How Mark Twain Might Write Online
by Dr. Joe Vitale
www.mrfire.com
While it's anyone's guess, I like to think Sam Clemens would apply his techniques as a speaker to the world of cyberspace. Most people don't realize that Mark Twain became famous due to his speaking talents. While his skills as a journalist and a humorist made him popular, it was his speaking that shot him into fame. Later, his books made him a household name. But even then, Twain's speaking engagements kept him in the public eye, and helped secure his place in American history.
But Twain wasn't a born speaker. If anything, he was born to navigate boats. As an author and as a speaker, Twain was self taught. He worked hard to perfect his skills as an orator. He learned by watching such greats as Charles Dickens, and by paying attention to how charismatic ministers held the attention of their congregation. Twain also learned from his own mistakes.
After reading all of Twain's published speeches and looking for the common elements in them, I think he used six secrets in making himself famous. And I think you and I can use these same methods when we're writing in cyberspace. I believe just playing with these six techniques will improve our cyberwriting and make our online experience all the more enjoyable.
Secret One: Rehearse
Mark Twain once quipped that it took him three weeks to make a good impromptu speech. While Twain's speeches gave the appearance of being done on the fly, they were actually well thought out, even written out, rehearsed, and committed to memory. His goal was to achieve what he called "counterfeit impromptu."
In other words, he was so prepared that he appeared unprepared. It was planned spontaneity. This gave him a lot of power. He knew what he was going to say down to the exact pause, and this allowed him room for improvisation while giving him the security of knowing what he was going to say next.
Twain was like an actor. He wrote out his speech, or script, committed it to memory, and rehearsed it. When he strolled on stage, he moved with an ease that made him appear to be totally relaxed. While the audience thought he was talking to them informally and spontaneously, he was actually delivering a well planned theatrical performance. In fact, it was so perfectly theatrical that virtually no one ever guessed that Twain had planned the event days or weeks in advance.
In short, Twain's first technique was one of preparation. While many speakers today think you should never write out your speech because it makes your talk rigid, it's important to realize Twain didn't read his speech or even repeat it the way he memorized it. He used his planning as a base for his performance. He gave himself permission to ad lib, to stray from his talk, and sometimes to leave it all together. But this initial preparation made him more comfortable, and helped him give a more powerful, humorous, and satisfying talk.
How do you apply this to cyberwriting?
One of the biggest mistakes with cybertravellers is writing their material quickly, and zipping it off without rewriting it or editing it or even re-reading it. Anything you write for the online world needs to be polished as anything you write for publication. It's very easy to dash off a response to someone and send it off. The problem is, the potential for miscommunication is enormous. And when you consider the fact that your e-message can potentially be read by millions of people, there's cause for alarm. You don't want a written blunder to get broadcast around the world.
To protect yourself, keep these suggestions in mind:
A. Know what you want to say. Don't waste everyone's time trying to guess what you mean. Ask yourself, "What do I want to say? What's the one message here?"
B. Pretend you are speaking to one person who is sitting across the desk from you. Mentally role play a dialogue that begins, "Here's what I want to say..." Write your monologue down.
C. Now edit. Whittle your message down to the essential points. Pretend you are writing a telegram and every word will have a price tag on it. The more words you cut out, the less the message will cost you.
Secret number one is rewrite and perfect your e-writing before you ever post or send any message.
Secret Five: Use a Starter
Mark Twain's fifth technique was what he called a "starter."
Twain loved to fully engage his audience as soon as he stepped on stage. He wanted to "start" the program on the right foot by capturing the audiences' attention and keeping it nailed on him. He developed several clever ways to accomplish this:
- His favorite starter was the self introduction. Twain would simply walk on and introduce himself. This usually made the audience warm to him right away, and saved Twain the trouble, he said, of training people to introduce him right.
- Another popular starter was walking on stage and saying nothing for a full minute. Sixty seconds of silence is a LONG time when you're on stage and an audience is waiting to hear you speak. This trick made people laugh, chuckle, wonder, and guess what Twain was up to. But it certainly held their attention.
- The last "starter" Twain used was walking on stage with a book and acting like he was going to read from it. He would open it, but then close it and begin to "ad lib." His ad libbing was actually his well planned talk. Because people expected Twain to stop at any moment and return to the book, they paid attention. They felt he must be saying something more important because he was delaying reading. But Twain never returned to the book. He simply used it as a device to make people focus on him.
In later years Twain didn't need a starter at all. His reputation as a speaker was so well known that all he had to do was step on stage and people were smiling and hanging on his every move and word.
How do you make this method work in cyberspace?
Let me answer with an example: Say you are about to reply to a message concerning a new delivery system that someone asked you about. You begin your message by saying, "Here's what you wanted to know about our delivery system..."
But then you stop and redirect the message with a new statement: "...But before I tell you about it, let me mention something about our new overnight service."
What you've done is capture people's attention, and then held on to it. They'll wait and read on because they expect you to return to your original statement and complete it (and of course you should return and complete what you start). This is a powerful way to use Twain's technique and keep people riveted to the screen.
Another method I've used is called "the plunge." You begin your e-message right after something has happened and before people fully grasp what you are talking about. Good fiction uses this technique. The story begins with gun smoke floating up from a revolver, someone dead, and someone else running out the door. "What's happening?" asks the reader, and before he or she knows it, they're reading the entire story. The opening "started" them.
You can apply the same method to online communications by starting your message where other writers might have their third paragraph. In other words, most online writers take too long to get to their point. Most of them could delete the top half of their message and lose nothing. I suggest that a good "starter" would be to begin your message where others might have their fourth paragraph. If you get a message beginning with the words, "He looked shocked when we told him the sales reports," you'd probably read on to find out who was shocked, why he was shocked, and what the sales reports actually said.
Consider starting your message in places where readers are forced to read on to discover what is going on.
Copyright © 2005 by Joe Vitale. All rights reserved.
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