The journey of a thousand miles begins not with a single step but with the first thought of pursuing it. Even before we take that first step, we have travel plans and aspirations that are going to shape the course of how we are going to live it through. Writing a speech is no different. It does not begin with the first word, it begins with a single thought that urges us to share our convictions, our revelations and our dreams. It comes with the euphoric feeling of realizing how our voice can create a difference- make an impact. And then gradually move towards drafting a sturdy content enough to sweep everyone off their feet.
A well-thought, well-structured and well-described content is the kernel of an exemplary speech. The pressure of drafting a good speech is, therefore, very much real and this often keeps us at bay from coming up with our first word. There is no Midas touch that can transform our stream of thoughts into a golden speech but there are some well-practiced drills that can help us get close to one. In this article we have tried to condense such guidelines based on our conversations with three fantastic speakers from Toastmasters fraternity- Toastmasters (referred to as TM henceforth) Kaushik Bhattacharya from Kolkata, Alfa M. Shakya from Lalitpur and Dipesh Chalise from Kathmandu . These ‘content masters’ have never failed to raise thought provoking issues and to deliver riveting and inspiring messages every time they take the stage.

Drill 1: How to start?

Each person is unique in their thinking and way of doing things. Hence, naturally each aspiring speaker has a different stimulus that triggers the writing flow for them. Some find comfort in going by the book and following the opening, body and conclusion structural flow while some prefer to draft either the body or the concluding message before working on the rest of the content. The crux is that based on our personalities we can start from whatever keeps the boat afloat for us.

TM Dipesh Chalise picks personal experiences or unique anecdotes he comes across at various physical and virtual platforms as clues to begin with. He prefers to build on such clues to craft an appealing story that becomes the body of his speech. Once his story unfolds, he works on the central resonating message for this speech that is often the conclusion and then finally, thinks of a humorous opening for the speech.

Meanwhile, TM Kaushik likes to start with the message he would like to deliver through his speech and develops a story to support the message. He then adds personal experiences or other evidence that validate the impact of his message on the lives of the audience. Only after this does he move to drafting a disruptive opening that stands out and finally the conclusion that succinctly reiterates the entire speech.

TM Alfa also prefers to start with a theme but then in an unconventional way envisions the ending of the speech after which she moves on to building a body and the opening. She believes that deciding the end goal helps her bring in stronger content on how she would like to start her speech and how to pave the way towards that conclusion.

It is clear that before we begin with our first word, we are to decide upon the central message or theme for the speech after which we can anchor on to any one among the opening, body or conclusion to suit our style and let the streams of thoughts flow.

Drill 2: How to make the content interesting and engaging?

What makes a captivating content? There is again no unanimous objective answer to this since the purpose of the speech determines the appropriateness of the content. There are however basic elements common to all types of speeches which when used enhance the speech to greater standards.

Vivid Language: The words we choose can affect the connotations of our message and can also stimulate the audience’s imagination. Our choice of words has the potential to give life to our speech. TM Dipesh greatly relies on rhetorical devices such as similes and triads to bring color to his speech while TM Alfa suggests use of simple adjectives to make the content descriptive and easy to relate to. TM Kaushik suggests we avoid flamboyant language and to choose words according to the listeners. He believes ‘the audience demands the language of the session’.
Use of stories: Personal stories work like magic to connect with our audience because they can relate to a person speaking in front of them then someone they’ve never seen before. In fact TM Dipesh uses first person narrative as the language hack in his speeches. TM Kaushik specifically recommends we use stories close to our heart so that we sound earnest in what we are sharing and the audience feels they know more about the speaker.
Speak it out loud: We might be an excellent writer but that does not necessarily make us better ‘speech writers’ because colloquial language may not be appropriate to read and vice versa. TM Alfa especially vouches for this method because she feels speaking her speech content out aloud helps her identify dimensions of speaking effectively and helps her revise her content and make it lively.
Speech Iteration: First draft is NEVER the final one. In fact, speech writing is an intense exercise of writing and revising and re-revising. Hence, it is important we give a considerable amount of time in drafting the speech, revisiting our content to iterate it for better every time.

Drill 3: Why opening and conclusion matter?

Strong opening and conclusions are vital to the speech because of two psychological phenomena- primacy effect and recency effect that prompts the audience to recall the first impression and the ending of speech. To leverage on these phenomena and give power to our speech it is imperative we have an opening and a conclusion that stand out. Often we resort to trite quotes or cliche humour as an icebreaker to our speech but that is only underutilizing the capacity they hold to sway the audience. TM Kaushik puts a great emphasis on an act or a prop as a part of disruptive opening while TM Alfa thinks drafting an opening in itself ‘chaotic brainstorming process’. TM Dipesh on the other hand leans on unconventional humour to open the speech. The conclusion, as per all the ‘content masters’ should include the essence of the entire speech, resonate the central message and have a resounding call to action.