A short guide to writing scripts with directions
Brackets, tags and pauses: how to tell a voice not only what to say, but how to say it.
A script has words. A good script also has direction. In the studio you can tell a voice how to play a line, in plain words, right where it matters.
Directions in square brackets
Put a direction before the sentence it applies to. With the Expressive model, write it like a note to an actor: [warm, unhurried], [curious, a little faster] or [barely holding it together]. Directions are never spoken aloud.
The doors open at nine, and the first guests are already waiting outside.
Wrap the words you mean
To shape only some words, wrap them in a tag: <whisper>, <emphasis>, <soft>, <fast> or <slow>, closed with the matching </...>. The tag affects only what is inside it.
The doors open at nine, and the first guests are already waiting outside.
Sounds and pauses
Expressive can place a sound at an exact spot: [sigh], [small laugh], [shaky breath] or [pause]. Standard has its own cues, such as [excited], [whispering] or [break].
The doors open at nine, and the first guests are already waiting outside.
Five habits that help
- Use one direction per sentence. Two at once can fight each other.
- Put it at the start of the sentence it describes.
- Keep it short. A few words beat a paragraph.
- Write some text after a sound, so the voice has something to say next.
- Listen, then adjust one thing at a time.
Writing for two voices
For a conversation, give each speaker a name and write one line per turn. The studio's dialogue view lets you pick a voice for each speaker.