Writing snapshots - a technique for tribute speeches

With an example tribute speech

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve been revising pages on my web site - an activity akin to going through the pantry shelves.

You find all sorts, and inevitably there are questions. How long has this page been like this? Is it passed its use-by date? Shall I edit it or let it go?

One of those rediscoveries was a tribute speech I’d written for my mother who died many years ago. At the time I wrote it, I was experimenting with snapshots - writing a series of small pictures, that collectively would give a fuller understanding of who she was and what she meant to us, her children.

I remember doing these in blocks and then piecing them together as you would a patchwork quilt. Trying them this way. Then that. Discarding that story, for this one. Fiddling until it came together in a way, I felt made sense and honored her how I wanted to. There are seven in the final version.

As a technique it’s similar to brainstorming to generate ideas. When you think about someone dear and important to you what pictures/images of them immediately spring to mind? What are the key focal points in each of them?

Is it an object? A color? A movement? A sound? A place? A taste? A time of day?

As an example, when I was thinking about my mother, I remembered her row of labelled glass ‘money jars’ in the cupboard above the kitchen sink in my childhood home. There was one for electricity, another for food, one for petrol… They were a powerful reminder of how carefully she allocated her monthly widow’s pension.

Perhaps the next time you want to write a tribute piece for a special person or a significant event, you could try writing snapshots. I find they help me get to the heart of what I’m wanting to find words for reasonably quickly. Hopefully it will work for you too.

Until next week,
Happy teaching, happy speaking,
Susan

Click to read my tribute speech for my mother

PS. As I said last week, and I’ll say next, if you have ideas for topics you’d like to see covered in this newsletter, or if you’d like to share an article on some aspect of public speaking, or a speech of your own, please get in touch. Either reply to this email or contact me through the form on my about me page on my website. I’d love to hear from you!