Speechifying

Last week was one of those times when personal outranked professional and fun. So I had to take care of the personal.

Now I have to go back to taking care of the professional, and ouch, my slate is full this week.

One of the items on my plate is giving a presentation for our local writer's group on writing for trade magazines. Thanks to the forementioned personal stuff and this week's full slate, I've had no time to even think about this. One of the reasons I'm blogging now is to help me think a little about what I'm going to say.

What am I going to say?

Speaking in front of people doesn't bother me in the least. I'm used to it. I've given one talk about writing -- I was asked to speak about writing essays to a women's group. One woman fell asleep (and I was told not to worry about it because she always fell asleep during the speaker).

I'm more worried that no one will show up. I mean, really, how much boring a topic can you get? Trade magazines? Lots of people don't even know what they are! I'll probably have a half hour to speak, then open it up for questions, and then move on to networking afterwards.

I guess I'll talk about the things people ask me about most: how I got started (boring), how I find the publications I write for (Google mostly), and how they find me (letters of introduction). I can talk about why I like writing for trades, what to expect, and what to do about that little thing called experience.

I've been doing this for a year and a half. I'm hardly an expert. But it is what I do.

If you came to hear me talk, what would you want to know about writing?