I’m going to make a movie. Lights! Camera! Action!
Notice that last word ‘Action!’ Hollywood is the epicentre of world story telling. If they place that much emphasis on ‘Action!’ then maybe we should follow that example.
A speech story, however, doesn’t need to be all action all the time. Endless dashing around doing stuff loses impact very quickly.
Subtle action can work well but it needs to be tightly focused, otherwise anyone whose attention has wandered will lose the point. A little foreshadowing will build anticipation and give subtle action the impact it needs.
Once you have your story, or series of anecdotes, roughed out identify the high points of action. Note the quiet moments, the times of building tension, the reaction after the action. Fit these together smoothly to create a flow of ups and downs, action and quiet, that will maintain interest and keep your audience emotionally involved with the story and the speech.
You might not want to keep your audience in a state of sustained suspense for the whole 5 – 7 minutes. Give them an emotional break now and then to relax and prepare for the next tension and action coming up. Insert a moment of humor, to create an emotional contrast.
Often in stories you will find three action points, building from smaller action to the big bang of the climax. This is the classic format and it works well but it doesn’t absolutely have to be this way. The major action could happen early or in the middle of the story, with character-building follow-up. The danger here is that once the big bang has spent itself you spend the rest of the story mopping up details.
Details are usually the enemy of action. Think of the action movies – a gunfight in a city street. Do you notice (or care about) the architectural detail of the buildings? Or the fact that the tree on the corner is a Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)? No. You notice that the villain has a machine gun and the hero just got hit. Surely he can’t be dead?!
My own movie is more of a family video – grandchildren, dogs, back lawn. Hollywood has nothing to worry about from me.
