The good story is a roller-coaster

Grab the attention of your audience, keep it during the whole speech, and finish it with a peak that reinforces your message!

Does this sound easy? For most of us it is difficult, as we compete with the daily information overload and the smart phones of our listeners. But it can be learnt, and we can get better and better with practice.

As we started the speech coaching of this year's TEDxYouth@Budapest speakers with Adrienn Szíjártó, we discussed what makes our speech interesting and memorable.

I don't like to listen to people who speak just to hear their own voices. I like to speak so that my listeners would think, feel and act differently by the end of my speech, and I support my coachees to achieve the same. Having an amazing message and interesting stories is important, and the right structure can helps our listeners to remember them.

Monotony is our enemy. The good story is like a roller-coaster, with ups and downs.

There are some excellent resources where we can get great insights on this. One of my favorite is Kurt Vonnegut's video on the shape of the story. He is not only an excellent writer, but a great teacher too.

The other great resource is Nancy Duarte's book Resonate, one of my favorite. You can purchase it, or take advantage of her generous offer and read the e-book version online for free: https://www.duarte.com/resonate/.

You might also want to listen to Nancy's TED talk for a great overview.

What works for you? What are your challenges?