7 easy steps to write a TEDx script
By Bilyana Georgieva, TEDx Coach, Digital Nerd and Multi-Award Winning Professional Speaker, founder of The ‘Soon-To-Be a TEDx Speaker’ Program. You will often hear me saying What’s the point of doing a TEDx if nobody ever finds it on YouTube?
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Do you have loads of ideas for your TEDx but when you sit down you don’t know how to structure it or how to start?
Here are 7 easy to follow steps which are relevant for any kind of speech you need to deliver on and off stage
Step 1: Write Down Your 3 Targets: TEDx Goal & Target time & Audience
Yes! You read it correctly. The biggest mistake people do is to start writing their text without having the 3 most important drivers — Why, How long and Who, for every speech.
If you have no idea Why you are doing a TEDx talk your script will get you in a direction that might not be what you anticipated in a first place.
When you don’t know How long you are aiming to speak, your script will always be much longer than the time you are given. For TEDx this is 18 min, however I always recommend 10 min as a great length for a TEDx talk. My next article will explain why 10 min should be your target time, so keep an eye on the next Wednesday’s publication.
If you have no clarity on Who you are speaking to then the stories you picked and the language you used might not relate or address your audience, therefore you will not build a connection with them, which simply means all your efforts will be a waste.
Write down:
- Your TEDx goal — what outcome you desire form your TEDx talk? Why you are doing it? Where you want the talk to get you?
- Time frame — how long you want your talk to be
- Who is your audience — describe your avatars in few words. Use job positions, beliefs, problems they have, any type of personalities you will serve with your talk
Step 2: Be clear on your topic
I meet every day people who are trying to add too many topics or wanting to tell the world their whole life in an 18 min speech.
Please don’t put so much pressure on you! Know that there is no limit on how many times you can go on TEDx stage. There is a man who has delivered 17 TEDx talks.
As long as you don’t tell the same stories and same teaching you can go on TEDx as many times as you want.
Pick one, but have full clarity which one it is
Step 3: Decide which stories you want to tell on stage
The most common mistake people do is to write a script with loads of stories in it.
Here is one advice from me
Don’t use more than 3 stories in your TEDx talk
The more stories you put the more
- difficult will be to memorise your script,
- you put yourself under a lot of pressure, and
- is overwhelming for the audience to digest all in such short time
Now go back to Step 1 and as yourself
Am I going to achieve my goal with those stories?
If your TEDx goal you wrote on Step 1 is to gain Credibility or Position as an Expert in Your field, then you need to decide what are the best stories that proof your idea, know-how, never seen before project, etc.
If your TEDx goal is to Inspire, create a Legacy or become an Influencer then your stories must be those that express your wisdom.
Step 4: Write the stories
Yes! Finally! It’s time to sit and start writing
Remember, this is not an essay! Don’t write 10 pages..
If your aim is a 10 min talk then your reading time must be 8 min maximum. That’s about 3–3.5 pages.
Reading time of your script has to be 2–3 min less than your target time
We speak much slower then we read, therefore to say it out load will take longer time. Then you also have to add some pauses in few places to give people time to digest what you are saying.
When you write your stories:
- Put me in the scene — describe whats around you, the place, the smell, the colours, the noises, the mood.
- Get rid of all details and leave the essence of the story. Everything that doesn’t relate to Step 2: Your Topic has to go.
Once you are done with each story I want you to look again at Step 1: Your target time and audience and ask yourself:
Is my script within the time frame?
Am I speaking the language of my audience?
Its you who knows what phrases they use, the jargon, how they describe what they are going through as problems.. Use that in your script. It will make it relatable and will help you create a rapport.
Step 5: Write the opening of your TEDx talk.
This must be one sentence to WOW everyone with your topic. It has to be short, snappy and straight to the point, followed directly by the scene of story No 1.
Some people prefer to start directly with their story. That’s perfectly ok too.
Just don’t do one of the most common mistakes I see lately:
People use more than one sentence until they get to the core of their topic
If you do that you will lose your audience in 40 seconds
Step 6: Use a Key Phrase as a transition between each story.
What’s your Wisdom or Take Away for the people watching you? Ask yourself the question:
What is the ONE thing I want people to remember from my talk?
I call that a Key Phrase.
After watching and dissecting so many TEDx talks I found out that the most memorable TEDx talks are those that have a Key Phrase which is repeated throughout the talk several times.
Thats against all TEDx traditions, where speakers put their wisdom at the very end. Oh well, break the tradition! It’s too late if its at the end! People might not get to the end of your talk.
Plus the human brain needs to hear the same phrase over and over, for at least 5–7 times before it memorise it.
In addition your Key Phrase is the best transition between each story. It will stop you sound like a teacher lecturing students.
Step 7: Repeat your Key Phrase as a Closing Sentence
Play any TEDx talk and go to the end. I bet at least 3 out of 5 talks at the end will have:
.. and remember this today … followed by 4–5 looooooooooooooong sentences.
That’s confusing for the brain, hence people watching the talk won’t remember anything.
There are several options to close your TEDx talk:
- “Close the circle”, i.e. use the first story you told on stage and at the end of the talk give the “answer”. Which means that your first story will stay unfinished till the very end. Human brains don’t like unfinished things. This method creates curiosity and the urge to stay till the end to know what happened.
- Explain your wisdom a bit more. Use short, snappy sentences that are easy to remember.
Whichever way you want to use for your own TEDx talk finish your talk with your Key Phrase as that will seal the words in people’s mind. We all know that we remember the first and the last thing someone say.
These are the 7 steps to write a TEDx script and as I said at the beginning they are valid for all kind of presentations, including business speech and those using power point slides.
Do you want to see great script examples written this way?
Watch Dr Khurram Sadiq , Alina Timofeeva , Jessy Gomes and Magdalene Adenaike .
Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter. APPLAUD👏 the article and COMMENT below how do you prepare your script or business presentations? Also SHARE this article with the people around you. You never know.. you might help them become better with their storytelling skills.
Sending you love and energy!
Yours,
Bilyana
