A particular curse or burden to one who is known to have a facility for writing is to be assigned (regularly!) to write speeches for bosses or those higher in the organization. My speech-writing days got their start with work done for the Chairman of our corporation. When the President found out about my work….well, I got assigned to write his speeches for him too. One thing I learned early in the game: Always try to imagine what the person you are writing for would like to say, and then write it in a manner that would make him deliver it much like an orator in the old Roman Senate.
When I volunteered for work in government, it did not take long to be tapped to fashion a few pieces which were to be delivered by our country’s President. I am not sure how these speeches escaped the jealous eye of the President’s speechwriter, but some of them did. On at least two occasions, I was even asked to put together what would become the gist of the State of the Nation Address. Again, I am surprised that the bulk of the speech went through despite the eagle eye of the Presidential speechwriter.
But what I found most interesting was that certain concepts I wrote into one speech in particular soon found their way into the government’s slogans and future speeches not written by yours truly. Getting recognized for one’s work is not the lot of a speechwriter, but one can derive much satisfaction and vicarious pleasure in seeing one’s work and thoughts unfold in a speech.
sourced by JMJF
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