Once upon a time when I prepared lectures/workshops, it went something like this:
1. Oh my gosh! I’m not going to know what to say at all!
2. I know, I’ll outline it extensively in point form.
3. That can’t possibly be enough to fill ninety minutes. I’ll add more.
4. Oh no, we’re going overtime! I’ll try to squeeze the last trillion bits of info into the following five minutes.
Now it’s more like this:
1. Oh my gosh! I’m not going to know what to say at all!
2. I know; I’ll put handy book extracts on a couple of pieces of paper.
3. Oh my gosh! There are TEN PIECES OF PAPER! With wall to wall type on them! This will never work!
4. I will reduce it to point form. Even if I think I won’t remember what to say.
5. I’ll bet this would take an hour and a half to cover. I should cut more out.
6. I AM GUTTING MY LECTURE! This will never work!
7. Maybe I should aim for a half-hour lecture, then it will actually fit into an hour.
8. I cannot possibly choose what to leave out!
9. Oh, fine. I’ll cut those three pages.
10. This will never fit into an hour.
11. I give up. I’ll use these two pieces of paper, and we’ll just go where it takes us.
12. I should probably print this out…
Note: I am currently around step seven and step four. Yes, at the same time.
ETA: I give up; I’m printing what I’ve got. I need to highlight things and write little notes in by hand to properly satisfy my need to make changes. Also? Eleven pages. Oy. The last two are just-in-case-we-have-time. But we won’t. I’m becoming a lot more comfortable with what I’ve got down, which is good too; I think that’s what I was most concerned about going into this. You know, the whole ‘I handed in the book and all the info promptly fell out of my head’ syndrome that pops up every time I finish a manuscript? That. I’m much better now, though, because I’ve been talking through what I see on the monitor. (I’m sure this completely reassures you.)
I am COMPLETELY reassured!