All the great speechwriters over the course of history have noted that they spend twenty to forty hours writing routine business or political speeches. Winston Churchill claimed to have spent forty years studying the craft of speech writing ? and still would labor for hours over just the right phrase for his message. The process of writing an effective speech can certainly consume a lot of your time. But let me share with you some proven steps that can shave a large amount of time off your speech preparation. You can then turn around and use that time to practice your speech using the practice process I shared with you back in January. (Don't have the practice process? You can get it by sending an email to mailto: speakingarticle_16@sendfree.com)