Carly's Ramblings Blog - Style

A 40 minute Presentation?!

30 Day Blogging Challenge

PROMPT July 4th
What could you give a 40-minute presentation on with absolutely no preparation?

Wow... I feel stress just reading this prompt. No preparation??!! That is crazy. Talking and shooting from the hip... would this be me chatting away or would this be me introducing something and letting my audience do some interactive activity? Would this be something I feel totally comfortable with or... what exactly. I need to breathe. Deep, slow breaths to calm my racing heart.

Could I lead a 40 minute meditation session of Sahaja Yoga Medditation? Would I speak about remote learning and encourage my audience to share their own experiences from the past three and a half months? Or would I tackle a writing topic? A discussion of what writing references that have truly inspired me... or start a discussion of which authors have inspired each of us?

One of my Zoom writing groups had each of us discuss books we had been especially moved by. The parameters were to pick two books - one book not from your chosen genre and the other needed to be a book from over 5 years ago in any genre. Now in our group we had a week to think about this and consider... but what if we did it spur of the moment. I chose Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down The Bones and The Late Great Me by Sandra Scoppettone. I didn't need to week to make that determination. Talking books and influences would motivate me and make the conversation flow.

Or I could talk on a weight loss plan I had been following before the pandemic - and all bets were off. The combination of foods and times to maximize your body's ability to metabolize the food and lose the weight. Or maybe even have the group do 40 minutes of yoga.

When I read the word 'presentation' I get the heeby-geebies. Who wants to chatter on for 40 minutes without the interaction of your audience? Their eyes judging you.

I much prefer to present to children. I remember reading a book - Little Mouses Big Book of Fears and taking the whole 40 minutes because the children (a class of grade 3 and 4s) were interested in sharing their fears as I shared my own. It was a great way to build our class community because everyone felt open enough to share - even my one little guy who didn't talk in front of the whole class. He whispered his to me. I let my audience guide me and came out with one of my better class moments.