How to write a speech - the 5-step formula for success - Updated for 2024
Let’s say your best friend, whom you have known your entire life, has asked you to deliver the “best man’s speech” at his forthcoming wedding.
You are excited and honoured to deliver a speech on your friend’s big day. But, at the same time, you are a little daunted at the prospect of writing a speech.
You have many questions swirling around in your head:
I feel overwhelmed. What do I do first?
How can I find a find a speech writing template to make this task easier?
How do I make the speech interesting and memorable?
How do I start the speech?
How much material should I include in my speech?
Should I make my best man speech funny or serious, or a mixture of the two?
Should I use storytelling in my speech for added impact?
How do I end the speech?
Whether you write a speech for school, write a speech for a wedding, write a motivational speech for a conference or write a speech to persuade politicians to take action on a big issue such as climate change, there is a speech writing template or speech format that you can utilise. The speech writing template is like a formula, in that it always works, no matter what type of speech you need to write, either now or in the future.
Here are the steps you need to follow in writing any speech for any occasion.
1. Start your speech preparation early
Whatever you do, don’t leave everything until the very last minute. This is a recipe for disaster, not to mention your stress levels and blood pressure going through the roof!
When you start thinking about and writing your speech well in advance, you’ll give yourself some much-needed time and space to come up with some great ideas for your speech.
On the other hand, if you leave everything to the last minute, you will feel rushed, and maybe even blinded by panic as the deadline rapidly approaches.
Think of starting in terms of weeks before, rather than days, hours or minutes before!
2. Research the requirements for your speech.
Do not just launch in, and start writing your speech, churning out the words in a stream of consciousness.
Before you put pen to paper or start typing your speech up in a Word document, you need to do some research and ask a few questions of whoever has asked you to deliver the speech.
In the case of your best man speech, you would ask your friend for his thoughts and ideas on what he would like included in the speech. After all, you want him and the wedding guests to love your speech!
You need to put on your detective hat or journalist hat and ask questions.
Abraham Lincoln, former President of the United States, and one of the great orators in history, famously said:
When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.
Ask questions
Think in terms of asking the why, where, when, who and how questions.
Take out your trusty notepad or app and record your answers for your reference.
For example, you could ask your friend the following questions:
What type of speech would he like you to deliver?
For your best man speech, the type of speech would most likely be a speech to entertain. You will want to entertain the guests, regaling them with humorous and/or interesting stories about the two of you.
Other types of speeches for other occasions could be a speech to motivate an audience, a speech to persuade them to take action, or a speech to inform them on how to do something.
Why are people there to hear your speech?
Pretty obvious in the case of a wedding! They are there to celebrate a wonderful event. So, in the spirit of the proceedings, your speech should be uplifting, cheerful, interesting and heartwarming.
Who will be there, in terms of such criteria as gender, age range, cultural beliefs, religion, political beliefs, demographics or any other relevant factors? You don’t want to step on any toes or insult anyone in your speech!
When will you deliver the speech?
Once you know this, you can start planning and writing the parts of your speech, rather than leaving the whole thing to the last minute!
How long in minutes should your speech be?
The speech length will govern how many words you should write.
As a rough guide, we speak about 150 spoken words per minute. So, if you have been given 15 minutes to deliver your speech, you need to write approximately 2,250 words.
Although this example focuses on how to write a “best man speech”, you can apply these questions to writing any type of speech.
For more information on how to conduct this preliminary research prior to writing your speech, see How to write a speech - the one thing you must do first!.
Once you have channelled your inner detective or journalist, asked lots of questions, and fully understand the brief, then and only then are you ready to start creating your speech.
3. Think big and do a mind map of your speech.
Now that you have analysed the requirements and asked the who, what, where, when, why and how of your speech, you should have more clarity around writing your speech.
You are now ready to do a brain dump of all your ideas in order to get them out of your head and onto paper.
Use storytelling in your speeches
Before you get started with the mind mapping process, think about including personal stories in your speech.
Before you write – remember that every speech has something of ‘you’ in the writing.
Don’t take that away when you write.
Be yourself.
Be comfortable in your own skin.- Phil Collins
People love to hear your personal stories. When you share stories with others, you infuse your personality into your speech. Stories bring your speeches to life and make you and your speech unforgettable.
If you don’t use stories audience members may enjoy your speech, but there is no chance they’ll remember it.
– Andrii Sedniev
Start thinking about which stories you can include in your speech.
For more information on how using storytelling in speeches, see The power of storytelling in presentations.
Create a mind map for your speech
Now, back to mind mapping -
I love to mind map my speeches and presentations. It helps to generate, fine-tune, clarify and organise my ideas.
The technique of mind mapping was invented by Tony Buzan.
This clip will give you a general introduction into mind mapping.
Mind mapping is a powerful technique to liberate all those thoughts, ideas, stories, statistics, facts and whatever else is swirling around your mind and onto paper.
Creating a mind map also helps you organise your points into a logical structure.
When you can see everything on paper in the form of a big-picture diagram, you start to get clarity around how to organise your points, and also which points to include in your speech.
4. Build your speech writing template
You should now have a mind map, and have brain dumped all your ideas onto paper or into mind mapping software.
Now you need to pick and choose ideas from your mind map and slot them into the speech template.
The speech template comprises:
an introduction to hook your audience
a body with 3 - 5 main points and
a conclusion to elegantly end the speech.
Here is the speech template you can use to design your speech.
The Speech Writing Template
1. Introduction/The Start of your Speech.
- For more information on how to start the speech, see How to start a speech.
- How will you start your speech? E.g. A quote/stat/story/anecdote/use of a prop
Transition between Introduction and Point 1.
2. The Body of your Speech (The main points – ideally 3 main points)
a. Point 1.
- What is your 1st point?
- An example/story/statistic to illustrate the 1st point
Transition between Point 1 and Point 2.
b. Point 2.
- What is your 2nd point?
- An example/story/statistic to illustrate the 2nd point
Transition between Point 2 and Point 3.
c. Point 3.
-What is the 3rd point?
-An example/story/statistic to illustrate the 3rd point.
3. Conclusion/The End of your Speech.
- For more information on how to end the speech, see How to end a speech.
- How will you end your speech? e.g. with a story or a quote?
5. Write the speech.
Writing the words of your speech is so much easier now that you have a plan or structure in the form of a speech writing template.
You have done most of the hard work already!
Now you need to write the actual words or content of your speech.
Write your speech in every day conversational language.
You do not have to write the whole thing in one sitting.
Write it out over time, and “attack it” in any order you like.
Once you have written it, read it aloud, to hear how it sounds.
Keep editing it and tweaking away, until you are happy with how your speech sounds and flows.
So that’s it, now you have the magic, 5 step formula on how to write a speech your audience will love!
This formula will work for any type of speech and any type of occasion.
In closing, remember to start writing your speech well in advance.
Motivational speaker, Dale Carnegie, famously said:
“Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.”
© 2024 Susan Weser. All rights reserved.
Susan Weser is the Founder of Speaking2Win, a boutique public speaking and presentation skills consultancy, based in Melbourne, Australia. Susan’s mission is to demystify public speaking and presenting. She loves to fast-track her clients’ public speaking success, empowering them with the skills and confidence to excel in all their public speaking endeavours.
