Ep. 257 WHAT DOES YOUR SCRIPT LOOK LIKE?

Hey there, Mark Brown. We just came off of own the stage. We had six VIPs who, all of them had different challenges, had different little holes in the Swiss cheese, which we all do. I did too. So did you. And we saw those little holes shrink up, and we saw their stories literally transform in just a couple of days. I love that. And when you and I were doing this, one of the things we realized that. That sometimes we take things for granted. What does your script look like? What does your script look like? And we realize that a lot of people, when they send us a script to review, it's in paragraph form. And that's challenging. That's hard and challenging to internalize that. So, Mark, let's dive into what does your script look like?

Let's do this.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcasts with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown. Mark Brown.

Your life tells a story, and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time. Stage time. Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation, AHAs. Let's dive right in.

So if you're sitting there and think, I don't script out my stories, that's a choice.

Darren, when we first worked together in 01, you said, I don't have a script. I'm a, you know, I'm a bullet point guy. I can do this. And I said, darren, you need to write a script. So you've been there yourself, right?

Amen. And a lot of it was I didn't want to do the work. I was comfortable being in the moment. Well, I had a huge realization when Dave, my other coach, said, okay, go ahead, and why don't you just deliver the speech, record it, and then go back and transcribe it. Now, look, you don't have to. However, we're showing you what we did and what we learned and what our six VIPs just experienced. And some of them, we won't mention names, didn't want to write it out either. And those ones who didn't want to write it out either, they had some aha's just writing it out.

Well, Darren, you gave our attendees this past week some advice. I don't know if you learned that from someone or you had an epiphany, but you said, you cannot edit what you don't write down. You cannot edit what you don't write down. And Here's a quick tip for you. Darren said record it and transcribe it. A lot of people, their script is, I'm going to write this thing. And they write two lines and I say, I don't like how that sounds. I'm going to change that. They begin to erase and write again, or some will type backspace, backspace, delete, type again. And they begin to edit while they write. And they spend three hours and they've got eight lines of text on, on the, on the page. Here's one simple idea for you, particularly when it comes to transcribing your story. It's your story. You've known it, you've lived it. My suggestion is you record yourself telling the story. Now, if you use Microsoft Word, there is a dictate option in Microsoft Word and all you do is hit dictate and just tell the story. Don't stop and edit, just tell the story. When you're done, read what Word has recorded. Instant first draft of your script. You've not lifted a pen or typed a finger in, but you've got your sloppy first copy right there. That you can then begin to edit and you can save yourself literally hours of trial and error, erasing, backspacing. Just record yourself doing it. Let a tool like Microsoft Word or some other tool that works for you create an instant transcript and you're set to go with version 1.0 of your story. It is so simple. And I shared that with our attendees and one of them was like, bing, a big light bulb. That's so much easier. Yes. You cut your time in half and you begin to see the first version of what your script does look like.

Yeah, and the keyword is sloppy first copy.

That's right.

The keyword in mine was very sloppy first copy. And look, we don't. You might not have joy in doing it, but go back to what do you want to do? Do you want to be world class or not? We got the Olympics coming up in a couple of days. Do you think they went to their grade school gym teacher and asked them for advice?

Don't think so, no.

They were world class coaches, probably in different areas of their sport. And that's what we're telling you. Look, Craig Valentine says it beautifully. If you want a masterpiece, you have to master the pieces. So we challenge you to take one of your stories and do this process with take one of them, even if it's a story you've given many times. Well, record that, go back, transcribe that, and let's say, okay, how do we make this better? How do we make it tighter? And like I said, you can't edit what you don't create. And here's a couple of tips that when you write it in paragraph form, it's more challenging to internalize it, especially if you're gonna make some tweaks. One of the things that were really helpful us working with clients is number one, we suggest do it line by line. Each line, hit return. Each line hit return. It doesn't even have to be a full sentence, just a phrase of thought. Hit return, hit return. Yes, it's gonna be much longer, but it's going to be easier for you to absorb and internalize this speech or this.

It's also easier to find where text is in the speech if you have individual lines. Because I have tried as a coach, I'm sometimes challenged to find, for example, the punch word, the word that belongs at the end of a sentence. To find the right punch word for the right sentence in the middle of a 12 line paragraph. With so many words, it's difficult to find and identify key words when you have large paragraphs. Did I know this when I was first speaking back in 1990s? I did not know any of this. But it makes so much more sense now when we have the tools to help us to do so with greater ease and facility. It's very simple to track.

And one of the suggestions is to add line numbers. So Mark, since we're on that, let's just dive in the. This was new to me since we started working with our YPO clients. Adding line numbers. So whether you're using a Word document or you're using, let's say Google Docs, right, Adding line numbers. This is going to make it easier for you and your coach. We're going to assume you get a coach. If you don't, that's another choice. However, it will still be easier for you to add the line numbers. Now this is something that was new to me and by the way, we want to make it continuous line numbers.

Yeah.

Because if you just put each new page, it starts over at 1.

Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's funny because we're going to show you, for those watching on video, we're going to show you what this looks like. Well, we advise our clients during the boot, during the boot camp or workshop to add line numbers. And they were very diligent. One of our clients was very quick to add line numbers to their four page script. And I had the script, we're going through it and the first page line number ended with 37. I got the page two. It was line one to line 37. Page three, line one to line 37. And I realized that they were using line numbers that reset for every page. Now, if you're using Microsoft Word. Now I have a Microsoft Word doc on my. On my screen here. It is a copy of my script from my championship speech in 1995. And it was not written with the idea of paragraphs online numbers like I should have. But I'm going to show it to you anyway. It's called a second chance. And those who know my speech, you never get a second chance. I'm sorry, that's Darren Lacroix doing. Me. No, that's me doing Darren Lacroix doing. Anyway, in the edit mode, there is an option in Microsoft Word in the top options, file, home, insert, drawer, design, layout. Under layout, there is an option that says line number. You click on line number and then there's a word that says continuous. Restart each page, restart each section, suppress for current paragraph line numbering options. Let's keep it simple. Line numbers, click on continuous and boom. On my page, they show up. Now lines one through. As I go through, you'll see, I'll scroll through my page, line 29. Now if I don't say continuous, if I say the option underline numbers, if I say restart each page, it'll be different. Right now I go to page two, it goes to line 30, 31 and 32. So on. If per chance I made the mistake of say, not saying continuous and click line numbers as they restart each page. Page one begins line one through line 29. Page two begins line one through line 29. And so on and so fifth, I mean so forth. Sorry, Darren, but I recommend layout line numbers continuous. So when you work with your coach and if you're a coach with a client. Hey, Mark, look at line 47 real quick. Line 47. Wait, that's. What's he really look like on line 47, I want you to really emphasize that phrase. I put it in bold. So when you say it, say, wait, what's he really look like? Who is this beast? And boom. You go to 47. You can see it right away. Here it is on my screen. Line 47. Very often we have found ourselves, we're guilty of. Yeah, at the part where you mentioned something. Look, right after my pastor, we said, where is that? I don't know. You, you mentioned the lady who was on the. And the homeless lady. Where is that? When someone look right at her like Pastor, what page are you on? Are you on page two or page three? And by the way, I recommend using page numbers as well. I didn't have it on my original script, but I'll say, okay, go to line 72. Hardly anyone noticed her. Some look right at her. Oh, right there. I gotcha. We find it more quickly. We help our client more quickly, quickly, and we can give advice to them more quickly. I'm going to stop sharing. With a reminder, it's Microsoft Word. Go to layout line numbers and click continuous. That will help you tremendously. Also recommend, add page numbers to all your scripts. Similarly, when we were working with ypo, we had Google Docs. Darren, you've got a Google Doc there in front of you, I believe. And here's one of our client scripts on Google Docs. There's a Tools option under the title. You'll see Tools. Click on that about six down. You'll see line numbers. Click on line numbers and then a box to the right says, show line numbers. What happens here? Watch. Click. Boom. Line numbers show up. And we also say the circle continue throughout document. It's convenient when you do that so we can find whatever line you want anywhere in the script, no matter how large your script is. It's a simple change. Our clients at YPO loved it, and it made us very easy to work with them. Please bear in mind Darren and I were doing duo coaching at this point. And a Google Doc gives everyone on the call access to the same document. So we can tell our client we're going to be on line 127 and work on that paragraph section right there. Darren goes in his Google Doc. He's there. I am there, our clients there. We're all literally on the same page. And with Google Docs, we can edit on the fly and our client sees us editing. That was a wonderful tool for us to use, and it was also easier because we broke the speech up. Not by paragraphs. Don't think of writing a book. Don't think paragraph. Think line by line. Every statement's a line. Here's the bonus piece of that. We can decide very quickly. We can take this line out. Boom, the line's gone. If you want to. But I know I've said a lot about this little, little tool called line numbers, but for us, it has been a game changer.

Darren and Mark, if you could go back to your Word document. So I want to point something out here. Whenever Mark delivers dialogue, he bolds the dialogue. Now, I'm a visual learner. This may Be for you. But I recommend if you're going to internalize something, notice he's emphasizing or bold.

Homeless, useless. Worthless. Yeah, I did that there.

So that also triggers to him to take on a character voice. So, Mark, if you could show again, I apologize if you're listening to the audio version, but hopefully you can play along here. Show them how you would do it line by line. Because this is kind of in paragraph form.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Line by line. So, for example, and some people don't like the idea of breaking a sentence up, but it's very inconvenient it may seem. Here I have. Bring it up again. At first look, we automatically draw quick conclusions. And I can do this by simply saying every line is different. So right now, what I have is you never get a second chance to make it as a quote in bold. So Western friends. One line. That phrase is fairly common. One line. At first look, we automatically draw quick one line conclusions about people for various reasons. One line, and you can literally break your speech up line by line. It's more space, but it's so much easier to find anything that you would like your client to look at. And as a. As a speaker, it's also easy for you about other people's opinions. Go to line 15. Boom. I'm right there. And it stands out. If I choose to remove some text, I can easily remove two or three words, one line and not mess a whole paragraph up and try to find it. It's not easier to do it this way than to try to find the needle in the haystack within a large paragraph. And bear in mind, I like the fact this is raw. It's my script for 1995. You'll see lines 33 to 45. I'm going through the whole Beauty and the Beast and Gaston and Bell and I mentioned they saw his face once in a magic mirror. It's hard to find that in this particular section of what, 15 lines for paragraph. But if I break up this entire section line by line, what happens is it's now easier to pick out where that text is. It's more. More lines of text to look through. But Magic mirror now shows up online. 45. I can find the word very quickly. Every line is now an individual.

Yeah, it's visually easier.

Visually more appealing. Yeah.

Visually easier to absorb.

Yeah, it's easy to handle and do it that way. So bear in mind, when you get used to doing this, it does help make it easier for the editing process. And Darren was right. I have a quote where I'M singing a piece of Piece of the Beast's words. I put it in bold italics so it's easy to find a comment. Wait, what's he really like? Bold italics for me, easy to find. What we're saying is there are several ways to use the tool to your advantage to make it easier for you on the front end. So when you finally want to find ways to fine tune it, it's much more simple for you, it's easier for you, and ultimately much more efficient for you. So tools like Bold Do Dialogue is one we recommend you use when you're writing your script as well. Yeah.

Another key to this that will help your delivery is understanding where you're going to be when you deliver different lines of dialogue, different parts of the story. So this is from one of our clients, Jodi, from ypo, when she was telling her story. So if we look at her script, you will see that we added in her movement. We also wanted to add in when we put up an image and our slide down. So she was not having a clicker in this situation. The tech team was running. It wasn't like slides. It was just three, four images that would be showing up. But we needed to know the AV team needs to know when to put it up, when to take it down. So you might be running your own PowerPoint here, which is possible. But you see that we move in silence to point three. So not only do we have the stage plan, but it coordinates with the script, the business situation. Point three right in the center here. So adding stage movement and also a reminder to when to let us laugh, knowing you get a. You probably get a laugh line there. And what we did was we added P's for a pause. So one P for a short pause, several P's if we have to listen or think or go more deeply, and then even stage direction. Step out of the scene. So she's in the scene, then she steps out of the scene. So as you go through and as you internalize it, it will make it more like you have your own stage directions, but it's going to help you internalize it more quickly because you're moving. And then eventually that movement is going to be etched into your brain. And what Jody did too, when she was internalizing this is she actually took sections of the script, put it up directly in front of different stage positions. So she would go and stand here in the center and read that one and then move over here and read that line or two and then step out of the scene. So the more she walked through it, the more it became part of her body. So she internalized it. Another idea which will help your delivery is to in parentheses, add the emotion of the character. Whenever you have dialogue, add the emotion of the character. And the shift of emotion so in parentheses also starts off angry, anger, you know, in parentheses. And then when the anger turns to shock, put that in parentheses and color code this the way you want to. So you might have stage direction, as we did, highlighted in yellow. You might have dialogue or the emotion highlighted in pink or blue or whatever works for you. So have your own key, because the more you do it, the more you're just gonna see it and it's gonna trigger. That's the other reason to have the line by line as opposed to paragraph form, because now it's like right in the middle of a paragraph as opposed to just before the line or just after the line. So this is going to revolutionize the way you tell stories.

And there's one more point also. There are times when as a speaker, you have a time restriction. You are tight on time and you want to rehearse to be within that time limit. I know this really applies to Toastmasters speech contestants as well, who work with scripts. And I recall way back in 95, I began to write down knowing I had between five and seven minutes. I'd a note when I was at five minutes, I should be at five minutes around this part of my presentation about line 97, I should be at five minute mark. At line 123, I should be at six and I should get to the red light. Seven minutes at 1:41. That gave me a feel for where I should I expect I should be. And here's where that helped me in rehearsals. It helped me in rehearsal with a live audience when they responded in ways I didn't expect. Almost every time we give a presentation, an audience member or more may respond unexpectedly. They laugh in a spot. You didn't plan for a laugh and that will affect your time. And again, it's more significant to speech contestants. But I've been there myself. So having an idea where I need to be, why am I going too slow? Am I going too fast? I shouldn't be here now. It gives you a feel for what the audience is seeing and receiving. And you realize, you know what? I rushed through the whole thing. I didn't pause properly. I didn't become the characters. That's why I finished so quickly or I was dragging too slow. That's why I fell behind. This may not apply to Everyone. But if you are a speech contestant, you need to be aware of that as well.

Highly recommend. Look at word count. Now obviously stage direction are going to add a few words, but put that in first. Then look at the word count. And the most painful yet enhancing advice from David Brooks. Write out the story and then half it.

Cut it in half.

Cut it in half. See? And I challenge you to do that. Maybe you don't get to half, but I promise you it will get better, tighter and stronger. My Original 1 was 1452 words for ouch and I had to get it down to 750. But as I got rid of the extraneous, I added dialogue. I infused emotion with the dialogue. It got better, stronger, faster and Darren.

You give advice to all our clients about editing. You say you must ask yourself one key question. How can I say it better with fewer words? How can I say it better with fewer words? And as you gain experience writing and editing, you'll find ways to say what you want to say better in fewer words. And when you look at your script, you said look at your first version and your most recent version. That's what my script used to look like. And now that's what my script, my script looks like. And ask the question, what does your script look like? These are tips and tools, techniques that have worked for us and our clients. We highly recommend you look at this, go through this and implement these ideas. We'd love to know how you respond and how it has changed the way you're editing and your script production, it develops over time.

Yep. And we challenge you to do this with just one story. Just try it with one story and see if that story doesn't evolve. So what does your script look like? We'll see you next week.

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