To Outline or Not Outline? That is the Question of the Day
I believe that corporate writing can be just as creative as any other form of what is labeled creative non-fiction. Nowhere more so than in the writing speeches.
I find writing an outline to a speech is very counter-intuitive to the creative process.
The act of speech writing should be fluid and organic. It is not a paint-by-numbers fill-in-the blanks game.
Now not for a minute am I suggesting that speeches shouldn't have some structure. Wandering all over the map in an aimless search for a point is a disaster. Some politicians - Bill Clinton comes to mind - can pull it off because they have a style of delivery - a stage persona if you will - that allows them to give free-form speeches.
But most of our clients are not natural performers on stage. They need to lean on the words you give them. So yes - I think speeches should have a beginning,middle and end - and some logic. You don't want audiences leaving, scratching their heads asking themselves if they have just needlessly sacrificed 20 minutes of their lives.
It is just that outlines never get me where I want to go. Although of course I have the key messages pinned up on my computer monitor to make sure I stay in the agreed upon ball park.
That said - I know some of my colleagues disagree with me on this point.
So what do you do? Do you write outlines first? Are you forced into the outlines provided by your clients? Or do you find outlines a help in your creative process?
I would love to hear your comments. Just click here. Just think. You need an excuse to procrastinate and I have just given you one.
I find writing an outline to a speech is very counter-intuitive to the creative process.
The act of speech writing should be fluid and organic. It is not a paint-by-numbers fill-in-the blanks game.
Now not for a minute am I suggesting that speeches shouldn't have some structure. Wandering all over the map in an aimless search for a point is a disaster. Some politicians - Bill Clinton comes to mind - can pull it off because they have a style of delivery - a stage persona if you will - that allows them to give free-form speeches.
But most of our clients are not natural performers on stage. They need to lean on the words you give them. So yes - I think speeches should have a beginning,middle and end - and some logic. You don't want audiences leaving, scratching their heads asking themselves if they have just needlessly sacrificed 20 minutes of their lives.
It is just that outlines never get me where I want to go. Although of course I have the key messages pinned up on my computer monitor to make sure I stay in the agreed upon ball park.
That said - I know some of my colleagues disagree with me on this point.
So what do you do? Do you write outlines first? Are you forced into the outlines provided by your clients? Or do you find outlines a help in your creative process?
I would love to hear your comments. Just click here. Just think. You need an excuse to procrastinate and I have just given you one.
posted by Colin842 at
11:08 AM
2 Comments:
For a speech that's needed ASAP, I'll usually sketch out a broad outline with a client, often on the phone. It can help reduce the need to redraft if the client isn't happy with the underlying narrative.
If there's more lead time, then I vastly prefer to go straight to a first draft -- at least, in terms of what I deliver to the client. Bu I like to bang out an outline for my own use before I start writing in earnest, especially with longer speeches. It helps me stay ruthlessly focused on the speech's basic logic, and tips me to gaps in the storyline.
An outline also helps me gauge early on which sections of the speech are going to be trickiest. And it gives me a place to file various stats (ecch), quotations, anecdotes and validators I may want to use.
There's also a cognitive thing at work here. Having multiple discrete sections to think about, instead of one amorphous hunk, seems to trigger my mind's ability to think of turns of phrase and score rhetorical chord progressions.
That said, there's nothing like sitting down at a blank screen, starting with "Check Against Delivery" and pounding your way through a speech, looking up only once you've written "Thank you all, and good night."
By
Rob Cottingham, at 3:11 PM
Hey Rob:
At the risk of contradicting my own newsletter commentary, I can't disagree with any of your sentiments.
I use post-it notes on my monitor that keeps my focus on the key messaging.
That said, I get into creative trouble if I have to follow one of those long sub-sectioned kitchen sink commentary that clients sometimes provide.
I usually first puke out the words on the page, and then pare back on the re-writes.
Thanks for your very astute take on the subject.
Let's hope we get some other views.
By
Colin842, at 3:30 PM
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