Updated October 2026 · Voiceover and narration
Read the script aloud at your natural pace, time it with a stopwatch, and divide the word count by the minutes to get your speed. Plan pauses as part of the time, then trim the script until it fits the video or the slot you have.
A voiceover that runs ten seconds over the picture, or finishes early and leaves dead air, is a common problem. It is cheaper to fix on paper than in the studio or the edit. Timing a script takes about ten minutes, and it tells you whether the words you have written will fit the time you have.
Read the whole script out loud, as you would speak it to a viewer, not as fast as you can. Use a stopwatch or a phone timer. Note the total time. Do it twice, because the first read is usually faster or slower than the second, once you know the words.
Count the words in the script, then divide by the minutes it took. Most people speaking a narration settle somewhere in a similar range, but the exact speed depends on the subject, the audience and how formal the tone is. Your own number is more useful than any figure from a guide. Keep it on a sticky note for the next script.
Pauses take time too, and they are part of how a voiceover sounds natural. Mark the places where you want a breath, a beat before a point, or room for an on-screen image to land. Give each pause a length, such as half a second or a full second, and add it to the total. A script with no planned pauses always runs longer on the day.
If the script is too long, cut words rather than asking yourself to speak faster. Speed makes a narration sound rushed and harder to follow. Cut filler phrases, repeated points and sentences that describe what the viewer can already see. Re-time after each cut.
Underline the words you want to stress, and put a slash where you will breathe. Breath marks stop you running out of air in the middle of a long sentence, which is one of the most common reasons for a bad take. Short sentences are easier to breathe in than long ones, so split any sentence that runs past one breath.
If the voiceover goes over video, time it against the edit rather than your stopwatch. The room tone post is useful when you record in a quiet room, but for timing, play the video and read along once. Adjust the script until the key words land on the key images.
Timing gives you a plan, not a guarantee. Real takes vary, and a nervous first read is almost always slower. Leave a little spare time at the end, so you can drop a line if the take runs long.
Record voice-overs with live noise removal, or clean an existing file. Runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded.
Use your own speed. Read the script aloud, time it, and divide the word count by the minutes it took.
No. Cut words instead. Faster speech sounds rushed and is harder to follow.
Yes. Add planned pauses to the total time, or the final edit will run longer than the plan.
Re-time the script against the new edit and record the lines that changed, rather than the whole script.
