Speech pause planner

Mark the gaps, then rehearse the holds

The speech pause planner turns a script into words with tappable gaps. Paste a short section. Press Mark my pauses. The speech pause planner splits the text into words and puts a gap control between them. Tap a gap to add a pause. Tap the same gap again to remove it. The count above the text tells you how many pauses you have marked.

Pause length starts at 1.5 seconds and can move from about half a second to about 3 seconds. Every marked gap uses that one length. The speech pause planner does not store a different duration on each gap. If one hold needs to be longer, practice that hold separately. Do not mark five gaps to fake one long silence.

Press Rehearse with pauses. The speech pause planner highlights its way through the words and waits at each marked gap for the length you set. Press Stop rehearsal to end early. Clear removes the marks. Edit text returns you to the box so you can change the wording. Changing the text drops you out of the gap view until you mark pauses again.

Where a pause earns its place

Put a pause where the listener must register a shift: after the sentence you want remembered, before a number, after a name in a toast, between the problem and the ask. The speech pause planner is a way to decide those spots while looking at the words, instead of hoping you will remember them on the day.

Do not mark every comma. A comma is often just grammar. The speech pause planner will wait at every mark you add, and a script full of holds becomes a series of stalls. Start with one pause in a paragraph. Rehearse. Add a second only if the first one worked and another shift is real.

1.5 seconds is the default because it is long enough to feel and short enough to still sound like speech. At 0.5 seconds the speech pause planner is marking a breath you might take anyway. At 3 seconds you are holding the room. Use 3 seconds only when the line before it can support the quiet. A weak joke with a 3-second hold is a long failure. Test it.

A short section, not the keynote

Paste one minute of speech, not the whole talk. At 130 words per minute that is about 130 words. The speech pause planner builds a button for every gap, and a 2,000-word script becomes an unusable field of controls. Cut the excerpt in your notes, paste that excerpt, and mark it. Repeat for the next excerpt if the opening and the close both need holds.

The sample you might bring from the speech timer is 64 words. That is a fair size for the speech pause planner. Mark the gap after the sentence you want repeated, and the gap before the last instruction. Rehearse. If the highlight rushes a line you meant to lean on, the pause is in the wrong gap. Move it. The speech pause planner updates as soon as you tap.

Rehearsal is not a recording. The speech pause planner does not listen and does not save the marks. Refresh clears them. If a pattern of pauses matters tomorrow, write a slash or a blank line into your own script. The page is the rehearsal, not the archive.

How to rehearse without performing the pause

Start the rehearsal and speak the highlighted words. When the speech pause planner holds, stay quiet for the whole hold. Filling the hold with "so" or "um" deletes the pause. If you cannot stay quiet, shorten the length to 1 second and try again. The skill is the quiet, not the marker.

Do not read ahead of the highlight. The speech pause planner is teaching the gap, and reading ahead hides it. If the highlight feels slow on lines with no pause, your speaking rate is faster than the step the rehearsal uses. That is information. You may be rushing the words between holds. Say those words as you will in the room, and let the marked gaps be the only extra waits.

Stop the rehearsal if a sentence is wrong. Edit text, fix the line, mark the pauses again. The speech pause planner would rather you rebuild two marks than rehearse a sentence you have already rejected.

Then say the same excerpt once with no highlighter, from memory of the gaps. If the holds vanish, you marked too many. The speech pause planner made them visible so you could keep two, not so you could depend on the highlight forever.

What the planner will not decide

It will not find the best pauses for you. Other tools guess emphasis from punctuation or from a model. The speech pause planner waits where your finger tapped. A bad tap is your choice and you can undo it.

It will not score drama. A pause is not proof of confidence. In a toast, one hold before the names is often enough. In a status update, a hold before the ask is often enough. The speech pause planner will let you mark twenty. The room will not enjoy twenty.

It will not replace breath support or a medical speech plan. If you are working with a clinician on fluency, use their targets. The 1.5-second default is a speaking-practice suggestion, not therapy.

The online teleprompter will not stop for these marks. If you need the scroll to wait, pause the prompter yourself at the same gaps. The speech pause planner is where you discover the gaps. The prompter is a separate pace.

A three-mark limit

Open the excerpt in the speech pause planner and allow yourself three marks. If you want a fourth, remove one. Rehearse at 1.5 seconds. Then rehearse the same three at 1 second. Keep the length that still lets the next sentence start clean.

Record the excerpt on the audio recorder after the highlighter is off. Listen for whether the holds are still there. The speech pause planner's highlight can become a cue you do not have on stage. The recording is the test.

If the holds feel theatrical, you are pausing after weak lines. Move the mark to a line that can carry quiet, or cut the weak line. The speech pause planner cannot strengthen a sentence by waiting after it.

Mark three holds, rehearse them, then stop

The speech pause planner splits the script into gaps you can tap. One tap adds a pause. A second tap removes it. Every marked gap uses the same length, starting at 1.5 seconds, and you can move that length between about half a second and three seconds. The speech pause planner will not give each gap its own duration. If one hold needs to be longer, that is a rewrite, not a second setting.

Paste about a minute of speech, near 130 words. A full keynote becomes a wall of buttons, and the speech pause planner is honest about that. Mark at most three gaps: before the point, after the example, and before the ask. Rehearse. The highlight waits. The speech pause planner does not record audio and does not save the marks. Refresh clears them. Copy the script somewhere else if you need the words tomorrow. The pauses themselves are a rehearsal, not a file.

Do not pause at every comma. A comma is often just grammar. A planned hold is a place you want the listener to register a shift. If you cannot name the shift, remove the mark. Then say the section once without staring at the buttons. A fourth mark is usually a sentence you should cut. Name the shift away from the buttons, then stop.