TEDx prep: My notes, from above

Tonight I started organizing all the notes I'd scribbled, stuff I'd copied from TED talk transcripts, emails I'd sent myself/others and my previous drafts of this speech.

I've been kicking my prep into major high gear over the past month or so and I'm very happy with the progress. My thesis is solid and almost completely ready, I think. (This stuff can always use more re-hashing in my humble opinion) :)

My ENTJ-ness is helpful with this kind of research/idea gathering/preparation. The "N" (Intuitive) and "J" (Judging) help me tear apart my previous ideas. The "E" (Extrovert) helps me not feel too worked up if I think some of my previous ideas sucked. No need to internalize these thoughts, just chuck 'em out and move on. :) What I have to watch out for is the "T" (Thinking). I will definitely have a tendency to over-think and waaaaaaayyy (over) analyze stuff. I could have written the entire talk from start to finish several weeks ago but it's not ready yet. I've written chunks here and there but I really need to make sure all pieces are in place and completely solid. Then the speech "writing" part will be very quick. It's basically just going to be an amalgamation of all the organized thoughts - I'm not going to be reading it off a paper anyway during the talk, it needs to have a more ad-lib kind of vibe anyway. So the exact wording does not need to be perfect, because this is not an essay - it's a speech. It has to be more conversational by nature or I'm gonna put people to sleep. :)

So anyhow to (over) analyze this paragraph, I don't think I'm over analyzing the importance of getting the speech plan, structure, and flow correct. Once the entire plan is up to my standards, that is essentially the speech. If I had cue cards, that what I'd write on them. At that point (hopefully next weekend) I will actually write out a whole version of the speech just so I have it and so I can tweak some of the jokes. Apparently writing cues only is how Larry David works (not that I'm 1/100th as brilliant as he is, of course) - he has an idea for a scene in Curb Your Enthusiasm and he writes out only an outline. He then writes out a few key jokes or points that the characters must say or must hit upon during the scene. Then they start and let the creative freedom fly as the actors take the ideas and improvise them in "real-time". I think that's a really cool technique and should work pretty well. In my bazillion high school student council speeches, I often worked this way, typing out only point-form cues to myself, which helped me stay on-point and on-topic but also gave me the freedom to just "chat" with the audience. I do have a tendency for rambling though so I need to practice a lot to make sure I stay in the required time limit.

Anyway, enough yapping. Back to work, Mike :)

I've got all my notes together now and I am gonna start typing up the flow/outline/structure formally now. I'm aiming to finish that by the end of the weekend, exciting times!

Notes so far, from above. Bad ideas in the trash :)