
Ask HN: How do I improve my impromptu speaking? - treesaregreen
I struggle to gather my thoughts quickly when talking about random topics presented to me.
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f_allwein
In general, Toastmasters is excellent for improving your speaking skills. Find
a club near you, visit them and see if you like it:
[https://www.toastmasters.org](https://www.toastmasters.org)

They also do a thing called table topics where at every meeting members are
asked to stand up and speak on a random topic for two minutes. Sounds scary,
but if you practice it regularly, you'll be surprised how quickly you improve.

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nstart
Agreed here. And also when you find a group of friends who want to achieve the
same goal as you do, you'll find that those opportunities to improve your
impromptu keep growing. For example when competition time comes up. I remember
how we would train for those. It's all about getting into it. Once you find
the flow you can decide if you want to practice more to perfect it. But
otherwise it becomes more or less like a bicycle. You don't forget how to
cycle. But the occasional ride to keep you fit will help :D

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curtisspope
My 0.02 What you need to do is let go of being so deliberate. Speak to your
audience and stop focusing on what may be judged coming out of your mouth.
Simple but effective. if you want to be interesting, be interested - "Not sure
who said it"

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taway_1212
It depends if you want to be entertaining or informative/thoughtful.

For informative/thoughtful, you basically need to have coherent thoughts on a
given subject before you speak. You can't just magically figure things out as
you open your mouth, there isn't nearly enough time.

For entertaining effect, I guess it's more art than science. Try watching some
good sitcoms and standup comedians perhaps?

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elmerfud
Practice. That's really what you need to do. There are tricks you can learn to
keep up speaking while you're formulating something decent to say, but more
than anything it's practice. Go to open mic nights and practice also
watch/listen to other people. You'll being to see how they do it and it will
help you too.

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nnn1234
I second Practice and reading whatever language you want to speak in. You
could hack it by having a scenario specific list of quotes,phrases and
oratorical devices in your sleeve to show off ( like a magician always has a
deck of cards ready) I would suggest reading a whole lot and then going out
and doing it

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meric
Learn the original way. Just mumble through it, eventually you will get
better.

