Write For The Ear, Not The Eye

A speech can look great on paper.

But be less than great when it’s spoken.

On the page it has structure, clean sentences and a logical flow.

Yet when it’s read out loud, it clunky as a crap gear change.

Those words that you spent ages agonising over, now trip over themselves and make you feel like you’re speaking with a bag of marbles in your mouth.

(I don’t advise this BTW - health and safety and all)

Written language and spoken language are entirely different things.

Now you probably know that in theory, but many people don’t account for this when they’re drafting a speech.

I’ve been doing some work recently helping people write wedding speeches.

They are beautiful things to work with.

While many speeches are trying to find the balance between logic, emotion and credibility, wedding speeches are all about the emotion (and a ton of humour).

A recent client was taking their script and delivering it for the first time in our session.

And that was when you start to see where things are working less well.

When you first experience this it’s always a surprise.

Because you realise that there is still a lot of work to do, and it can be pretty off-putting.

You learn a lot about who you are when you are writing a speech.

You learn a lot more when you start to say the words out loud.

It’s in that space where you start to find your true speaking persona.

You really find your voice.

With my clients we go through this process of write-record-refine until we end up with a script that is perfect for a spoken delivery.

Only then can we get on with the preparation stage, where you become so familiar with it that delivery becomes something enjoyable.

The written word and spoken word are two very different things.

The sooner you can get to the latter, the easier the process of speaking becomes.
And the more confident you become.

Fancy a chat about how I can help you with your speaking?

Drop me a message.