Lessons on Writing A TED Talk

If you are a cocky youngish upstart like me, you probably watch TED and TEDX talks with a mixture of a. fascination b. relish and c. envy.

And maybe you think, pehhhh... I could totally do that. Or maybe you are a more reasonable, realistic and sensible human than I am and you recognise that this is an awesome undertaking!

Ok its not traversing the Matterhorn or childbirth but you know, the heat is on!

And then, perhaps you have the opportunity to prove yourself, because someone eventually asks "Hey would you like to speak at our TEDX" and you say casually "Sure."

And then the fun begins.

GADS.

Because ok, let's say I know my stuff - I know what I know and the message I want to share.

But this is to a live audience.

This is to camera.

This is added to a huge channel on YouTube and preserved for posterity.

This needs to be really very good indeed.

And it matters - to hit home, to do a great job, to inspire others as I have been inspired countless times by what I have seen and heard in TED-land.

And though the talk is live, the containment of the time limit and the fact it is being filmed does mean that every single word counts. And has to earn its' place by inspiring, educating and sharing the one big idea.

Nuts.

THE PROCESS

Draft 1: Write down everything I can think of about the subject in a huge brain dump.

Read aloud. Throw Away.

Draft 2: Focus exclusively on the stories that I think illustrate the point.

Draft 3: Try to make the point.

Share with an audience. Get feedback. Rewrite.

Draft 4: Stay up all night looking for killer ending.

Drink refreshing fruit drinks. Keep going.

Throw minor tantrum.

Draft 5: Read through. Feel good.

Then you need to memorise the thing.

How to memorise stuff

My Secret Technique For Memorising Big Talks, Stories, Speeches, Keynotes is this:

JOIN THE DOTS

a. Turn your big talk into major breaking headlines like:

Point 1: Men need feminism too

Point 2: Young men, highest rates of suicide...

This gives you a short and sweet summary of maybe ten points that are like 'the dots' in a join the dots exercise.

b. Write up the 'dots' and then practice speaking aloud making the link between Point 1 and Point 2 and from Point 2 to Point 3 until you have your speech down.

c. Record it - both on audio for flow and on video for watching and eliminating your weird twitches. We all have weird twitches.

It took five redrafts to find the right words, said at the right pace in the right time.

Now I just need to decide on slides and images... if any.

Wish me luck! I shall keep you posted! And if you would like to know more about how to land yourself a TED talk, I wrote a fully loaded post about it here.