# Elevenlabs Tts Prompting > Turn plain text into a performance-ready ElevenLabs script using audio tags, punctuation, and pacing controls for Eleven v3. Use this skill whenever the user wants voiceover or TTS from ElevenLabs — writing or improving a script, adding emotion, laughter, whispers, sighs, or accents, controlling pauses and emphasis, fixing pronunciation, formatting multi-speaker dialogue, or choosing a stability setting. Trigger on requests like 'write an ElevenLabs script', 'make this sound excited/sad/sarcastic', 'add pauses to my voiceover', 'why does my TTS sound flat', 'format this dialogue for two voices', or 'how do I pronounce X in ElevenLabs'. - Skill: `jordangaston/elevenlabs-tts-prompting` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add jordangaston/elevenlabs-tts-prompting` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/jordangaston/elevenlabs-tts-prompting/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: jordangaston (https://skillmd.com/u/jordangaston) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/jordangaston/elevenlabs-tts-prompting --- # ElevenLabs TTS Prompting A method for turning plain text into a script that ElevenLabs **Eleven v3** performs the way you intend. v3 reads structure — tags, punctuation, and capitalization steer emotion and pacing. This skill catalogs those controls and gives you a repeatable workflow. > Default to Eleven v3. It is the only model that reads audio tags. The v2 fallbacks (SSML `` and ``) appear at the end for older models only. ## The workflow Given plain text and a target delivery, produce a tagged script: 1. **Pick the voice character first.** Tags amplify a voice; they do not override it. A meditative voice will not convincingly shout; a hyped voice will not whisper. Match the script's emotional range to a voice that already sits in that range. 2. **Set stability** for the intended expressiveness (see table below). 3. **Place audio tags** at the moments emotion or sound shifts — before the clause they color, not after. 4. **Shape pacing with punctuation** using the cheat sheet — ellipses, commas, dashes, capitals. 5. **Fix any hard pronunciations** with IPA in slashes. 6. **Read it back.** Cut tags that fight the voice or stack too densely. Over-tagging destabilizes v3. Deliver the script in a code block so the user can paste it straight into ElevenLabs. ## Punctuation cheat sheet Punctuation is the primary pacing control in v3. This maps each mark to its effect: | Write this | Effect | |---|---| | `...` (ellipsis) | Long pause; adds weight and hesitation | | `,` (comma) | Short pause — a breath | | `?` | Raises the intonation | | `CAPITALS` | Shout / excitement / emphasis | | `-` (dash) | Break; a clipped stop | Example: `"It was a VERY long day [sighs] ... nobody listens anymore."` Standard punctuation gives natural rhythm — write in complete, well-punctuated sentences. Capitalize whole words only where you want force behind them. ## Audio tags Tags go in square brackets inline. Place a tag immediately before the words it should affect. **Voice and emotion** — control vocal delivery: `[laughs]`, `[laughs harder]`, `[starts laughing]`, `[wheezing]`, `[whispers]`, `[sighs]`, `[exhales]`, `[sarcastic]`, `[curious]`, `[excited]`, `[crying]`, `[snorts]`, `[mischievously]` **Sound effects** — add environmental sound: `[gunshot]`, `[applause]`, `[clapping]`, `[explosion]`, `[swallows]`, `[gulps]` **Experimental** — powerful but inconsistent across voices; test before relying on them: `[strong X accent]` (replace X, e.g. `[strong French accent]`), `[sings]`, `[woo]`, `[fart]` ### Tag rules - **Match the tag to the voice.** Some tags land on some voices and not others. Do not expect `[shout]` to make a soft voice roar. - **Give the tag emotional context.** Tags work best when the surrounding text already leans that way — `[sarcastic] Oh, great. Another meeting.` beats a lone `[sarcastic]` on neutral words. - **Do not stack tags densely.** Too many tags in one generation destabilizes the output. One clear tag per emotional beat. - **Experimental tags are a gamble.** Reserve `[sings]`, accents, and novelty tags for drafts you will audition. ## Stability settings The stability slider controls how closely the output tracks the reference voice. | Setting | Behavior | Use when | |---|---|---| | **Creative** | Most expressive; more prone to hallucination | You want tags and emotion to land hard and will re-roll misfires | | **Natural** | Closest to the reference recording; balanced and neutral | Default for expressive narration with reliable results | | **Robust** | Highly stable; least responsive to prompts | You need consistency across long or batched generations | For tag-driven expressiveness, choose **Creative** or **Natural** — Robust mutes directional cues. Use **Instant Voice Clones or designed voices**; Professional Voice Clones are not yet optimized for v3. ## Pauses v3 has **no SSML `` support.** Control pauses with the punctuation cheat sheet — ellipses for long pauses, commas for breaths, dashes for clipped stops. This is deliberate: text structure drives pacing in v3. ## Pronunciation Wrap a phonetic spelling in forward slashes to force pronunciation. v3's IPA support reaches 80–90% consistency. Include stress markers — primary `ˈ` and secondary `ˌ`. ``` The term "/ˌbaɪoʊˈkɛmɪstri/" refers to the study of chemical processes. ``` ## Multi-speaker dialogue Assign a distinct voice from the Voice Library to each speaker, then label lines by speaker. Keep each speaker's tags in their own voice's range. ``` Speaker 1: [excited] You will not believe what just happened! Speaker 2: [curious] Go on... Speaker 1: We got the grant. [laughs] We actually got it! ``` ## Text normalization v3 reads symbols and abbreviations literally, so spell out anything you want pronounced a specific way: - Abbreviations: `Dr.` → `Doctor`, `Ave.` → `Avenue` - Alphanumerics: `Ctrl + Z` → `control z`, `100km` → `one hundred kilometers` - Phone numbers, currencies, dates, and URLs: expand to words, respecting locale. ## Do / Don't **Do** - Choose a voice whose natural range already covers the emotion. - Write complete, well-punctuated sentences; let punctuation pace the read. - Place one tag per emotional beat, right before the words it colors. - Capitalize whole words for genuine emphasis, sparingly. - Spell out symbols, numbers, and abbreviations you care about. **Don't** - Stack multiple tags on one line — it destabilizes v3. - Leave stage-direction prose in the script (e.g. "she said angrily") — it gets read aloud. Encode intent as tags or punctuation instead. - Fight the voice: no `[shout]` on a whisper voice. - Use SSML `` or `` with v3 — they do nothing. - Lean on experimental tags in a final script without auditioning them. ## Worked example **Input:** "I can't believe you did that. It's the best surprise ever. Thank you so much." **Tagged for a warm, expressive voice on Natural stability:** ``` [gasps] I ... I can't believe you did that. [laughs] It's the BEST surprise ever. [crying] Thank you ... thank you so much. ``` The ellipses stage the emotional catch, `[gasps]` and `[crying]` bracket the arc, and `BEST` puts weight on the peak — without a single line of stage direction for the model to read aloud. ## v2 fallback (older models only) Use these only when a task pins an older model. They do **nothing** in v3. - **Pauses:** `` up to 3 seconds. Too many break tags in one generation cause instability. - **Pronunciation:** `Madison`. CMU Arpabet is more reliable than IPA for v2; the `` tag is v2.5 Flash only.