Adapting your presentation sucks: Making a cow work in writing
The Creative Like a Cow articles mentioned below are at LinkedIn.
It would be easy: turn a talk I’ve given into a series of articles. I haven’t scripted my talks (I know, I know), so to get them down “on paper” I could have then transcribed.
My talks, like my how-to videos, and most everything else, are pounded out as I talk to myself on long walks. Often with a dog or two. Then I usually just work with outlines. Paying a transcription service $20 for a 20-minute talk should an easy way to create 4 articles (I used rev.com) adapting my talk Being Creative Like a Cow in the Workplace.
And then I see the disaster. What works in a talk just looks silly on the page: repeated words, free-form thinking, and all those filler words (“So” has now replaced “hmm” as my go-to filler word). Talks can work with things not found on the page: gestures, tone, great visuals, eye contact, reading the room. You mess up in a talk and you can emphasize the next point better so the audience passes over the misstep. Text is less forgiving.
I’ve edited for years but I’m better at story versus grammar. I married into my English Major and my wife still lends her deft hand with final reviews. Deleting is easier, but do I need to add text for clarity? Will I lose my voice in all of this?
[This is where I called in my oldest daughter to tear into this and help.]
So why don’t I just start writing it out from scratch? That doesn’t sound fun since typing isn’t easy for me. We can start with the cheating in 8th grade typing class that never paid off. (Well, except for a grade). I’m a slow typist, I can’t keep up with my thoughts.
Of course, there are dictation tools for those who don’t want to — or can’t — type. The tool has worked very well on phones for years. So well that I’ll occasionally take out my phone to dictate an email even though I’m working on my PC. There are programs I could buy, but I never wanted to invest.
Then some free help came along: Microsoft Office 365 has a new Dictate feature. It’s pretty good. I’m writing with it now. So as a prepare for the next talk, maybe I’ll take the PC out for a walk.
I wonder if the dogs will mind.
You can see how the articles turned out at LinkedIn.
