As an old newspaper reporter, I can tell you firsthand how it interferes with the writing process when the editor stands over your shoulder. Yet, most of us do this to ourselves every time we try to write.
Writing and editing are two different functions. You will do a better job with less stress if you will separate them. When you write, write. Don’t worry about punctuation, editing, spelling, etc. You can clean that up later.
If you think you don’t have time to do that, let me tell you: you don’t have time to not do it. It actually takes less time to separate writing and editing.
Since we are concerned with helping you speak more effectively and avoid writing it out word for word in the first place (because you’ll then sound like you’re reading, even when you’re not), it’s even more important to find another way to prepare for your speech—and this is it.
The following series of videos will give you quick background and introduce you to a technique called mind-mapping or clustering. It’s a way to speed up the process of “writing” a speech, while leading to more effective material and organization that is more likely to connect with an audience.
I prepared the videos for a college class, so the audio may talk about “our class.” Don’t let that throw you off. Just get the usefulness out of it.
Why Bicameral?
“Bicameral” technically refers to “two houses,” as in our form of federal legislative government (i.e., we have a bicameral national legislature: a Senate and a House of Representatives). It’s a convenient reminder that we use two kinds of thinking, and more convenient (and accurate) than constantly saying “Right-Brain/Left-Brain.” It doesn’t really matter where in your head the thinking takes place, and it’s an artificial physical dichotomy. What’s true regardless: we’re talking about two different kinds of thinking.
