Sean Kelly wrote: > Georg Wrede wrote: >> >> That's certainly true with non-techie audiences. I wish we had had >> speaking classes when I went to school. The first time I gave a >> lecture at the university, my hands trembled visibly on the OH. > > I'm fine if I can just sit down and talk, but if I have to stand in > front of people I still get nervous and scattered. I was told my talk > at the D conference actually went reasonably well, but I forgot or > missed about half the points I'd meant to cover out of sheer terror :-) > > During a public speaking course in high school one of our lectures was > supposed to be a published work of some sort, so I did the part of a > evangelical preacher in a Steven King novel. It was a breeze to do and > I had a lot of fun with it, playing with pace and tone. Something about > the fact that I was "acting" instead of simply speaking as myself made > all the difference in the world. If I had to give talks regularly I'd > probably prepare them pretty much word for word just to feel more like I > was doing this, at least until I got more comfortable with speaking.
Most of that is just repetition. I used to be scared as hell.. just rushed through whatever I had to tell people and finish as fast as I could. I've now done enough presentations that the terror has subsided and I can give a decent talk. It took years and lots of terror though. Later, Brad