It Isn't Easy, Mister

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It isn't easy to write a speech. You hear a good speech and you are inclined to say, "The man is an excellent talker." Perhaps he is. But often that same speaker without his script would have been only fair, perhaps not even good. The script makes the speech, I claim. And the good speech, the one that is alive, is not so much genius on the platform as it is hard work on the script.

As you can see from the chapters in this book, there is much planning involved in writing a speech. After the planning comes the writing and after that the checking. These are the three stages that every speech should go through. The more carefully they are put through that wringer, the better results you will have.

Oh, of course, you can make a speech without going through all this routine. I once had a boss who prided himself on the fact that he could get up without preparation and make a good talk. Time and again I have seen him do it, and he was always good. He was an idea man, that fellow. When he made one of these speeches unprepared, he would stumble along for a time and then he would light into this idea of his. True he hadn't prepared for the speech, but he had given that idea a lot of thought. I believe he was kidding himself when he said he never prepared. He didn't feel that the thinking he did about his idea was speech preparation. But in that thinking he had gone through almost all of the processes that are recommended here for speech preparation. Perhaps his plan was not put on paper, it may be that he never wrote out the presentation, or checked it point by point. But he went through all those processes in his thinking about the speech.

Now that man was different. Most of us are not so gifted. We do things the hard way. To get our speech right we have to put one idea alongside another and then shuffle and reshuffle until we have the best effect. We have to plan, to write, and to check. I hope that the ideas presented here will be helpful.

At the start I said that this was not to be a book on how to make a speech. It isn't—it is all on the writing. But in giving this well-written speech of yours please talk a bit louder than you think necessary, put some enthusiasm into your voice, use some gestures to show that you are alive. Then, too, watch the audience. At the first sign of fatigue, do something. This may be the point to bring up the next story. But don't ignore that first yawn. Look out for your nervous habits, don't fumble with your spectacles or your clothes. Get up on a platform above the audience if you can. They want to see you.

Speaking the piece is the easy part. You will find a number of good books on how to make a speech. But if you have planned it according to these suggestions, written it in line with these directions, and made the checks listed, then your audience is in for a good speech. It will be one that they will enjoy hearing. When it is finished some of the brothers will come up and say, "That was good, Mister." And you will thrill to the greatest satisfaction that a speaker can have. You will know they mean it.