I gave this lecture on May 13, 2023.
Add Color!
INTRODUCTION As you may have gathered from my previous instructions on the speeches we give in this Club, I differ with the Ambassador-Spokesman Speech Manual on several points. I have been in enough clubs to form opinions on what works and what does not. In addition, times have changed since the Manual was first published (1961; 62 years) and last updated (1980; 43 years). The speeches need to evolve a little to keep up with cultural and societal norms.
That said, I have for a long time had a problem with the #4 Add Color speech. Here is how the Manual describes it and its purpose:
An ancient Chinese proverb says, “A picture is worth ten thousand words.” Your purpose in this speech is to draw a word-picture so clearly and colorfully that a few, well-chosen, piquant phrases will indelibly engrave your key thought on the minds of your listeners. Make your subject live! Be graphic! Be intense, vivid, picturesque!
Bring more gestures into play, add as much range of voice variety as you can, and spend verbs, nouns and descriptive adjectives like a word billionaire.
SPS While this description is a bit overblown, almost lurid, it gets across that this speech should be colorfully descriptive. But I believe it has thrown some speakers off-track. The problem is mainly in the last sentence, especially the last part: “spend verbs, nouns, and descriptive adjectives like a word billionaire”! So, what we have often gotten is a word-salad—words thrown in by the bucketful—a speech that sounds like it was churned out by a thesaurus rather than a finely tuned, helpful message.
When the Speech Manual was written, American English was more florid, flowery, flamboyant, sanguine, ornate, gilded, almost Baroque to our eyes and ears. (See what I did there? That is the thesaurus talking.) The words are still there for our use, but our manners of writing and speaking have simplified a great deal. They have become more concise, spare. The standard is shorter, simpler, direct sentences with not a lot of folderol. Adjectives have started to go the way of adverbs—used less and less—as unnecessary and cumbersome.
So, what do we expect when listening to a speech or reading an article? Well-chosen nouns that conjure an exact image in the mind of the listener/reader. Strong, active, vivid verbs that fill a sentence with movement. And a paucity of adjectives and adverbs, used only to inject an essential detail. In other words, when you write a speech, lean more toward Ernest Hemingway than William Faulkner, if you know what I mean.
Let’s say you decide to give your #4 Add Color speech on a man-bear stare-down in a forest clearing. This subject has great potential. It tells the story of a conflict with the potential for severe tension and sudden, swift action. The tone needs to be intense, serious, and expectant. Do not break the spell with incongruous humor or by drawing attention to yourself.
This kind of story allows you to use all five senses to create a full-bodied image in the mind and a visceral reaction in the gut of your audience. In their mind’s-eye, they can see the dark emerald needles of the encircling spruce trees and feel their rough, craggy bark. They can smell the bear’s musk and bad breath and even taste the sweat that pours down the man’s face. They can hear the huffing and grunting of the bear and flinch at its roar when it stands to intimidate the human intruder.
CONCLUSION The key to a successful Add Color speech is not to fling bucketsful of words at the audience and hope some of them stick, as a modern artist flings paint at a canvas. Instead, the task is to find the right words, images, and metaphors and apply them with meticulous care so that the finished word-painting is crisp and vivid in the hearer’s mind. In short, emphasize the quality of words, not quantity.
One caution: Speak in your own voice. You do not want to sound pretentious or erudite if you do not normally speak that way. You want to sound like you, not the local creative writing teacher or uptight, bow-tied, pipe-smoking professor. Tell the story and make your point as if you are sitting around a campfire with your buddies or around the dinner table of your intimate friends. In other words, be natural, not artificial.
The Add Color is a speech you should craft like a bard or expert storyteller. Find words that spark an emotional reaction. Get the audience to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste—that is, immerse them in the tale with reminders of things they know. Do not distract them from the picture you’re painting for them. Then guide them along so that the story makes an engaging, memorable point.