How to Never Fail at Writing: Fiction Guide - The Importance of Oration - A Novice's Guide to Great Speech-Writing

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This essay will encapsulate the ‘Oration’ that is to say Speeches in fiction, and how to write beautiful turns of phrase in Dialogue format. Mastering this will help very well in the mastering of Poetry and of Prose, trust me on that.

Now I know it is a little soon to be writing another Fiction Guide, and that I’m about due for another Hobbit Essay but I’d rather leave that to Thursday on account of being on a roll here. Really this essay and the intro to prose one I wrote kind of go together in my view. And the reason for this is because Prose and Dialogue are interconnected, although with that said I tend to lean towards the idea that most of what you’re told is ‘Good Dialogue’ is Bad, and most ‘Bad Dialogue’ is Good.

What do I mean by this?

Take Star Wars for example; the dialogue from the Prequels are often cited since the Media Psyops against them as bad with lines like ‘Wipe them out… all of them.’ How is this Bad? The question must be asked, Sidious is giving an order, one that is chilling and there is an implicit threat in his tone against the Neimoidians who are infamous for their squeamishness.

There is a reason this later became a meme (which happened with a lot of lines from the Prequels interestingly enough). But compare this to the lines from the MCU, can you remember a single one? Is there a single one that isn’t a stupid one-liner? One-Liners to my mind are the bane of good Dialogue. Because of them good Dialogue has entirely disappeared from Cinema, and the fault lies with those like Joss Whedon who preferred snappy one liners to actual Dialogue.

To start with the One-Liner has become favoured due to the ‘less is more’ nonsense, and it is meant to shorten your attention span in my view. How can an Iron Man line like ‘don’t wait up for me honey’ (I forget who he said it to, and frankly don’t care) compare with a speech by one of the finest actors to ever portray Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, first Princeps of Rome?

Compare any line from the marvel movies to this;

If there’s any criticism that might be offered it is that the words of Cicero and Caesar are shortened to just 4 minutes and 29 seconds. The scene ought to have been longer!

Listen to the masterful oratory, to the words of Augustus and how he tastes them as though they were the most flavourful grapes he has ever eaten. The choice in words is also interesting, linking men to honesty and women to virtue and doing so not at all too quickly.

He speaks quickly as all Men do only when excited or furious, with Caesar being very excited at the prospect of finally unveiling his plans to avenge his adoptive-father. The only man he ever loved in the manner that all sons ought to love their fathers, and only delivers a cold one liner; ‘who will speak against the motion?’ only after he has given a short speech. Why does he do so? In his case he’s not trying to be funny, but cold and cruel, which one needs to be when dealing with Oligarchs like them.

This is a contrast to American movies of today where the characters jokey to be the funniest, the most goofy, the most clownish so that they might ‘entertain’ the audience. Entertainment of the lowest sort, with the Dialogue hardly of any value, and character speeches are trash in comparison to what they once were.

Compare Augustus’ speech to that of say Alfred from Dark Knight Rises;

The speech isn’t too bad, but the trouble is that Michael Caine good actor that he is doesn’t have the rhetorical technique that Simon Woods (Augustus’ actor has). The speech is weakly put together and sloppy in nature. What is more is that for some reason it fails to land, it fails to have any real impact in the wider audience. Why is that? It is because it feels somehow tired, somehow false in a way.

Emotional speeches can be good, I mean compare this speech to the short speeches by Priam to Hector in the 2004 movie Troy;

Another great emotional speech is this one (a Celtic one so it’s the best of the emotional speeeches in this essay ;) );

Speeches can be delivered in a modern manner and still have impact, my point isn’t that you can’t do it.

I mean look at Arcturus Mengsk from Star Craft in the 90s, he has some great speeches such as his coronation speech;

Or there is that of Rocky Balboa to his son, Junior.

This latter one is the best case of an emotional speech, done in the modern style. What do I mean by modern style? I mean it uses modern American speech patterns and its colloquialisms.

The question though remains on the lips of a great many of you I imagine; where can I learn to write excellent speeches? The answer is not all that hard to find; look to the Bible, Cicero, Shakespeare, the write of Roland and Tolkien.

Each of them wrote superb speeches and knew to use classical techniques in order to express their sentiments and ideas. Each word and each syllable must be sincere though, you must never write dialogue that feels insincere, else it will sound fake, hence why one-liners are trash and are the bane of any and all writers of any real value.

One liners express stupidity and fail to convey intellect, passion and much more than a character’s being in one sentence. But no character should be able to be encapsulated in just one sentence, if they can be then they are very poorly written.

Cicero wrote many speeches (I’m unable to find any of them presented in video format, so apologies). You can download his speeches for free, so give them a good read through, or you can read actual historic speeches.

With regards to Shakespeare speeches, among some of the best whether in their full format (I believe) there is Henry V’s speech to his men, the ‘we happy few’ speech.

And there’s the Henry IV speech excellently delivered by Jeremy Irons;

Even shortened the speech has quite the effect. Read the whole thing, Henry IV is a MASSIVELY underrated play.

Not only do I recommend reading more Shakespeare (notably Richard II & III, and Henry IV and Macbeth, among others). Shakespeare wrote the greatest speeches and orations in the English language one can imagine.

The reason I post endless amounts of speech-videos is because it is in Oration that we can see the finest of human Dialogue imaginable, made ‘real’ so to speak. It is in massive Orations, great and splendid and stylistic speeches that we see fine speakers distinguished from the lesser sort.

We must master this craft if we are to better write and characterize our heroes and villians. We writers must when engaging with the English language read the words of these writers, even as French ones ought to read the likes of Dumas, Hugo, Roland and Cicero if we are to come close to mastering not only Prose but Dialogue. Among my favourite French orators by the by, is Charles DeGaulle, so allow me this one last video for the purposes of this essay (if I can help it).

A little brief for my tastes, but whatever.

The point is that to write good Dialogue there should be thought and passion. How do you conjure forth the first? As said by reading and listening to great speeches. They’ll give you an ear for them, and a thought for them.

As to Passion it will require you to have genuine and sincere love for what you write. It is only by falling in love, yes falling in love with your characters, with that which you write, only by doing so can your characters’ speeches, and orations shine through with all the light and glory that those of history have.

Though some may not agree, I find that since I’ve returned to the Bible, my writing has improved especially when writing great statements of weight and Orations. The reason for this is that there’s a great many speeches to be found wtihin it of some quality. In particular, the sermons of Jesus are quite well put together, quite well written and of an amazing quality.

I also like those of St-Paul, who was trained in all the traditional techniques of a proper rhetorician and speech-writer so that the quality of his work, really shines through especially 2000 years since his time.

Read their words and you’ll find a wealth of beauty, of passion and of great choice in language. Their understanding of their tongue shines through, with the English and French translations of such quality that you can still learn quite a bit about how to write pretty words (never fear in my analysis of St-Paul Apostle of Christ, I plan to analyze every speech in that movie, and have toyed with analyzing most of the Sermons, and letters of Jesus & St-Paul respectively, if primarily for literary and rhetorical purposes).

Passion though without technique is useless though, just look at the Alfred speech. It is passionate but without technique, without truth and without sincerity or thought.

Technique for its part is something that relies upon anecdotes, relies upon history, relies upon metaphors and assimiles, and references to external things. This sort of thing is very important, Priam’s words for example that speak of him as the first man to ever kiss the hands of the man who murdered his son is great. It is hyperbolic to be sure, it is horrifying (especially to those who have lost children) and yet it is something that can only help to improve your writing.

Consider if you will how say Prior Philip speaks in Pillars of the Earth of the importance of a Cathedral, of how they are not only building for God a home, but one for the Hope he inspires and that they are enshrining the Light he provides. Naturally we all know that he isn’t really literally giving God a home, as God exists in this and the next world according to Christian theology.

That said let me try putting into action some measure of what I’ve spoken of hitherto now;

“It has happened in these blackest of days, in these foulest of times when Men are laid low, when they are denied life and laughter that we stand upon the cusp of a new day! That day contrary to what the enemies of our people say, is not one of light and joy, but one of darkness when our nation is besmirched and humiliated. This is a time when it is treated as the chaff that intermingles with the wheat, and so they would have us thrown into the inferno!
Yet I say to thee, it shalt not be so! We shall not go quietly into the night! Never again from now to when the night claims the race of Men, shalt we the sons’ of this great kingdom bow before those who ride forth, under the dark one’s banner! We will not fly from here, we will not skulk, nor cower nor take fright! Not a one shalt blink, shalt do less than our utmost if we are to meet our end here to-day! For we shalt lay them low, one and all! By the time the sun rests’ we will have shown ourselves not to be boys, not children, and not the cowards they think us but lion! Ravenous wolves that shalt devour them one and all! So I say to thee; let us ride them down, let us tear them asunder and let them be the ones made to cower and hide from our steel, our fangs while we shout of the glory we will achieve on this day! From now to the end of days! For now is the time of Men, not darkness!”

Not bad right? Came up with it on the spot off the top of my head. Surely with time and thought I could come up with something better.

Yet for now it will have to do, so that we must examine now how did I come to write this (really short) speech? I used a theme. What was that theme? A Glorious Last Stand.

You can probably see references of Achilles’ speech in Troy to his Myrmidons, when he tells them to seize Eternity. I used the opposite idea, that of not a first charge but a last one.

I had to think of how Canada since 1945 has been humiliated, lost her resources for nothing in return to most other nations she trades, with has been invaded and humiliated and how this sentiment, this humiliaton angers me. I then took that anger, that sense of outrage and put it in the rawest words I could find.

The idea that we stand on a blacker day than those that preceded it is one that haunts a great many, and yet it must be addressed in this speech. What is more is that I used a ‘double’ a ‘repetition’. In speeches repetition is a technique often used to reinforce an idea, a sentiment. I’ve noticed this, and it can be used to drive home a specific idea and the point that the speaker wishes to make.

The idea of the Chaff is borrowed from Jesus’ speech to this effect, to how the Kingdom of God will separate the wheat from the chaff. It’s a small reference, yet it is a valuable one, and one I don’t think people will mind too much.

It was instinctive but good, as it drives home the idea of how cruelly a people have been treated, the weight of whatever this character (we’ll call him Bardulf, after the hero of my story Brotherhood of the Gemstone) is trying to say to his audience. He wishes not to humiliate but to drive home how the enemy hopes to destroy them completely and utterly, how they have nowhere left to turn or to flee to.

Bardulf evidently drives home the importance of glory of hope, and of the joy that will belong to those who will die on their feet and that the only way ahead lies ahead.

Why is this important? He is pointing past the enemy so to speak, not at them but past them. By doing so he shows there’s a road home so to speak, one of hope and of succour that you’ll not find in the fields of blood and copriquots. It is a field through which we all must drive and ride through (or run through).

It is a roar against the darkness. And this is what great speeches before a battle do; unite the men together, bind them together in brotherhood, in fraternity just before the final push. That they may not fear the darkness, the despair and the hopelessness that might lie ahead, even as they are promised a place under the sun.

Now this is a battle-speech, there’s other sort of speeches as mentioned above; ones about emotions, love, faith, hatred, and exposition amongst many other topics.

We’ll get into all the other forms of Dialogue (in particular Exposition, the most important sort of Dialogue, as Exposition is the most important of them all in conveying plot, character, history and ideas).

I must ask that you all consider upgrading your subscription to the yearly one, it is only 8$, and helps us go a long way towards publishing Brotherhood of the Gemstone. Thanks, now on with the essay. Or if you’re feeling truly generous check out our Crowdfund.