many consecutive pauses may cause issues with the AI's ability to create a high quality audio file.
You can also add shorter pauses or natural breathing time with periods (.), commas (,) or ellipses (...).
Adding Energy
To add energy to specific words and sentences, add exclamation points ("!")
eg: "Shop our spring sale today!"
eg: "Your! Heating! Experts!"
Try writing words and sentences in all caps
Adding Emphasis
To emphasize certain syllables, add quotation marks (eg: “Way”mark).
To emphasize an entire word, add quotation marks (eg: “Waymark”).
Try writing words and sentences in all caps
Supporting common issues
Pronunciation Support
Spell out difficult words phonetically. AI voices can recognize when words are spelled the way they sound. This is especially helpful for words that have the same spelling but a different pronunciation.
If you would like to hear each letter in an acronym, capitalize each letter and add spaces in between. If the acronym is used as a word, phonetically spell it out.
For complicated long words, try splitting the word into phonetically spelled syllables.
Add diacritics or accent marks to loan words in English to have words sound correct.
Artifacts Support
Occasionally a voice-over file may be generated with extra sounds, words or artifacts. We have a few tips on avoiding these.
Make a small adjustment and re-generate the voice-over file
Choose a different voice-over speaker
Avoid the word "visit"
Avoid multiple uses of alliteration (eg: "Clay Cooper")
Avoid repetitive verbiage
Unwanted Pauses Support
Note: Occasionally our AI voice-over providers will add extra pauses in that aren't reflected in the script. We've noticed this happen between sentences that end in a period or with websites with a period in the script. We recommend trying the following tips in that case:
Use the above syntax to explicitly add pauses where you would like
Use a comma or no punctuation instead of period (you don’t need perfect grammar!)
Spell out "dot com" instead of ".com"
Numbers Support
If you would like to hear each number separately, add spaces in between.
Add a dollar sign ($) to the front of a number to hear dollar amounts (eg: “$5” would be read as “five dollars.”
Decimals will be read in a natural way (eg: “3.4” would be read as “three point four”).
Four numbers together will be typically identified as a year. To read 2015 as “two thousand fifteen,” type “2,015.”
Phone numbers are typically identified by the AI. If not, add spaces to hear each number individually.