Introversion, a propensity to daydream and a love of quiet reading time - some or all of these are common traits in authors. When some writers think about public speaking, it can make them shrivel. Just the idea of it makes them nervous, uncomfortable, and out of place.

What authors in this position don’t realise is that there is almost no other group of people better placed to speak publicly.

Hook Your Audience

The key to a great talk, presentation or speech is engaging your audience. Hooking them, keeping them with you, entertaining them while also informing them and hopefully, creating some kind of emotional response in them is the aim of the game.

What does that sound like? Crafting a novel. Public speaking has all the same key features - a hook, a plot, a beginning, a middle, an end - with entertainment, drama and emotion throughout. If anyone can craft that - it’s an author.

Be The Protagonist

The act of speaking in front of a group can be mastered and perfected, with training and crucially - experience and practise. It’s something that can be learned. Authors are often more than half way there, because they can apply the knowledge they already have to engaging with an audience.

Authors, like you, already know what pulls at the heart strings and what makes the human brain tick. Authors know how to build tension, create suspense, and how to craft a perfectly timed climax and denouement. You already know about structure, conflict and high drama.

While you’re delivering your speech, you are the protagonist of your own story. You’re the adventurer and you’re taking your audience on that journey with you. There’s no one better suited.