Page 9 - VoicesMar2015 .pub
P. 9
eakers Paradox—Continued from page 8)

are transcribing is whenever you pause while speaking, hit return and start a new line.
Even if you pause after only one word or letter. Here is the written version of my world
championship speech: Lessons from Fatdad.

Notice that I didn’t include punctuation. Also I double spaced so I could make notes

1. When I was seven 6. And my folks left me sleeping
2. We drove to my cousins house for dinner 7. As they went on up to the house
3. And to show off Fatdad’s new car 8. When I woke up
4. A 1960 Ford Fairlane 9. I stumbled from the car
5. I fell asleep in the back seat 10. Headed for the porch

later when I started editing the speech.

Starting a new line whenever you pause is similar to writing the musical score to a song.
You are telling yourself where to pause as you read it. When you write it this way I can
deliver it the way you spoke it, pausing in all the appropriate places. It helps you master
your own speaking rhythm. After you get it down on paper this way, then replay the
recording while you read along. Hold a highlight pen and highlight any portion of the
speech that doesn’t sound right to your ear. It won’t sound right to the audience either.
Go all the way through the speech highlighting and when you are done go back to
each highlighted area. Think about how you could say it better, trying several different
ways, when you think you have it, record the
new part of your speech that will replace the
highlighted area. Then transcribe it replacing
the highlighted portion with the new version.
Repeat that process for every highlight. Once
you have replaced all the highlights with new
text, you are ready to record it again.

When you record the second version of your
speech you have hit a major milestone. You
have your own voice down on paper. Now as you repeat the editing process by reading
the speech you have just edited while recording it again, the text you are reading is the
exact way you will naturally deliver the speech. Of course you will go through these
cycles of editing a dozen or more times, but the good new is you will memorize the
speech in one-third the time because it is written the way you normally speak.

(Continued on page 10)

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