Shedding Your Word Security Blanket

I have really enjoyed reading Chapter 10, mostly because of they way that it demanded that you think about what you are saying and how you are saying it. I am a big fan of language as an art form, and so ideas like "using language to spark imagination" really tickle me.

But through all the tickling, the one part of the chapter that really stuck out as something I personally need to work on. At the very end of the chapter, right before the review section, is a tiny paragraph called "Don't Get Too Attached To Your Words."

The entire purpose of an extemporaneous style of speaking is to not read from text, and to not recite a speech that you have written in advance. You are to be so well-researched in your topic so that when you get up in front of a group of people you can speak confidently and casually and while you should most definitely practice, you should not tied to a specific order of words to deliver your speech. I totally get caught up here. I really like language and I prepare my speech a lot like I would an essay, so when I come up with a particularly clever way of relating something I am loathe for forget it while I am in the grips of stage fright. "But my genius will be lost on them if I don't recite this exactly the way I originally intended it to be!!" But being too attached to your words can come off as totally rigid, and it also makes you reliant on your words. You become a slave to your words! If something goes wrong i think you are a lot more likely to get lost when you are overly dependent on your language than if you are looser and more able to go with the flow.

I'd like to try to loosen up for this Tribute Speech. In the past I have been overly reliant on my cards, and on a particular set of preordained words. I'd like to take advantage of the more low-key speech type to experiment with letting go of my word security blanket.