Day 17 – Writing Challenge – Imagine yourself stranded alone in an unknown land. How does it look?

by Suman Mandal · Published April 23, 2021 · Updated January 30, 2022

Hey! Welcome to Day 17 of the Writing Challenge. While you write for today’s challenge and share where you imagine yourself stranded alone, you can also check the below topic which will guide you to be confident in your speech and lower your fear of public speaking.

Another topic of the day – How to write and prepare for a speech?

Imagine yourself stranded alone in an unknown land. How does it look?

Imagining yourself stranded alone and that too in an unknown land can be scary. So let us help each other come out of this fear of getting scared of change. My imagination takes me to a very dark and smoky place.

I woke up one day and all I can see around myself is darkness and smokiness.

“Where is that smoke coming from?” I asked myself.

Soon I saw the place around me and my eyes missed blinking for few minutes. I was all alone in the middle of a lake in a boat. There is no one around me for help and the smokiness is nothing but the fog.

It looks like midnight and I am freezing in the cold. Panic surrounds my mind, then suddenly I feel movement in the water. I try to see again and something is coming towards me. I am terrified and many things come to my mind.

Soon, a giant dolphin jumps out of water out of nowhere and I am relieved. She looks happy and she is my only companion in the stranded place. She is the hope of my survival. Far away I can see huge trees and I realize I am pretty safe from the wild animals of the forest that is surrounding me. I sleep patiently and wait for the night to get over.

As I go to sleep on that cold night in the middle of the lake, I pray to be patient and calm so that I can come out of all the darkness that surrounds me today and forever. It can dark but it cannot be forever. The fog will soon fade and I too will find my way.

Hope you also have imagined your land and feel free to share with me in the comments.

Thank you!

How to write and prepare for a speech?

Speech can be one of those words in a person’s life that give them chills and keeps them anxious till they are done with their part of the speech. It can be a natural skill for some and can be quite difficult for many. In such cases when we are anxious before the speech, it is so much better when we prepare beforehand and practice it once. It makes helps to calm down because you are prepared for what you are going to speak.

Writing down a speech and preparing it before the actual is a relief method for most of us. Most speakers prepare their speech before delivering it to their audience and you can see their confidence at the apex. You can do it too.

How to write a speech

When you are writing a speech, make sure your focus is on the audience. If the audience is not listening, your preparation and content is not reaching beyond yourself and staying inside that stadium with you.

Introduction

The introduction is a crucial part of the speech and it should be such that hooks the audience onto their seats and their ears onto your speech. Human attention has become very disruptive nowadays. The attention is less and so you have to catch their attention and keep it till the end. Start by quickly thanking everyone for attending your speech. Tell about yourself briefly before going to the main content.

Once you have expressed your gratitude, plan your opening sentence. It has to include the reason why you are giving that speech. You can start with a personal story that can be entertaining and can make the audience curious. It can create a personal bond with the audience. It can be funny or inspirational.

Plan the content

Not everyone listens till the end and you need to make sure that you are not making it all preachy and no fun. Add humor in between or add a little incident that brings back the wandering minds of the audience.

First, write down the main content and divide it into parts. For example, you have five parts to an entertaining speech. You can now add incidents that fit in the transition of the two parts. You can check the below example:

Part 1 of the speech
Add – Humorous or inspirational story or relevant incident (Optional)
Part 2 of the speech
Add – Humorous or inspirational story or relevant incident (Optional)
Part 3 of the speech
Closing speech

Note: I have added “optional” to the in-between content as you do not need to add the incidents in every transition. Plan accordingly as too much of something will not be well taken by the audience.

Be assertive and confident with your speech

It is not an easy task to deliver a speech that has successfully reached the audience and has made an impact in their mind even after they have left the auditorium. You need to stick to your opinions. You need to believe in your speech and that it will be of great help to your audience. They will get an effective takeaway from your speech.

Practice in front of a mirror numerous times. You need to check your expressions and feel confident in the speech you are going to deliver. Practice with the speech written on a paper and when you feel confident enough, practice without paper. Be calm and free your mind from any judgments whatsoever.

Do not include something you are sure about in the speech. Edit it multiple times and read aloud. If you feel good about your speech when you are reading it to yourself, then go ahead. If you need any assurance, you can take the help of a friend who can see a demo of your speech and help you with feedback.

Closing speech

This has to be powerful enough to leave footprints in the mind of the audience. You can either plan a summary of your speech in 2 to 3 sentences that can be a takeaway for them or you can quote a line that should resonate deeply with the audience. Either way, if your audience is happy with your speech, it was a successful speech.

Write the speech exactly the way you are going to speak

When you write down your speech, write it down in the way you want to deliver. Check your tone in the speech. Is it fluctuating or stagnant? Does it have the ability to excite the audience? You also need to imagine the audience and write. Do not make it too much to handle for the audience. Talk as if you are explaining it to a friend. Make sure you know the kind of audience you are going to speak to so that you can connect to them.