We Need a Speech…

Aside from “how much do you make?” and “how do you find your speaker’s voice?” the question I get most often is “what does it take to become a freelance speechwriter?”

Two starting points to consider

On Craft
When it comes to learning the craft of speech writing the standard advice is to read a lot of speeches. I couldn’t disagree more. You must listen to speeches. Listen to great speeches. You could start by googling famous names in recent history, or “audio clips of famous speeches” and you will find a whole slew of clips. Or you could simply go to the History Channel and poke around there.

And don’t listen just to speeches. Get hooked on audio books. Go to the library and check out CDs of great literature. You get to hear how well crafted sentences sound. You get to hear the music - the rhythm - and the silence between the notes. Don’t read - listen!

On Business
Be a news junkie. Television. Radio. And especially newspapers. They should all be part of your day. As a freelancer you never know what subject you might be writing about next. You need to have a passing knowledge of just about every subject under the sun. It’s ok to be broad but shallow. But you want to be able to ask some reasonably intelligent questions when a potential client phones and wants to talk about a subject you would normally have no clue about. Except that now, news junkie you are, you can do exactly that.

Is this all there is to it? Of course not.

But if you are serious about making a living as a freelance speechwriter, and neither of the two hints above appeal to you, it may be that this is not the best niche for you.

However, if you can see yourself happily listening to audio books now and then, or reading the news every day - or better still you are doing both just for the sheer joy of it - perhaps this peculiar trade might be good fit.

February 20th, 2008
Comments:2 Comments Category: Essential Speechwriter, The Business of...

February 18th, 2008
Comments:No Comment Category: Essential Speechwriter

February 18th, 2008
Comments:No Comment Category: Essential Speechwriter

February 18th, 2008
Comments:No Comment Category: Rants & Raves

As hired pens speech writers are always faced with the dilemma of how hard to push back when we think a client is being unreasonable. I am talking about the CEOs who have given no thought at all to what they want talk about at the one and only meeting you are going to have with them. Or the ones who won’t read their drafts out loud at least once before they face their audience. Or those who want to review the draft with you before they have even glanced at it - resulting in a lot of time wasted as he/she edits and re-edits on the fly. Inevitably mudding the waters.

You may want to push back at all this. Resist. The truth is, no matter how inefficient we think their process is, it is their process, and their money and we need to adjust accordingly.

Where push back is more important and where you must take a stand is in the text itself. I have always believed that if the speech in the first instance meets the needs of the audience rather than the needs of the speaker to deliver his favourite message, your client will be very well served indeed. So you have to push back when he/she want to say everything. To talk about process. To talk features over benefits. About internal restructuring. About all those things most audiences have no interest in. When this happens I can pretty well tell you by exactly which paragraph the audience will begin to fall asleep.

So, when it comes to the process of getting from first draft to final product it is their time - billable time at that. So give in to the inevitable.

When it comes to the structure of the speech, the matter of messaging, story telling, and keeping the musical thread consistent, you push back hard if they resist. Push back hard enough to where one of you is going to fire the other. Then you have done your job.

Then you know you have done your job.

February 15th, 2008
Comments:No Comment Category: Dealing with Clients

Some idle thoughts about the freelancing trade we ply.

Those of you who write government speeches are familiar with the term “Check Against Delivery” that goes on the title page of speeches. In the pre-Internet days it was a signal to the media that there might be a difference between the written speech handed out at an event, and the one that was actually delivered. It also allowed the speaker some leeway to deviate from the distributed text as the mood or circumstance might dictate. And there was no electronic version of the speech. Just hard copies handed out to reporters who usually dumped them in the waste basket on their way out the door.

Fast forward to the common practice of government departments, and private sector corporations to post their speeches on their web sites. Question. Which speech is put up on the site? The speech that was signed off on - the one that cleared all the approvals - the safe speech? Or the one that was really given - where the speaker wandered off to unrelated tangents, told inappropriate jokes, or otherwise went off-message?

Sometimes the matter can be of little consequence. But at the very least it can present administrative headaches for the communication team.

On the other hand, it may be that even the speakers themselves don’t want the “as given” speeches up on their web sites. They might have stuck their political feet in their mouths in one fashion or another and in the harsh light of the following day, they might well want the text as-written to go on-line and pray that no one calls them on the difference. Read more…

February 5th, 2008
Comments:No Comment Category: Dealing with Clients, Essential Speechwriter, The Business of...