In case you’re all wondering, my eBook Speechwriting for Leaders is coming along very nicely. A bold and amusing cover is being designed (every e-Book needs a bold and amusing eCover) and the substance is entering the layout and final edit phase.

The problem for any great artist with any work of art is knowing when to Just Stop. The temptation to add just a few more tweaks and nuances is strong. Plus every time you go through a 40,000 word text you spot an infelicity or awkwardness that previously slipp’d past you.

Having included a feisty section on Starting a Speech (always a popular theme) I then thought that I ought to include something on Finishing a Speech. Now done. Still, reality eventually overwhelms infinite tweaking. Victory is in sight. All being well, this production should see the light of the Internet by the end of November. The perfect Christmas present for all the family.

If I can find a way to give loyal readers here a modest discount through an e-voucher number or something, I’ll of course do so.

In the meantime, I am off to Kazakhstan in a couple of weeks’ time to give senior officials a three-day(!) masterclass in Speechwriting. The PowerPoint slides need to be in Russian, and are being translated as I type. Luckily for the participants, my strangled Russian will not be much in evidence as we are promised simultaneous interpreting.

However, I am battling to squeeze the Russian text on to the slides nicely. English is a wonderfully good language for compressing things. Thus nouns can be run together to make amusing points: speechwriting disaster bewilderment syndrome. That doesn’t work in most other languages, so everything is longer and somehow more formal/heavy.

Key aim when speechwriting for leaders? Leave them (and the audience!) wanting more.