Public Speaking: Taking your writing on the road

Well, I mentioned on Friday that I had to speak at my church--on a topic I am NOT an expert on and really had no clue about: Intentional Living. (Fortunately my Women's Ministry leader gave me some great reading material on the subject so I was good to go!)

I was really nervous about speaking. I mean I've not spoken in front of an audience since high school! But people tried to encourage me by saying, "Well, you're a writer, so you'll do great."

Well, that was NOT encouraging!

Writing a book does not equal speaking well in front of people. Speech writers just write speeches. They don't give them. LOL

And I had NO PROBLEM writing my presentation. I easily put together about 25-30 minutes of material. I even had funny stories! But how I was going to deliver it without shaking like a leaf or my voice cracking? Would they even laugh or learn anything from what I was saying?

Why am I even talking about public speaking?

Because as a writer, you never know when you will be asked to give a presentation. Maybe you'll want to give a workshop some day.

And in order to do that you're going to need to establish some goals for your speech:

1) you may want to build credibility
2) you may want the audience to understand or learn something from you
3) you may want the audience to agree with you
4) you may want the audience to laugh

I had all those goals in mind, but maybe you won't. Maybe you'll just have one goal. (Those goals are from Public Speaking For Dummies by Malcolm Kushner--a book I found EXTREMELY helpful as I prepared to speak.)

You'll find--like I found-- that writing what you want to say is the easy part. We're writers after all! So I won't go into how I wrote my speech.
But remember, people don't want to be lectured. That's boring!

Think about what you like to hear when you go into a workshop. Usually it's the personal experiences mixed in with the information that you will remember and take with you after you leave the room.

When I gave my speech I would make key points from Scripture or from what I read in Christian books and then I would further illustrate my point with a personal story (sometimes a funny story), because that's what helps your audience relate to what you're saying. Plus, it's interesting. You're giving them a part of yourself.

And isn't that the reason we read certain blogs? Because we're not just lectured to. We feel and enjoy a personal connection with the writer.

Okay. So I had a sparkling, funny, heartfelt presentation. I had that part down.

STAGE FRIGHT was my concern.

Well, this is what Malcolm Kushner's had to say on the subject:

Stage fright is a very egocentric affliction. I'm scared. I'm nervous. I'm going to pass out. Me. Me. Me. It's easy to lose sight of your audience's interests, but the audience has as much at stake as you. In fact, your audience may be more scared than you. They may have to suffer from seat fright--the fear of wasting time listening to a bad speech.

Hilarious, but true!

That really helped me put things into perspective. You have to realize the audience wants you to succeed! They're not against you. Once I had that in my mind, I lost all my nervousness.

(That really helped and all the breathing exercises he listed in the book too!) :)

I really recommend that book. It was simple, gave great tips, and also helped me read my audience. And my public speaking debut was a success!

Are you comfortable speaking in front of others?
Do you plan to in the future?
What tips have you learned from your public speaking experience?