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How to Add Stage Directions to a Teleprompter Script
The words are only half of a good take. The other half is how you say them: where you pause, when you smile, when you show the product. Stage directions put that into your script, without you reading them out loud.
What Are Stage Directions in a Script?
Stage directions (or cues) are short notes to yourself that sit inside the script: pause here, smile, slow down, hold up the phone. Actors and presenters have used them forever. On a teleprompter, they turn a wall of text into a performance plan.
The problem with most teleprompters is that a note looks like any other line. You either read it by mistake, or you train yourself to skip it, which breaks your rhythm.
How CreatorCue Handles Direction Cues
In CreatorCue, anything you write inside square brackets is treated as a direction cue:
- →It looks different. Cues get their own color and style, so you spot them instantly and never confuse them with your lines.
- →Voice Scroll skips it. Voice Scroll doesn't wait for you to say the cue. It moves straight on to your next line.
Here's what a short script with cues looks like:
Stop trying to memorize every single line of your video.
[Pause 2s]
It takes too much time, and honestly? It usually looks forced.
[Smile 😊]
Here's what I do instead.
[Show phone to camera]
Useful Cues to Steal
How to Write Good Cues
- →Keep them short. Two or three words. You should understand a cue in a glance, mid-sentence.
- →Start with a verb. "Pause", "Smile", "Show". Actions are faster to process than descriptions.
- →Put them before the line they affect. You need to see the cue before you deliver the line, not after.
- →Use an emoji for emotion cues. A 😊 or 😮 is recognized faster than a word.
- →Don't overdo it. Three to five cues in a one-minute script is plenty. Too many and your script turns into a checklist.
Write on Your Computer, Film on Your Phone
Cues are just text in brackets, so you can write them anywhere: Google Docs, Word, Notes, or Pages. Save or export the file as PDF, Word (.docx, .doc), RTF, or TXT and import it into CreatorCue. Your cues show up styled and ready to go.
Add cues to your next script
Download CreatorCue on iPhone or Android, put your first [Pause] in brackets, and see the difference in your delivery.