Writing Life

And Unprepared Speaker and I Have a New Goal

For the past month, I've been super excited about our guest speaker coming to speak to our Writers' Guild. Last night, I got to meet him. As a person, he was funny, and I enjoyed him. As a speaker...well...let's just say in over an hour of talking to our Writers' Guild he was all fluff, and not an ounce of substance. Ten minutes in it became obvious that he hadn't prepared at all. He was stopping, staring at the floor, and trying to figure out what he was going to say next. At one point, he tried to sound impressive by saying, "I love to go where the spirit leads," and continued to stare at the floor because he didn't have a clue what he wanted to say next.

This was pretty sad from a man with 14 books, a Ph.D., a teacher, and a member of the speakers association. What was interesting, though, is I'd just heard someone say that if someone comes to speak for free you're going to get what you "paid" for. In other words, the speaker is not going to give it his best because he has no incentive. Our guest speaker proved that last night.

On the bright side, I realised I could do a much better job than he did. So, my new goal: By this time next year, I'll be doing writing seminars. It won't be fluff. It'll be all meat.