partsofspeaking

In my seventh decade I finally got a massage. A full body Swedish one.  I had waited too long. The best part was....well, all of it, but especially the feet and hands. If you've had a massage, you know the drill. It was relaxing, the calm, new-agey, noncatchy but soothing music and quietly running water in the background and the pressure on muscles I didn't know I had. I was warned about some things though.  And they happened. Because toxins are released, I was dizzy and nauseated. I had a splitting headache. I didn't want to drive home, but had to, and opted to shop at Food Lion for a few things rather than the daunting Walmart. I'm resting now, truly. I'm not sure I'll have the stamina for my walk. I was also warned to drink lots of water to make up for the toxin release and dehydration. Oh, and I'm sore. I recommend it (I used Spa at the Barn in Ringgold, GA) and the price was very reasonable. I'll just know to have a ride home next time.

  This word denotes the psychological condition of fear of public speaking. The stem “phobia” is more than just discomfort. It means “a type of anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically, result in a rapid onset of fear and are present for more than six months.” Very few people have real glossophobia. All of us have some level of stress from public speaking because 1.      it’s an unusual and unknown situation for many 2.      we fear failure 3.      we fear lack of acceptance or approval 4.      the stakes are high Short of anxiety-reducing drugs, what can one do about communication apprehension (a generic term for good old stage fright)? You can engage in thought exercises. What is the worst that can happen? This scenario projection can be realistic or silly.   But it often brings one back to perspective. You ca...

I attended a webinar today that purported to give the Six Secrets of Author Success. I won't name names here. I signed up for it to see if it was a scam, actually. And actually, it wasn't, although the presenter did try to sell us a reasonably priced continuing education program.  I gleaned some really good tips. The main one: I need to totally redesign all of my books and titles and marketing in Amazon and start all over again.  I'm not kidding. I've been doing it all wrong if I want to sell books.  Of course, this webinar was geared toward genre fiction, niche genre fiction even--really niche. Romance for vampire cowboys, that kind of thing. Medieval suspense erotica. But there's nothing to say that a more literary writer couldn't make it work.  That said, this article from Christianity Today poses some fascinating questions about fiction writing and the evangelical world, and I would love to talk about it with someone:  https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2...

  Fortunately or unfortunately, many people associate public speaking with delivery. As someone who has taught public speaking for 43 years in colleges, I resist that association. Public speaking is about so, so much more. However, if someone doesn’t conquer the “nonverbals”, he/she just isn’t going to get very far as a speaker. Conquering them, though, is not so simple. We’re talking about controlling several parts of the body reacting to social, intellectual, and emotional stress. We’re talking eyes—looking directly at people at the same time you are trying to create full sentences. We’re talking posture—legs, knees, back, feet—and moving around. We’re talking hand gestures—yes, please use them. And then a voice that is fluid, loud, energetic, varied, and expressive.   No manual or set of directions is going to give you good delivery. Only practice, critique, practice, feedback, a few tips, more practice, more critique, recording yourself as much as possible. But ...

Sebastian Gorka, whoever he is, will do anything for money. Mark Spitz, once a good-looking dude, is an old, old man.  Pat Boone, older than Mark Spitz, comes across more energetic. Is he really making another movie? That one woman wears too much orange eye make-up.  Bull-riding is a really dumb profession. 

Over the last few days, I have posted five times about Toastmasters. There’s a reason all of a sudden I’m writing about something I’ve participated in for almost two years. I’m finishing with this one to explain my “why” and also give some ideas of how Toastmasters could possibly improve its already effective program. Toastmasters has an adult learning program called “Pathways.” There are a number of differently themed pathways. The first one is Presentation Mastery. Others include visionary leadership, persuasion, mentoring, group facilitation, and many more. Each pathway involves five levels and each level involves 2-5 projects, most of which are or conclude with speeches. For example, for the lesson “Dealing with Difficult Audiences,” members of the club play the roles of talkative, disruptive, or argumentative listeners while the pathway learner delivers a twelve-minute talk and has to deal with or pacify the disrupters. Needless to say, the pathways are not a walk in t...

  There are a lot of reasons why you might not want to compete in Toastmasters. To be honest, after a few outings where I lost pretty handily, I was unmotivated to every do it again. That doesn’t mean I won’t; I’ll just have to think about it. So, considering my reluctance, why am I writing this blog post about competing?   First, you can use the speech as one of your pathway assignments.   You’ll have a different audience than your club. Consequently, you’ll have a larger and more diverse audience than your club. You’ll spend more time in practicing and perfecting your speech, and that will pay off in your next presentations. You will meet new people and extend your network You will hear quality speeches from other clubs. Last, if you move forward, you will have a line item for your resume or CV.   Granted, competing is somewhat time consuming and not a little nerve wracking. And you have no promise of winning and moving on in the competi...