1. Punctuate for breathing
The AI treats punctuation as timing. Put a comma where you'd take a small breath and a period where you'd fully stop. The single biggest fix for 'rushed robot' is chopping one long comma-less sentence into two short ones.
2. Let the voice do the heavy lifting
Match the voice to the material before touching any setting. A calm mid-range voice for a meditation script will always beat a bright social voice you've 'calmed down' with sliders. Preview a few and pick the one that's already close.
3. Respell the words it fumbles
Names, brands, and acronyms are the usual offenders. Spell them phonetically, space out letters you want read individually, and regenerate only that sentence. This alone fixes most of the 'that one weird word' complaints.
4. Don't max out expressiveness
Cranking style and emotion to the top sounds theatrical and unstable, especially over long passages. A moderate setting reads as more sincere. Save the high-expression setting for a single punchy line, not a whole paragraph.
5. Nudge speed to the context
A hair slower for explainers and audiobooks, a hair faster for promos and social — think 0.9x to 1.1x, not 0.5x. Big speed changes are instantly noticeable, and never in a good way.
6. Treat the first take as a draft
Generate, listen once, mark the one or two lines that clunk, fix only those, regenerate them. Two quick passes usually gets you to 'ship it' — chasing perfection on the whole clip rarely helps.
7. Know what still gives it away
Even done well, AI struggles with sarcasm, overlapping laughter, and fast emotional turns. If a line leans on any of those, rewrite it plainer or record that single line yourself. Don't fight the model on its weak spots.