WRITING WEDNESDAY
Public Speaking Part #3
Preparing Your Talk:
I’d be perfectly happy to stay curled up in my comfy writerly world but unfortunately if I want people to read what I write I need to let them know I’ve written something.
Does the thought of public speaking terrify you? The secret to a winning speaking experience is being prepared and practiced. Today’s Writing Wednesday tips are on preparing your talk.
Before creating your talk:
You need to know the audience. Have a list of questions for the person booking you. What is the demographic of the audience? Are they expecting to learn something, be inspired, be challenged or all three? Ask them what your time frame is and if time will be allotted for questions and answers. Will there be equipment available for illustrations, presentations or short videos? Do you need to provide chords, bring your laptop or a flash drive? Will there be sound equipment and someone that knows how to operate it?
If you are speaking for an organization you also want to do some of your own research. Do they have a mission statement? Try to collect ten-times more information than you’ll need.
Preparing your speech:
Choose a subject and stick to that topic. What is the point or points you want to make? What is the takeaway for your audience? You basically want to write a synopsis. Your talk will have a beginning, a middle and an end. Your beginning should be light and personable. Give a bit of yourself away and let the audience know that you know who they are. The middle is your topic. You want to be clear, interesting and persuasive. Personalize your talk with names and places that will be recognizable to the audience. Use your own experiences and use words that help create a picture for the listeners. Think about using props, illustrations photos or video that will help your audience visualize your subject.
Wrapping it up:
Be sure you’ve answered as many who, what, when. where and how’s as possible in your talk. When wrapping it up, be sure you’ve tied up any loose ends. Reemphasize the main points of your speech. End on a light note.
Insecure Writers Support Group
It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.
Follow us on Twitter; Instagram and Facebook. Our Hashtag is #IWSG and #theIWSG
May 1 question:
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
I learned early on that if I spoke or wrote in certain ways people could become extremely angry with me or be quite happy with me.
The earliest memory I have of this is a debate with my father at the dinner table over peas. I was 7. Like most parents said back then my Dad said I needed to eat my peas because there where children starving in Africa. That statement made no sense to me at 7 and it still doesn’t. After a frustrating back and forth, I didn’t eat the peas that night. That weekend my father and I bought peas and other canned goods and sent them to an orphanage in Africa. That Halloween I collected change for UNICEF. I’ve continued to volunteer with and donate to causes I’m passionate about ever since.
The 2019 Annual IWSG Anthology Contest is now open for submissions!
This is SO Exciting! I’m thinking of entering.
I don’t write middle grade, so it’ll be a fun challenge.
Guidelines and rules:
Word count: 3500-5000
Genre: Middle Grade Historical – Adventure/Fantasy
Theme: Voyagers
Prizes: The winning stories will be edited and published by Freedom Fox Press next year in the IWSG anthology. Authors will receive royalties on books sold, both print and eBook. The top story will have the honor of giving the anthology its title.
Submissions accepted: May 1 – September 4, 2019
How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (double-spaced, no page numbers), previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your full contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group.
Judging: The IWSG admins will create a shortlist of the best stories. The shortlist will then be sent to our official judges. You can see who they are and get more information here.
The latest IWSG book was just released:
The awesome co-hosts for the May 1 posting of the IWSG are:
Lee Lowery, Juneta Key, Yvonne Ventresca, and T. Powell Coltrin!
Be sure to stop by and thank them!
Have a wonderful writing filled May.
Doreen
22 thoughts on “Writing Wednesday, the Insecure Writers Support Group & Oddly Suited…”
As children, we are so young and impressionable that those early experiences, both positive and negative, stay with us… for a long time. Some never go away.
Happy IWSG Day.
That is so true. I constantly remind myself to focus on those positive early words.
I remember that same line about starving children in Africa too. Never made sense to me others. I was pretty sure they wanted the liver and onions on my plate even less than I did 🙂
Oh that liver and onions eck!
Great tips on public speaking. I’m not a fan of it myself. I hate being center of attention and never want all eyes on me.
I don’t like it either. My wedding day was awful:(
Thanks for the info on public speaking. Very helpful.
Anna from elements of emaginette
You are so welcome.
Good public speaking tips. I’ve always tried to remind my students that the speech they’re giving is about the audience as much (if not more) than it is about the speaker. Focus on what you’re giving and that makes it easier 🙂
That is so true!
It’s so neat that you and your dad took the “peas and the starving children in Africa” story and actually did something about it. It still seems a bad argument for why we should eat said peas (and liver and onions), but I like that you took it a step further and didn’t just have the debate about them without trying to make a difference. 🙂
Too often, I think people do throw words around without ever really planning to do something about them, and it’s great that you and your dad went beyond that.
Happy IWSG Day!
My Dad was sweet like that. I miss him so much:(
Even though I’m a retired attorney, I don’t like public speaking. Marketing is my big insecurity. Thanks for the tips.
Marketing is tough but so needed:(
I too got the whole “starving children in Africa” schpeel. My response (in my head) was, “Send it to them then! I don’t want it.” Of course, that didn’t happen and I’ve grown up and now my response would be “What about starving people in here?” In either case, I had to eat my cold dinner at breakfast the next day. Yuck!
I’m pretty sure that’s why I’m on the board of a homeless organization and am so passionate about feeding the families in our system.
It still amazes me how one innocent moment created a huge difference to others. Blessings.
It is amazing. I still don’t eat peas:)
I heard that same line about starving children. And I also never understood how my eating a food I didn’t like in any way helped them. How great that your father turned the issue into a teachable moment with a meaningful impact.
He was so sweet like that. I miss him so much.
Public speaking scares me. I get stage fright. Discovered that in school when I could not remember performing in a play–still don’t remember a thing even today, but remember not remembering and the shock of being told I already did my performance and we got a standing ovation. No memory because I just blackout mentally.
How cool that your father took that ol’ guilt trip and turned it into a practical lesson in charitable giving. Now that’s great parenting!