How to survive a speechwriter’s slump

Refresh your career before it grows tired by following this advice from a veteran speechwriter

Among the more frequent questions faced by any veteran speechwriter is “don’t you ever get tired of speechwriting?”

As a colleague of mine mused: “Speechwriting wears people down … there’s a half-life to it … you have only so many tricks in the bag.”

Most of us, at some point in our careers, reach a point when we feel brain dead. When we can’t seem to get beyond such stale and useless phrases as, “we see challenges as opportunities” or “our employees are our greatest asset.”

Yet, I’ve found ways to replenish my bags of “tricks,” and find inspiration (yeah, even fulfillment) while serving yet another day as personal scribe to pharaoh.

Here are a few ideas or “devices” that have proved useful to me.

1. Put your nose to the ground.

If you can just get past the daily tedium and do some real research, you might find that special “something” that gets your creative writing juices flowing again. All it takes from my end is to dredge up some “gee whiz” factoid from some obscure file, and I’m off and running and actually enjoying my profession.

2. Be a volunteer.