Important Story tips for contestants....

If you watched the video in the previous post you were introduced to some of the basic elements of storytelling.

The video below is even MORE IMPORTANT ... especially for Speech contestants!

The key to stories is CONNECTION.
Doug Stevenson makes a great point ...

... Connection must come before CONTENT!

And if you are going to have a winning speech, you need to make that connection!

Storytelling using "The Story Theater Method"

I found the video below via SixMinutes.com (which referred to John Kinde's blog) ... the YouTube video (see below) gives a great example of a story framework (and the speech also has each part LABELED! as he is doing it which makes it easy to understand the structure).

It is about 10 minutes long... but it goes by fast (probably because it is a well developed story).

Enjoy!

What's your story?

I read this post and thought that other Toastmasters would appreciate it.

http://pos-psych.com/news/david-j-pollay/20070802359

What's your story?

Dave Wheeler

2500+ ideas for Speeches ...

I came across this website, called "Speech Topics, Help and Ideas", when I was searching for other things ... and I just had to pass it along.

If you are looking for an idea for a speech or even some interesting TableTopics... this is the place ! Check it out... there are alot of great ideas !

Here are just the main sections of the Table of Contents ...

- Persuasive Speech Topics
- Informative Speech Topics
- 100 Process Speech Topics
- Good Speech Topics
- School Speech Topics
- Speech Class Topics
- Graduation Speech Topics
- 40 Narrative Speech Topics
- Interesting Speech Topics
- Special Occasion Topics
- Ceremonial Speech Topics
- Funny Speech Topics
- Entertaining Speech Topic Tutorial
- Commemorative Speech Topics
- 7 Guidelines for Funeral Speeches
- Wedding Speech Topics
- A Public Speaking Topic Fast
- Speech Writing Tip Top 10
- Speech Outline Examples - How To Outline Your Speech Topics
- Business Topics

The site is run by Jim A. Peterson, Staff Editor, and I would be very surprised if he has not been a Toastmaster at some point in his life !

Tips for Tall Tales Contestants (or anyone writing a speech)...

The YouTube videos by Ira Glass (see links below) were featured on Presentation Zen (another blog) today and they have some great ideas for anyone building a speech ... especially those of you who are entering the Tall Tales contest.

Check them out...

Video # 1 (Click here)

Video # 2 (Click here)

Video # 3 (Click here)

Video #4 (Click here)

Let us know what you think ... leave a comment below !