At some stage in our life story, we’ll most likely be asked to deliver a speech. At the office Christmas party, for a product launch or a new business venture. Maybe, a wedding or a milestone occasion.
How will you write that speech? What will you say and how will you say it?
Among the best advice I’ve heard came from Jon Favreau, US President Barack Obama’s speechwriter for eight years.
He answered the question ‘which is the better speech; one that tells a story or one that delivers easy-to-remember quotes’, the type that are often picked up by Twitter or news outlets.
Think about it; which speech would you tell your friends or colleagues about?
Which would go viral?
Which would be remembered?
“If you deliver a speech that’s real and true to who you are and it’s telling a good story, even if someone only sees a small snippet of it, they’re probably likely to go find that whole speech,” Favreau said at an Oxford Union debating society event.
In contrast, he suggested a snappy sound bite “happens all the time”. It does not persuade a potential audience to seek out and listen to the entire speech.
I get what he means; a snappy soundbite is everyday, common. Don’t we hear them often, a few seconds perhaps on the news, much like a slogan, easy to remember but perhaps, lacking a depth of meaning.
Favreau claimed the quest to produce a line for Twitter or news outlets to broadcast can lead the writing to sound phony and constructed.
“I tried to avoid that as much as possible,” he said.
In a speech to the Netherlands-based BKB, Favreau shared a lesson he learnt from President Obama who taught him that ‘what’s the clever line’ or ‘what’s the snappy soundbite’ were not the questions to ask when writing a speech.
“The correct first question to ask is, what’s the story I’m trying to tell?” he said. “I’m not talking about the interesting anecdotes we often use to humanise a speech – though those are important too. I’m talking about knowing your central theme and core message.”
He also recommended that before beginning to write, sum up the speech in a few conversational sentences. Then, write a clear beginning, middle and end.
If during the writing, the words are not building on that initial central summary, he suggested deleting them. In other words, focus on the core message to make sure your meaning is clear to an audience.
