Show IH: Storia – A free voice-following teleprompter with mood and pacing cues

The cue-timing problem you described is a lookahead problem, and I'd guess a fixed time offset is what's making it feel like a coin flip between "too early" and "distracting." Speaking rate swings a lot within a single talk — people slow down on the parts they care about — so a cue that's perfectly placed in rehearsal arrives late in the room. Anchoring the lead time to position in the script rather than the clock tends to hold up better: fire the cue N words before the passage starts, or at the previous clause boundary, so it always lands in the gap where the speaker can absorb it.

The mood cue is the feature that separates this from every other teleprompter. Most scrolling-text tools solve a reading problem; this one solves a performance problem. Knowing the next passage is supposed to feel warm versus energetic gives you a half-second to shift before you arrive, which is what good speakers do naturally but most of us forget under pressure.

Whether it helps or distracts probably depends on script familiarity. First rehearsal: distraction, because you're still processing words. Fifth rehearsal: useful, because the words are automatic and delivery becomes the challenge.

The no-signup-to-try approach is right. We use the same pattern at UtilitySEO — free scan, no account, results in 30 seconds. The account decision happens after people already know it works.

Building it for your own speech is the strongest validation the concept has.

For the first speakers using Storia, what behavior would show the mood cues are helping rather than distracting—fewer retakes, better pacing, or more confident delivery?

Hi IH, I’m Matteo. I run a creative engineering studio in Turin, and I’m preparing a speech for the opening of our new space.

While working on it, I started building a tool to help me rehearse: keeping my place, managing my pace, and giving each passage the right feeling.

That became Storia, a free web app for practicing pitches, talks, and presentations.

You paste or upload your script, turn on your microphone, and start speaking. Storia:

• Fades the words you’ve already said.
• Scrolls automatically with your voice.
• Gives you a cue when you’re rushing.
• Guides your pauses with a countdown.

There’s also an experiment I’m particularly curious about: mood guidance.

Storia suggests editable moods from your text—curiosity, calm, energy, warmth—and shows them slightly before you reach each passage. The background changes color to reinforce the cue.

You can try the sample or rehearse your own speech without signing up. An account is only needed to save your work.

https://www.get-storia.com

It’s an early version, and I’d love feedback from founders and people who speak in public: would anticipating the mood of a passage help your delivery, or would it distract you?