Speechwriting is a highly specialized craft, with a unique set of demands and quirks. Fortunately, it's also tremendously rewarding - monetarily, sure, but also through the potential for changing people's minds and moving them to action.
There's a large and growing community of speechwriters online. This site will bring you some of the most useful, interesting and engaging resources out there, whether you're aspiring to hear your words from the podium, looking to hone your craft, or just hoping for a peek backstage.
If you have any suggestions, please feel free to drop me an e-mail at rob at robcottingham dot ca. And welcome to the speechwriting lens.
Tip #1: Tell a story
The best speechwriting tip I've got is also the first
If you're trying to upgrade your speechwriting skills, the very best - and the very simplest - tip I've got is this:Tell a story.
So many speeches are grocery lists of the points you need to make, the facts you need to convey, the ideas your client wants to advance.
But there's a reason grocery lists have to be written down: otherwise, they'd be impossible to remember. And if all you're doing is firing data at your audience, they won't have a lot of luck remembering your speech, either.
Fortunately, while we aren't that great at remembering streams of data, we're superb at remembering structure... and in particular, the structure of a story.
There are any number of ways to describe that structure -- beginning, middle, end; problem, complication, resolution; inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement. Go with whatever feels the most comfortable for you.
Your audience will respond to that structure, because every member of your audience has been responding to stories since they were babies. And once you've found a natural story structure for your speech, you can start using the same techniques other story-tellers do to engage their audiences -- suspense, for example.
Just keep the structure simple. Identify the central conflict in your story; let the development of that conflict be the spine of your speech; and bring it to a satisfying resolution.
Do that, and your chances of delivering a compelling, memorable speech increase... well, dramatically.
Photo: http://www.istockphoto.com/Entienou
Tip #2: Ask your client what they want to accomplish
Get the focus you need to give the speech impact
Your client is hot to trot with a new speech assignment. Great!But when you asked them what the speech is about, all you got was a meandering series of barely related ideas, factoids, anecdotes and arguments. So what are you going to do?
Here's a way to focus your client's attention: ask them what they want the audience to do after the speech.
Writing that information down and giving it to the speechwriter accomplishes two things:
One, it gives the writer the kind of specific direction she or he needs to do the job right the first time.
And two, it forces the client to confront just how pointless their speech may actually be - and can jolt them into embracing something a lot more powerful.
(Photo: http://www.istockphoto.com/mbbirdy)
Tip #3: Come again?
Repetition is a simple way to drive a point home
You've just made a telling point, and you really want it to sink in. How do you do it?Here's a technique that Van Jones, the founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, used in a speech I heard him give a few years ago.
You repeat the phrase. You repeat the phrase. Word for word.
Repetition works best with short, simple sentences: "Failure is a better teacher than success. (pause) Failure is a better teacher than success." This is a technique best used sparingly and judiciously - but it can be very powerful.
Advertisers and PR professionals know that repetition is one of the keys to any message's success. For you, it's a signal to your audience that this is a phrase worth remembering - as well as a tool to help them do just that.
(Photo: http://www.istockphoto.com/AreaPhotography)
Tip #4: Excerpt the unexpected
Look beyond the usual suspects for your next quotation
When we think of the sources for quotations, we usually think of political leaders, great works ofliterature... and not much else.
But your audience is constantly bombarded with messages, and there are sources that may well resonate with them more strongly than some long-dead statesman. Look to books, films, pop songs, TV shows, even commercials. (One high point of a
speech I wrote a few years ago was a quotation from the movie "Mars Attacks!") And try sources from cultures other than your own or your audience's.
It's a disarming way to catch your audience off-guard, and knock them off balance just enough to open their minds to your message.
Tip #5: Want to break in? Give a little bit.
Writing a few speeches for free can be your first step to turning pro
Want to become a professional speechwriter? There are many ways to break into the business... but one of the best ways to start writing for money, is to start writing for free.Find a cause, a candidate or an organization you support personally, and offer to write a speech for them either for free - or, if you prefer, at a steep discount. (Why am I suggesting working for someone you support personally? Because your passion is going to shine through... and because, if you aren't being paid in money, you at least deserve to be compensated in the knowledge you're making a difference.)
Then make it the best speech you possibly can. And treat your speaker like a client, working with them to tailor the language to their personal idiom and turning your draft into a pitch they can knock out of the ballpark.
What could you get out of it? Three invaluable things:
A superb piece for your portfolio.
A new and grateful addition to your professional network.
And a speaker who mentions your name when people ask, "Who wrote that terrific speech?"
Tip #6: Not every gig is the right gig
Sometimes you're better off saying "Thanks, but no thanks"
There are speeches where the audience goes wild with enthusiasm, your speaker knocks 'em dead, the media eats it up and everyone comes out ahead.And then there are the other kind: the speaking invitations you regret accepting for years afterward, and the events your speaker shouldn't have touched with a nine-foot boom mike.
So how do you tell the difference?
There's no cut-and-dried answer... but here are two subjective ways you can give your next invitation a cold, hard look:
One, cost versus benefit.
Consider the cost of accepting the invitation: your time, the speaker's time, research time, travel costs, attention distracted from other things.
Balance that against the benefit: everything from prestige to goodwill to the ability to convey a message you need to deliver - all measured against the organization's strategic communications goals.
Number two, risk versus opportunity.
What could go wrong, from embarrassment to hostility? And what do you get if everything goes right, from great media coverage to a big new sale?
Compare those two pictures. If it comes up as a net win, go for it.
Butf you're sending your speaker a huge distance to deliver a speech that will take weeks to write on a topic your client barely cares about ... to a crowd of thirty belligerent cranks at an event that the media wouldn't cover even if every audience member spontaneously combusted... this might not be the event for you.
(Photo: http://www.istockphoto.com/lelik)
Tip #7: Talk about the squirrel
If your audience's mind is fixed on something, you'd better address it
I used to work as a tour guide in Ottawa. Busloads of seniors would come in from south of the border, and I'd show them the sights... including Rideau Hall, the residence of Canada's Governor General.The first few times I did it, I'd be waxing rhapsodic at the front of the bus about the Governor General's role in Canadian politics, and how the stone fence surrounding Rideau Hall was a public works project during the Great Depression... and not a person would be listening.
Instead, to a person, the tourists' noses and cameras would be pressed against the windows on the opposite side of the bus. They were oohing and aahing over something completely different.
Black squirrels.
Apparently, the squirrels where my tourists came from are all gray. A black squirrel? That was something to write home about... and a lot more interesting than my disquisition on 1930's-era employment policy.
The first few times this happened, I tried to chivvy my audience back to the other side of the bus. A few folks were kind enough to tear themselves away so as not to hurt the feelings of the nice young man with the microphone, but even they kept sneaking looks at the rodents.
Eventually it occurred to me that I should actually talk about the damn squirrels. At first I just joked about them, trying to redirect my audience's attention, but ultimately I had to actually address the squirrel itself - to tell them about how this was a particular strain of the eastern gray squirrel they were used to, and how they tend to be found mainly in cities, where there are fewer predators.
Chances are your audience has a squirrel on its mind, too. If you want to keep their attention, you need to address it (even if it's just a passing reference so they won't keep wondering if you'll ever talk about it).
Photo used under a Creative Commons attribution license, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/memotions/
Tip #8: Build a mystery
A little suspense can keep them on the edge of their seats
Storytellers have known for centuries that one of the keys to holding an audience's attention is to dangle an unanswered question in front of them: "How will this story turn out?" Will Beowulf defeat the monster? Will Hamlet avenge his father? Will Elinor Dashwood marry Edward? Will Sarah Connor defeat the unstoppable Terminator? Will Kinsey Millhone find the killer and survive their final encounter?
Your speech may not have the same life-and-death stakes as those stories... but your audience can still feel the same sensation of suspense. All you have to do is start your speech with an intriguing question - a mystery - and delay giving them the answer.
If it's a less important question, you probably want to wait only a minute or two before answering it. But if the question is central to your speech, you could lead with it and wait until your conclusion before you give the answer.
Your speech may not have the same life-and-death stakes as those stories... but your audience can still feel the same sensation of suspense. All you have to do is start your speech with an intriguing question - a mystery - and delay giving them the answer.
If it's a less important question, you probably want to wait only a minute or two before answering it. But if the question is central to your speech, you could lead with it and wait until your conclusion before you give the answer.
Books on speechwriting
Explore the world of speechwriting with these great titles
Give Your Speech, Change the World: How to Move Your Audience to Action
The author sets a high bar: the speech that doesn't change the world, in a way large or small, isn't worth giving. But he walks you step-by-step down the road of creating and delivering that world-altering speech, drawing on the primal power of story.
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 12/18/2009) 
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POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words that Defined the Clinton Presidency
A compelling account not only of the most exciting years of a speechwriter's career, but also the most critical years in the life of the Clinton White House.
Amazon Price: (as of 12/18/2009)
Great Canadian Speeches
Dennis Gruending's selection of some of the greatest speeches in Canadian history should be interesting well beyond the borders of the Great White North. For folks from outside Canada, it's a treasure trove of quotations your audiences will almost certainly be hearing for the first time. Ironically, that's probably true for speechwriters within Canada, too.
Amazon Price: (as of 12/18/2009)
Presidential Speechwriting: From the New Deal to the Reagan Revolution and Beyond (Presidential Rhetoric Series)
This book may not teach you much about the nuts and bolts of speechwriting, at least not directly. But it's a fascinating account of the evolution of the speechwriter's role in the most powerful of political offices.
Amazon Price: $17.95 (as of 12/18/2009)
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On Speaking Well
Thankfully, very little of this book is colored by Peggy Noonan's political views - which means it's accessible to people from across the political spectrum. And that's great, because it's a solid introduction to public speaking from someone who rose to the top of the field on the strength of her undeniable writing skills.
Amazon Price: $9.36 (as of 12/18/2009)
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Books that aren't all about speechwriting...
...but they'll still help!
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Amazon Price: $17.16 (as of 12/18/2009)
Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting
Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 12/18/2009)
Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire
Amazon Price: $19.79 (as of 12/18/2009)
You know it's a bad speech when you hear...
The hackneyed cliches, overused quotations and cringe-worthy phrases that can kill a speech dead
Vote for your (least) favourite... or add a suggestion of your own. You may help save someone from making the same mistake!
"(a group near to the audience's heart) is the backbone of our nation's economy."
2 points
"As I'm sure you've heard me say before..."
Best bet is everyone has heard and there needs to more...2 points
Ex-Primte Minsiter Tony Blair speak
Whatever he says is (usually) a 'speech'. Lol.0 points
Rob's picks from news media and the blogospheriverse
Great posts about speechwriting
- Tim Bray on audience connectivity
- By and large, speakers aren't wild about wireless: competing with the Internet for your audience's attention can be tough. But Tim Bray makes the point that a lot of speakers need that competition - because an audience's attention needs to be earned.
"I'm sorry; the traditional conference mode of discourse, where you sit in rows in the dark and shut up and listen, it's just over. [...] The Audience, near as I can tell, by and large doesn't believe that because someone got a talk accepted, they're entitled to anyone's undivided attention. [...]
"I got a laptop and a connection, I'm gonna tune out unless what's coming off the stage is relevant to my experience, and I am the only competent judge of that." - Obama's Speechwriter Speaks Up
- Newsweek takes a look at Jon Favreau, 26, speechwriter to the hottest candidate in the 2008 primaries. His career took off when he was at the right place at the right time: the 2004 Kerry campaign at its lowest ebb, when the campaign needed a new speechwriter and he was one of the last people left in the office.
- Barack Obama: the new JFK
- This is a little dated (last July), but still worth a gander: JFK's speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, argues that Barack Obama is the inheritor of his old boss's mantle. Here's the passage that got my attention:
"Perhaps most tellingly, both preached (and personified) the politics of hope in contrast to the politics of fear, which characterised Republican speeches during their respective eras. In 1960 and earlier, cynics and pessimists accepted the ultimate inevitability of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, much as today they assume a fruitless and unending war against terrorism. Hope trumped fear in 1960, and I have no doubt that it will again in 2008." - The Limits of Clear Language
- Nicholas Lemann argues that Orwell's plea for better politics through clearer writing may not be enough... that these days, the bigger problem is corrupted information. Worth remembering the next time you're tempted to fudge a fact to make a point!
- 75 Public Speaking Blogs
- Fantastic: dozens of public speaking blogs at your fingertips. And better yet, they're all packed together in an OPML file - that is, a format that lets you import the whole whack of 'em into your feedreader at once.
- SteveNote Expo - the game
- Help prepare the biggest speech of the year. No, not the State of the Union... No, not the Best Picture acceptance speech (if that even happens)...
No, I'm talking about Steve Jobs' keynote address at Macworld. And thanks to this cute (and surprisingly playable) game, you can make sure Steve makes it to the podium with everything he needs -- turtleneck included. - Video Critique: Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005)
- An insightful dissection of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' now-legendary commencement address at Stanford. Check out the identification of some key rhetorical techniques and the life/death/rebirth theme.
- How to write effective speeches for Asian audiences
- Corporate speechwriter Bill Crain offers tips on addressing Asian audiences... such as how a phrase like "We're glad you could accompany us to this conference" can land your speaker in trouble.
- Barack Obama hit with plagiarism accusation
- Check out the video clip: a side-by-side comparison between brief passages from a recent Obama speech and one made two years ago by then-candidate (and now-Obama-supporter) Deval Patrick. Patrick has made it clear he doesn't consider this plagiarism.
The two passages are awfully similar - same point, same examples - but what it makes me think of isn't so much plagiarism as the tricks the mind plays on you. You're trying to think of the perfect response to an opponent's charge, and your brain serves up a memory disguised as an inspiration. (It's happened to me as a speechwriter once or twice. I've been lucky enough to recognize it in time to keep the offending passage out of the final draft.)
Links
- Executive Speaker
- Resources for speakers and speechwriters. Read copies of past speeches for examples.
- TheSpeechWriters.com
- Tips on researching, writing and performing speeches.
- eSpeeches.com
- Online resource for assistance in writing and delivering speeches.
- Dave's Guide to Speechwriting
- The basics of speechwriting, plus sample speeches and links to other online resources.
- Matt's Speech Writer
- Steps for writing a good speech. The eight step process includes tips on choosing a topic, gathering information, organizational patterns.
- SpeechTips.com
- A free guide to speech writing and delivery for every occasion. From best man speeches to eulogies.
- OnSpeechwriting Newsletter
- A free newsletter offering guidance on crafting quality speeches.
- Speakers Platform: Forum
- For professional speakers to discuss and share information about career development, industry announcements, tips and advice, trends and marketing ideas.
Your turn
Share your ideas, questions and reactions
Did something here strike you as especially wrong... or really helpful? Do you have a favourite speechwriting tip? Is there a question you'd like to see answered? That's what this area's for.
(This is for speechwriting discussion only - I'll use the delete key to keep off-topic and abusive posts from annoying you.)
submit
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- David Sattler David Sattler Sep 12, 2008 @ 12:55 pm
- If I had a nickel for every client who'd said, "I want out-of-the-box thinking..."
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- Nishith Nishith Jun 16, 2008 @ 3:09 pm
- When it comes to deliver the speech ..u really seem to be unique with your content and your audience..DAMN GOOD LENS..NICE INFOMATION...I guess next time i can prove more better as host .... :D
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- natdg natdg Feb 20, 2008 @ 8:26 pm
- True. Not all could have the talent but many could develop in speech writing.
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- SteveMNash SteveMNash Feb 13, 2008 @ 11:15 am
- Impressive lens. Congrats on it being lens of the day. :-)
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- thomasz thomasz Feb 12, 2008 @ 10:26 pm
- Nice lens. Great info.
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by RobCottingham
Rob Cottingham is president of online strategy company Social Signal, and Canada's leading progressive speechwriter. His experience spans over two dec...
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