The Garden of the Blind

I will be fulfilling a speaking assignment this weekend. In preparation, I have been gathering ideas and material together in the hope of preparing enough to fill whatever time is left when I start. I’m hoping for about 15 minutes, but planning for 30. In any case, I have a few ideas about public speaking in general that I think will be good advice for me.

It has been said that you should always start a talk with a joke or a lie. Telling how you were assigned to speak is both unfunny and true, so don’t do it.

After gathering together a lot of material on your topic, group together similar bits and form an outline. If you can’t fit something into your outline, then don’t use it.

Try to segues between different (sub)topics, or else tie them together in the framework of your talk.

“Brevity is the soul of wit.” Audiences don’t care what you have to say once you’ve gone over your time limit. If you can’t finish on time, stop talking and end early.

Prepare about twice as much material as you need, and then cut at least half of it while you are at the podium.

Don’t fall in love with your material. If you run out of time before using your favorite quote/story/line, then just put it away and save it for later. Let that be a lesson for you to cut something out before you run out of time for the best part.

Stories are good, but only when they are internally concise. Rambling narratives are pointless and boring. When in doubt, use something that was written by a professional.

Remember that cute poem/story/saying that everybody quotes when speaking on this subject. Maybe that means that you shouldn’t.

Relax. Half the people out there aren’t listening anyway.