How to write a speech?

Well, I won’t teach you how to write a successful speech. What I will do instead is teach you how to come up with a catching story. Why exactly is a story?

The right answer is hidden in history. People have been communicating with one another for ages — first orally, then by writing. That is how storytelling began. In fact, a successful speech is actually a compelling story, which is why all outstanding speakers are usually great storytellers.

One helpful piece of advice is knowing precisely what the speaker wants to say since the story itself is a way of organizing information, not creating it from nowhere. In storytelling there is a principle known as “Chekhov’s gun”, which means that every single element in a story should be there on purpose and everything irrelevant should be removed. Following this rule will upgrade one’s speech to a new level of storytelling.

Another useful piece of advice is, that when it comes to a speech, the speaker shouldn’t be a perfectionist. While holding a speech the speaker should be as relaxed as possible and let the words flow out of their mouth. If feeling nervous, the speaker can fix their sight just above the audience — that way, the speaker will pretend to have eye contact with the audience while not actually having it. This trick will lower the speaker’s stress level making the speech sound more natural.

Long story short: remember that practice makes perfect, say just relevant things and make sure that your speech sounds natural and fascinating as a short story.