For many people, the thought of getting up in front of a group and giving a speech is absolutely terrifying. It's not so much the fear of being the center of attention, however, as it is trying to organize the actual content of the speech in a way that will be instructional, inspirational or entertaining to the listeners. To that end, many turn to advice books for ideas of what to say and say it.
Instructions
1. Identify your target readers and how they are going to use your book. A speech book for 10 year olds who have to give a talk in front of their class, for instance, is going to be entirely different in tone, vocabulary and sample exercises than one you're writing for adults. For the purposes of this article, let's say that your prospective buyers are going to be the latter.
2. Determine how long your book is going to be. It's generally easier for new writers to conceptualize things in terms of page count than word count. Once you know the target length of your speech book, the next step is to decide how many chapters you want it to be. Divide this number into the total page count and you now have the number of pages to devote to each chapter concept. For example, a 100 page book that has 10 chapters will present each new concept in 10 pages. Without this guideline in place at the outset, you're likely to have some chapters that ramble for 30 or more pages and some that are only a few paragraphs. Readers like consistency; don't disappoint them.
3. Make a list of each of the key concepts you plan to address in your speech book. "Overcoming Stage Fright," for example, would be an obvious choice to include. "Where to Find Inspirational Quotes" might be another. "Types of Speeches," "Writing Speeches of Different Lengths," and "Handle a Q&A Session" are other possibilities.
4. Write each of the key concepts on separate index cards along with brief notes about what kinds of examples would support the concepts being set forth. For example, under "Types of Speeches," list events such as weddings, funerals, retirement parties, corporate presentations, oral dissertations, political campaigns, workshops and press conferences. Under "Where to Find Inspirational Quotes," you'll be listing resources such as "Bartlett's Quotations," joke books and websites.
5. Rearrange the index cards into the most logical order of presentation in your book. Ideally, you should place the easiest concepts first and then build up to progressively harder exercises so that readers can apply what they have previously learned. Before you teach them write their own speech, for instance, you will want to have provided them with meaningful exercises in which they analyze the components of famous speeches in order to understand the structure, language and message. Likewise, you'll want to start them out writing two-minute talks before you instruct them to write enough material to fill an entire hour.
6. Organize the concepts into an outline form. You will also need to add: an introduction that describes what your book is going to teach them to do; a glossary (in case you use words or terms with which they may not be familiar; a resource list of books and websites to enhance their knowledge and an index so that they can quickly find topics.
7. Create a chapter template. To reinforce the earlier message that readers like consistency, you'll need to decide on a "look" for the book that will be carried from the first chapter all the way through to the end. For instance, you might want to troll through "Bartlett's Quotations" and introduce each concept with a quote that is related to what they are about to learn. Another possibility is to open each chapter with a joke. Yet another is to excerpt a short passage from a famous speech as your lead-in.
8. Obey the "rule of three" throughout your book chapters. This is consistent with the same "rule of three" that you will be teaching them to follow in their speeches; specifically, tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them and then tell them what you just told them. In each book chapter, you'll open by telling them what the new concept is, providing examples of how this concept is put into practice and then summarizing. The summarizing portion can be something as simple as a list of talking points or as complex as an exercise in which readers demonstrate their understanding of the chapter by taking a test, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of a printed speech, or writing a speech of their own.
9. Provide a variety of exercises to challenge their minds. For instance, being able to trim down a speech to fit a specific time slot is difficult if you're wedded to every single word. Pick out a speech such as Lincoln's Gettysburg address and ask them to pretend they are Abe's press secretary; at 278 words, the speech is too long and now needs to be trimmed to 150 without losing its core message. Another fun exercise is to have them write the Oscar acceptance speech for their favorite actor. Yet another good exercise is to have them write a 10-minute speech that uses as its opening line whatever sentence they find in the next fortune cookie they open.
10. Determine whether you want to self-publish your speech book or go the traditional publishing route. If you opt for the latter, you'll need to familiarize yourself with other speech books that are already on the market and be able to identify in a cover letter to prospective publishers why yours is not only significantly different but also commercially viable.
