Speech writing is a little like piecing together a puzzle. That’s why I typically begin by posing questions that will help me collect the puzzle pieces and get a sense of how they should be assembled. Here are some of the questions I ask during a speech writing input conversation:   Who is your audience and what is your relationship to them? What are the key changes in knowledge, attitudes or actions that you want to bring about in this audience? What are the key messages that have to be shared to bring about these changes? How will these messages support or contradict the audience's current beliefs? How do you feel about the ideas you’re presenting? If your speech was limited to single sentence of ten words or less, what would it be? If the speech is part of a larger event, where in the agenda does it happen? What challenges have you run into while developing and delivering other speeches? How does this presentation fit into your larger communications strategy? Are you willing to push the boundaries of the audience's expectations and your comfort zone to create a breakthrough experience? What’s your availability between now and the presentation to discuss ideas, review drafts and rehearse?