The Day Of The Day

I've been in Toastmasters for a while now. I used to write about it more, but haven't in a while, so let me sum it up: one gives both prepared speeches and impromptu ones, receiving feedback on them in the form of evaluation speeches as well as voting. I have now given something like 25 speeches. That's a rough guess, but can't be too far off the mark. For the most part, I've given a speech once a month since I joined perhaps a bit less than two years ago. Having given so many speeches, I've had plenty of opportunities to consider the process of and leading up to 'Speech Day'. There have been changes over time as I've accrued more and more experience at it, so it's not quite as it was even the last time I wrote about any part of my methods in depth.

I often begin the process of preparing a speech at about the last minute. That's a bad habit, as it leaves me rather nervous on the day of the speech. When I don't have a speech on meeting day, I tend to get up at 9. When I do, I get up at 7 to work on it, because I have either not done a thing or have at best drafted a rough version. When I don't have a speech, I read and do other things on the bus over. When I do have a speech, I'm practicing in my mind, over and over again. I used to write out the speech completely and then work at memorizing it, practicing in my home over and over again with the chief emphasis being remembering the words. I stopped doing that after the first time I totally blanked in the middle of a speech. Now what I do is to jot down the key points, relying on my ability to fill in the gaps while in the moment.

 I think that the work I've done in improv comedy has helped me with speeches, and perhaps it has gone the other way as well. As I implied above, I practice the vocal delivery mainly in my head, trying to practice physical elements at some point so I don't feel awkward and insecure about it during the speech. In addition to making delivery more smooth and cutting down on ums and ahs, verbal practice aids the physical part by letting me feel comfortable enough to focus on it. The physical practice obviously has to happen either before I head out to the meeting or after. It's not easy to walk around gesturing on the bus, and doing so at the stop is just rather difficult given the many distractions and people thinking I must be crazy.

 I don't report this process with the attitude that it's perfect. Obviously flying by the seat of my pants has pitfalls, and results in a unfinished-feeling speech as often as it does an inspired, fresh-sounding one. Going forward I would like very much to put more work into the speech- to be so well prepared that I am just as cool and collected on the inside as I think I appear to be on the outside. That kind of confidence and security leading up to the moment is something I'm still working on. Once the moment begins and I get on a roll, I'm basically great, but giving a speech shouldn't feel like going into combat from the rear echelon. It's something to work on, but there will always be something.