OK. I've been away. No excuses other than I've only got so much time and I've been slowly delving into a world that has haunted me since youth. If you're interested, visit my other site at www.iconphotographystudios.com . Talk about a passion!
Now - to business. There's a speechwriting conference coming up. It's not too late to attend. It's the annual Ragan Speechwriting and Executive Communications conference. If you're serious about speechwriting, this is the place to be.
Full disclosure: I'm delivering two sessions myself. The first - a preconference workshop - is on "editing the speech." If you've ever been in one of my sessions, you'll know that I think writing is generally overrated. Editing, however, is priceless. I subscribe to the James Michener school of writing. Michener - who won the Pulitzer for Tales of the South Pacific so should know a bit or two about stringing words together - once said: I'm not a great writer, but I'm one of the world's great re-writers. Here. Here.
The second session is on Wednesday morning and focused on rhetorical devices that should be in every speechwriter's toolkit. Poor rhetoric. It gets such a terrible shallacking. In truth, we use rhetorical devices everyday. I plan to pull back the covers and demonstrate that they are not only common but necessary parts of the effective speech.
So, what's holding you back? Show up. Ask questions. Network. Ask more questions. And learn.