My Newest Book - Sunrise Sunset

 

Cover photo for the new book

It's December 31, 2022 and I wanted to end the year on a high note. After 5½ years, I have published a new book!

Sunrise Sunset is a collection of 26 of my favorite sunrise and sunset photographs. Most of them were taken at the San Lorenzo Ruiz Church. It's a great place to take these kinds of photographs because the place is on top of a small hill. I call it the San Lorenzo Ruiz Hill but that's a misnomer because the church is not really the highest point.

This was the work of a few hours in just one afternoon. After pasting the pictures on the Word document, I created the cover using Powerpoint and uploaded the two files onto the Smashwords website. It was literally that simple.

I needed this so that I can get the inspiration to finish the books I have on the pipeline. It's been so long.

House Plan for 84 Sq. Meter Lot

So, my family and I live in an 84 square meter lot that had a pre-built house on it. It's our first house (and, so far, our only house) and we've been living in it since 1998.

Fig. 1  Original layout of the house.

The house had two bedrooms, one toilet and bath, and a space that combined the kitchen, dining, and living room. It had 36 square meters floor space, which was enough for Loida and me, and our four-year-old daughter. There was a generous space around the front, side, and back of the house that was planted with grass and served as our washing and drying area. A small parking space (so small, you can hardly open the car door to get in or out) completed the package.

The biggest disadvantage of the house was the small kitchen, so small it would be more appropriate to call it, the cooking nook. So, one of the improvements we thought about was using the back space as the kitchen.

Fig. 2  Planned extension

We thought of using the two meter by five meter space at the back for the kitchen. That meant that the combined space could now be used as a dining and living area, a bit more spacious and comfortable.

Unfortunately, this plan never materialized. Although my salary was more than enough for us to live with some comfort, it would still take us years to save up to implement this extension. So, it never happened (both the wife and I avoid borrowing if we can).

Fast forward about 18 years. Our family had grown from three to five with the addition of a boy and another girl. We still had the same house, in its original configuration (Figure 1). It was leaking in places, and was too small for a family of five. Our eldest had just finished college, the second was just starting college, and the youngest was in Grade VI. All three kids were sharing the second bedroom.

We needed a larger house. Actually, we needed a larger house years before but we didn't have the finances for it. Even though my salary had grown over the years, our decision to prioritize our kid's education by putting them in one of the best (read, expensive) schools in the city meant that savings were not enough. The opportunity came, however, when I retired.

With my retirement money, we decided to fix up the house. The original plan  (Fig. 2) would not be enough because we also needed an additional bedroom. The two girls would have one room and our son would have his own room.

But we also needed to replace the roof. The leaks were so bad that the expense of replacement versus repair would probably not be very different. So, I sat down in front of my computer and began drawing. Construction began and the house was finished in a few months in 2016.

Fig. 3  Present layout of the house

Figure 3 shows the house as it is now. Except for a two-meter wide space along the side for drying clothes and a one-meter wide space along the front, we had used up almost all of the lot. We now had three bedrooms, the living and dining areas were roomier, and there was a space at the back for a counter, cabinets, and cupboards.

The bathroom was now a two-by-two meter room. I had originally intended for it to have a dividing wall between the shower and the toilet but the engineer who was doing the construction remarked that doing so would make the space too tight. So, instead of two small spaces, it was now one very large bathroom.

The kitchen, sadly, is still small. I am not an architech and a two-by-two space looked big enough on paper but turned out to be a too small. Loida's unhappy with it and I blame myself for it.

As you can see, in order to get our third bedroom, we had to sacrifice our garage. You can only park on the street now.  It's not unusual though. Nearly every house along our street is the same.

Fig. 4  Front view of the renovated house

So, Figure 4 is the front of the house. It looks very much different from the original (which, unfortunately, I don't have a picture of). Loida has converted the space in front into a sort of conservatory that doesn't have glass walls or roof.  In spite of the small kitchen and large bathroom, it's a really nice house. A credit to the engineer who built it, Regie Lumapas.

* * *

Before I end this, I've been wondering if I could have converted the house into a detached house and still have three bedrooms. It turns out, yes, it's possible. The only way to do that is to give up the notion that a bedroom needs to be roomy. If I kept the bedrooms small, I could have enough space for the rest of the house that would still be comfortable. Below are two examples of such a house:

Fig. 5  Single detached #1

In Figure 5, all the rooms are corner rooms, which enables all rooms to have two walls with windows.

The kitchen is larger than the present one and is in a U-shape. The open end of the U faces the dining table for convenience.

The toilet and bath is at the back of the house and close to the bedrooms. I prioritized the bedrooms for proximity to the toilet. I had thought of putting a guest's toilet closer to the living room but that meant losing the side door going to the washing area. That also meant that there would be only one exit, which seems to be a bad idea.

A shelf near the side door is for storage of everyday items or can be used as a pantry shelf. I originally put another shelf on the other wall but that meant the living area will become too small.

The dining table is a fast-food style table since it occupies a smaller footprint than the one in Figure 3.

Fig. 6  Single detached #2

Figure 6 is my favorite design. The sleeping quarters are now clearly separated from the living areas and the boundaries between the living area, dining area, and the kitchen can be easily determined. The kitchen is more spacious (should make the wife happy) and includes a storage shelf near the back door (upper left). There's not enough space for a separate pantry but a tall shelf should serve the purpose nicely.

The dining table is the same type in Figure 5 because it's the only type that will fit in the space available and still sit six people.

The three-seater sofa serves as a sort of wall between the living and dining area but it can be turned and placed against the wall for additional space if necessary.

The bedrooms are still minimalist but that's the only solution if you want three bedrooms. The toilet and bath is still at the back of the house and cannot be seen from the living area, a feature that Loida prefers.

The corridor in front of the rooms is wide enough to accomodate a row of shelves for storage of extra bedsheets, bedcovers, pillows, single mattresses, and other items. Another shelf near the toilet and bath serves to store soap, shampoo, extra towels, spare toothbrushes, toilet cleaning materials, etc.

* * *

I could make a half-dozen more designs but I'm probably not going to be building another house anytime soon. I just wanted to see if I could fit three bedrooms into a house that fits into an 84 square meter lot with at least one meter space between the property walls.

As you can see, yes, you can. (",)

A Smile, A Giggle, A Laugh, A Guffaw

Sometimes, as I'm walking around in malls, on the streets, or in offices, I spot a face that I don't give a second glance to. He or she may be looking at me, maybe even smiling at me, but I continue on, unmindful. A few seconds later, the face suddenly registers and a memory is tickled. I look back to check but often the owner of that face has gone and I am left wondering if I knew him or her. There are times when the tickled memory lets out a giggle and vague scenes play out in my mind. The face seems to fit one of those persons in the memory but I can't be sure. Sometimes, the memory laughs out loud and I'm sure I know the person but the name escapes me. There is a tinge of embarrassment that I might have snubbed the person and maybe even ruined a friendship. But occasionally, the memory bursts out in a guffaw and I remember both face and name. I turn around and hope he is looking my way so I can greet him. Often, he is and we may exchange smiles, a wave, a handshake, or a word or two. It's a nice feeling to meet someone and acknowledge that you once knew him. So, if you see me around town and I seem to ignore you, don't think bad about me. It may just be a slow memory day for me or it may be my myopia. Give me a tap, and if my face has that blank look, tell me your name and where we met. I'll be glad to share a smile, a giggle, a laugh, or even a guffaw. (",)

Charles Schulz's Pen

I have been a fan of the Peanuts comic strip since the 1970's. I bought the comic books by saving the leftovers from my school allowance and read them over and over. Sadly, those comic books disappeared as the family moved residences and I lost track of them. The internet, however, has enabled me to see the gang any time I wanted to. My favorite happens to be Snoopy.

Now, I used to be a fairly decent artist, drawing with pen and pencil. My artistry, unfortunately, is limited to copying photographs or other drawings. I also avoid coloring my drawings because adding color ruined the drawing. I'm still a kid who can't keep the colors inside the lines. So, all my drawings were either black and white or gray-scale and one of my favorite drawing topics is, of course, Snoopy.

Most of my Snoopy drawings were personal, handmade greeting cards, sent to my friends, which means, I don't have them anymore.

I made other drawings but one of my favorites was made back in the summer of 1977. I had to take summer classes for Chemistry and our teacher required us to draw a periodic table in a folder and we had to bring that folder to school everyday.

Most of my classmates bought ready-made tables and pasted them on the folder and drew a title and owner's name on them. I, on the other hand, painstakingly drew the table, lettering in the name of the elements, their symbols, and other information.

Getting inspired from the effort of drawing the periodic table, I began drawing Snoopys all over the folder and there was a theme to it. The folder was a very important, secret document that had to be protected. So, I drew a Snoopy in his trenchcoat garb with a speech bubble that said, "Here's the world-famous secret agent guarding this secret document."

Another drawing was of Snoopy on his doghouse and his World War I Flying Ace persona also with a speech bubble that said, "Here's the World War I Flying Ace patrolling the skies to keep this secret document safe."

The last was Snoopy in his familiar lying-down-on-his-doghouse pose, eyes closed, and his speech bubble said, "Here's the fierce dog guarding this very important document."

The folder got a lot of interest among my classmates and at the end of summer classes, one of the girls in my class asked if she could have it. I said, yes, and that's why I don't have it anymore.

As I got older and began working, I drew less and less until I stopped completely. And, since  my family changed residence several times over the years, I lost track of my other drawings until only one remained.

It's a drawing of a flight of P-51 Mustangs that I copied from a World War II history book. I can't remember when I drew this but it might have been in the early 1980's. About six years ago, I bought a frame, mounted the drawing in it and hung it up on the wall. I thought, "At least I saved one of them."

About three years ago, I received this pen from my sister. 

In the note that accompanied it, she wrote:

Note: this is not my sister's handwriting. The original note is a little worse for wear 

so I just used a script font and pasted it here. Phil is my brother-in-law, my sister's husband.

I looked at the pen in awe. I was holding an actual pen used by Charles Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip.

I immediately thought of putting it in a frame but, for one reason or another, didn't get around to it until a little over a week ago (Oct 26, 2022). The pen had been sitting inside my closet for the past three years and I saw it while looking for something else. I thought, "It's time to put you in a frame."

I got an illustration board and, for the first time in decades, drew a picture. It was Snoopy (who else?) viewed from the side, with a little smile as he walked. I found an old un-used frame and put the drawing in it and placed the pen on the drawing. Perfect.

It looked great! There was just one problem though. The frame didn't have a glass cover. Without a cover, the picture and the pen would become dirty over time. The frame also didn't have a provision for a glass cover and, even if it did, the frame wasn't deep enough. The pen actually protrudes above the lip of the frame. Even though I loved the frame as it was, I couldn't use it.

The wife suggested that we have it professionally mounted. There's a business not too far away that would mount the picture and pen in a custom-made frame. So, my wife took the picture and pen and gave it to them for mounting. As of this writing, I'm still waiting for it. It should be ready in about two weeks. I'll update this blog entry when I get it.

So, at least I still have the touch. Since I'm retired, I have more time to draw but it's not really part of my interests right now. Still, if an inspiration should come, why not?

Update: Nov. 9, 2022

The newly framed Snoopy with Charles Schulz's pen just arrived! The workmanship of the framing is great! The pen is fastened to the picture using a transparent nylon string that is difficult to see unless you look very closely. I like it very much.

This is now a very much cherished heirloom. (",)

Mom's Pregnancy Story

 

Mom and Dad at their wedding / Mom back in 2014 @ 79 years old.

Just before I got married, I had a little conversation with Mom and Dad regarding how to handle pregnancy, not how to get my future wife pregnant but what to do after. Among the questions I asked was, were there any things I needed to know besides the medical side of things.

Dad smiled and told me to watch out for women's peculiarities during pregnancy. Some women, he warned, seem to do weird stuff when they get pregnant. Mom laughed and began telling me this story:

* * *

During one of Mom's pregnancies (they didn't say which one among the seven children), Mom told Dad that she wanted an orange.

Dad said that, sometimes, preggies look for food that is either difficult or impossible to get. Compounding the problem is that you really have to find what she wants or there'll be big problems usually characterized by crying sessions, silent treatments, and, sometimes, physical harm. He was, however, relieved to hear Mom say she wanted an orange because oranges happened to be in season at the time.

"Don't worry, Hon. First thing tomorrow, I'll go and buy you an orange," Dad said.

Mom's face became downcast.

"I don't want you to buy it," she said.

"What? What do you mean?" Dad asked, confused.

"I don't want you to buy it, I want you to steal it," Mom said, deadpan.

"But, but, I can't do that. What if I get caught?" Dad tried pleading with her but it was no use, Mom stood her ground.

"Basta! I want you to steal it," Mom angrily said.

(Basta is a Tagalog word that translates as "no arguments" or "no if or buts about it.")

Dad was aghast but he didn't want to go against Mom's wishes. A pregnant woman must be followed, he said.

"Okay, I'll go steal one tomorrow."

Now, Dad's a nice guy and stealing simply wouldn't do. He bought an orange. When he got home, he presented it to Mom.

"Here's your orange, Hon! I stole that," he proudly declared.

At that moment, Dad discovered that pregnancy seemed to give women a sixth sense because Mom saw through his ruse.

"You didn't steal that, you bought it!" Mom shouted, immediately followed by crying.

Dad panicked. One thing you should never do is to upset your pregnant wife. The consequence could be a possible miscarriage, they informed me. 

Dad hugged Mom and patted her back.

"Okay, okay. I'll go back outside and...steal an orange."

So, Dad went back out. He didn't say how he did it but he went and stole an orange somehow.

He came back to the house and presented it to Mom, who did something really strange.

She wordlessly took the orange and put it inside their closet. She never took it out, never ate it, she just left it there until it shrivelled and turned black.

* * *

And that's where the story ended. I remember Mom and Dad laughing as if it was just a small, funny incident from their past. I, on the other hand, was dumbfounded. Dad had somehow pulled off a heist but I had no illusions about my ability as a thief. I was sure that I would be caught and using the reason, "my wife is pregnant," would not pass muster.

This thought stayed with me for several months until my wedding. On my wedding night, while my new wife was sleeping with her back to me, I lay on my back thinking about Mom's pregnancy story. What if the same thing happened to my wife? I mean, some things run in families, right (The thought that my wife belonged to another family didn't occur to me).

So, I did what I should do as a Christian. I prayed.

I extended my hand toward my sleeping wife's back but not touching her so as not to awaken her. Besides, the Good Book says that anything you tell the Lord in private is heard and I decided this was one prayer that I wanted God to hear.

So, I prayed fervently to God to please, PLEASE, not let my wife experience, during her future pregnancies, anything that would cause us to sin or suffer.

I've heard it said that a passionate prayer is a true prayer and one that God will take note of. And I believed it.

So, 29 years later, my wife and I have had three children. During her pregnancies, she didn't experience morning sickness, no cravings, no demands for me to start on a life of crime. God had heard my prayer.

A Roach Story

This was back in high school or thereabouts.

I was in my room, getting dressed for school. I had just slipped into my pants when I spied a cockroach on the table. I have no fear of roaches so I took one of my slippers and approached it to smash it to a pulp.

As I got closer, I slowed down so that it won't be spooked into running away. I kept my eye on it, with the slipper held up to around head level, ready to swing as soon as I got into range.

But the roach was smart.

It turned around to face me and launched itself into the air...toward me. Taken by surprise, I tried to swat it in midair but it was too close. I felt it land on my undershirt so I dropped the slipper and tried to brush it off. It was too quick, however, and my movements failed to connect with it.

Suddenly, it disappeared.

I swung left and right, trying to find it but it was nowhere in sight. It had escaped but I thought, "I'll get you yet." I put my slippers on and went to the closet to get my uniform polo.

Just as I moved, I felt something.

The cockroach was climbing up my pant leg. Worse than that, it was INSIDE my pant leg! I quickly clamped down on my thigh to prevent it getting even higher. I didn't want it anywhere near my delicate parts.

I began stomping my foot on the floor. After a few stomps, it lost its hold on my pants and fell out. I didn't know this and continued to stomp which resulted in my foot coming down on it.

Roachminator strikes again!

Don't Tell Your Kids to Get High Grades

 

When Bloggers Try to be Journalists

 

When you read a professional newspaper or magazine, it's not often that you find errors whether it be in spelling or grammar. That's because they have proofreaders, people who are paid to apply the their knowledge of words and the rules of grammar.

Typically, bloggers like me do not have the luxury of having these experts. It, therefore, falls on our shoulders to ensure that such errors do not creep into the text undetected.

Of course, the main defense against these kinds of gaffes is knowledge of the language. If you know the rules, it's possible to write correctly and do it right the first time.

If you know the rules, even if you make a mistake, you'll be able to catch them during the proofreading stage.

Now, I'm not an English writing expert. I make mistakes from time to time, mostly due to fatigue. After writing for the better part of the day, it's possible for me to commit a faux pas and miss them when I go back over the article. That's why I recommend proofreading in spurts or for a few minutes at a time. Fifteen minutes of working followed by three to five minutes of rest is fine for me.

Sadly, I don't always follow my own advice. After finishing my first novel, Legend of the Moon, I did my proofreading, sometimes following my advice and sometimes completely forgetting it. I went through the book several times, finding errors at each pass. After about six proofreading passes, I finally uploaded it to Smashwords. A few months later, I downloaded a copy (because I accidentally deleted my original) and found more errors!

PROOFREADING 85,000 WORDS

Sometimes I envy those people who just shrug and say, "Oh well, they know what I'm talking about anyway." Their lives seem so much easier.

But that's not who I am. I don't make corrections because of some OCDian urge or to impress people. I care that people won't misinterpret what I'm trying to convey. It might turn out to be an expensive or career-ending mistake.

In 1872, the US government decreed that imported "fruit, plants" were tax exempt. What they meant was that "fruit-plants" were tax exempt. They lost almost $40,000,000 before the error was corrected.

In 2008, Chile printed a batch of 50 Peso coins. The Chile on the coin was spelled "Chiie." This flubb was world news for some time and resulted in the general manager of the mint being fired along with several other workers.

Granted, the chances of your articles having such far-reaching circumstances or have life-changing influence might be very small. But as those people involved in the examples above discovered, that's what they also thought.

Updated Cover for U-1215

U-1215 was published in August 20, 2016. For two years, it hardly moved. No one was buying it and I even thought of taking it out and rewriting it to make it interesting.

Then, one day, I read an article about one author whose book also wasn't selling very well. She had someone make another cover and she republished it. Thereafter, the book's sales soared and continues to sell very well.

So, it got me to thinking. Could my book benefit from an improved cover as well? I set out to try.

First, I changed the color to blue. Blue represents the color of the sea so that seemed appropriate. Then, I made the color darker towards the bottom since that's what happens the deeper into the sea you go.

Second, I made the text larger so as to be more visible without overdoing it. I changed the subtitle to all caps to also make it a bit more visible. I decided to enlarge my name and change the font because I read that you should advertise yourself but don't shout it out by making your name larger than the title. So, I chose a taller and thinner font without using the bold feature.

The silhouette of the submarine is mostly the same except I removed a little bump near the bow. That bump was supposed to represent the folded forward diving planes (only people who know submarines would know that) but I reasoned that, since the sub was already under water, it should follow that the diving planes would be deployed and be invisible when viewed from the side.

The last modification was that I made the image wider. That was done to satisfy the requirements of the Apple iBookstore of having the image in specific dimensions.

This is the finished product alongside the old one for easier comparison.

I uploaded the updated cover in 2018. Did it work? Did it improve sales? Yes, it did!

Within a few months of uploading, U-1215 sales started improving quite dramatically. It's not a best seller, mind you, but I'm very please with it. Now I'm thinking of changing the covers of my other books as well.

(click on the image to Smashwords website)

My Smashwords Sales Figures

I've been neglecting my blog.

When Facebook removed the Notes feature, I told myself to use Blogger in place of the Notes feature. Sorry to say, I haven't been doing it. So, hoping to get things started again, I'll post a few figures I got from my sales from my books in Smashwords.

So, according to the numbers, I sold 578.3 books from 2011 to 2022. What's with the 0.3? How can you sell one-third of a book?

Those sales came from Scribd. They offer a partial sale (a small percentage of a book) for $0.10 with an option to buy the whole book if you liked it.

Out of those 578.3 books, I made $279.87 (USD). Why so little for the quantity of books? Did each book cost $0.48?

No, a large part of those books were sold for free. Yes, free. One of the advice from other authors, as well as Smashwords, was to offer books for free from time to time so that readers would get to know the author on the premise that, if they found the books interesting, they would later buy the author's other books. One book in particular, Travel Mashups and Mishaps was free for four years. You can see the effect in the graph below (from 2014 to 2017). Sales during those years went sky high (relatively speaking) but my earnings hardly went up. In fact, they went down.

In 2018, I decided the free-book-technique was not working so I put prices on all my books. You can see the effect right away. Sales dropped but earnings climbed. So, this practice of setting your prices to free doesn't work, at least for me. Book buyers who see that a book is free will likely get the book, but it probably doesn't give the author points. The buyer might even lower their opinion of them. It was that or I went overboard with the free-pricing thing.

You'll also notice that earnings spiked in 2020 and 2021, the first two years of the pandemic. Other authors also experienced increased sales during this period. It was probably because people bought more ebooks to keep them occupied during the lockdown. With the pandemic seeming to wind down, sales are going back down to pre-Covid levels.

So, in addition to checking my sales, I also checked a few other information that was available in the reports. The United States was my number one customer by a whoping 80.7%. The United Kingdom came in second at 6.7%, Australia was third at 3.9%, and Canada was fourth at 1.9%. Since all my books are in English it follows that 93.3% of my sales would come from English-speaking countries. My country, the Philippines, came in at ninth place with only 0.6%.

Next, I checked who was doing better at distributing my books. The Apple iBookstore and Barnes and Noble shared top spot at 39.1% each. Smashwords, which is where I publish my books only came in third with 12.1%. That's understandable because Apple and Barnes & Noble have a larger customer base than Smashwords but I find it sad that the company that gave me my start at being an author isn't getting the lion's share of my sales.

Finally, a comparison of how my books perform against each other. Note that this isn't a fair comparison since they weren't written at the same time and they're priced differently.

In terms of quantity, my first book, Travel Mashups and Mishaps (2011), is number one in terms of number of books sold. Remember, however, that this book was free for a long time and I also priced it at $0.99 for some time, hoping to get buyers interested in my other books.

By far, U-1215 (2016) is my biggest earner at $226.59, and it's still going strong. At first, it didn't sell very well, selling only three copies in two years. Then, I changed the cover in 2018 and that's when it took off.

My favorite book, Legend of the Moon, isn't doing very well. It is eighth in terms of books sold but it is third in terms of earnings. That's because I never priced it at free. I'm planning to change the cover also, like what I did with U-1215. That might catch the attention of readers more.

You might be wondering about Hamelin. It's sold 18.1 books but only made $1.27. Similarly, God's Shower of Blessings sold five copies but earned zero. Both of these books also went through a free-book phase. That's the reason for the discrepancies.

So, there you have it. Twelve years of writing books and richer by $279.87. A pittance compared to what the more famous writers are earning but that's okay. I get a small amount every month and those earnings have bailed me out a few times.

I could earn more by writing more books but I've been lazy of late. I haven't written a new book in four years. 'Need to change that. The more books you write, the more you'll earn. Of course, you have to be a good writer and one of the ways to get better is to write more books.

Speech Fodder

I'm not going to start with how to speak, how to use gestures, how to use words, etc. You can't speak in front of people if you don't have anything to say, so, the first installment of this series is techniques for finding speech fodder or speech topics.

Probably the two most common complaints I hear from people is:

• I don't know what to say, and
• I don't have anything interesting to say.

The two, I believe, are related, maybe first cousins. What they might really be saying is, "I don't know what to say that will interest people."

That's fine. You're new to public speaking and struggling to come up with a speech that will keep your audience awake. It's a valid concern. I've seen speakers who got flustered when they saw one of the audience yawning during their speech. Don't worry, we'll get to tips to address those in future posts.

If someone asks you to deliver a speech, one of the things you have to know first is, what is the occasion?

If your former teacher asks you to speak during your old high school's commencement exercises, you know that you're expected to talk about your own high school life, how your teachers influenced your decisions in life, and you're also expected to give an inspiring message to the students and the rest of the audience. Knowing that will, sort of, narrow down your choices for a message.

The second thing you need to know is, who is the audience?

What are their ages? Are they all one gender? Are they all members of an organization or company? What language/s do they speak?

So, taking the same example of the previous example, if it's a high school graduation ceremony, your audience will consist of students of between 15 to 17 years of age, parents ranging from maybe 35 to 50, teachers from 21 to around 60, a few relatives, friends, school officials, and guests.

With that diverse an audience, you might need to choose who you are going to address with your speech. Will it be the students? Will it be both the students and parents? Or perhaps everyone? Which one/s you address will make your choice of topics either narrower or wider.

The third thing you need to know is, what do you know?

It's very difficult, even impossible, to talk about something you know nothing about. There might be people who can talk about a topic and look like an expert but not everyone can do that and, really, no one should do that. If you're found out, your reputation will be lost, among other things.

One of the things I hear people complain about is, "I don't have anything interesting to say." Don't put yourself down. Using that example of being asked to speak at a graduation ceremony. What can you say? What about your everyday experiences during high school? It doesn't even need to be inside the school, like you're on your way to or coming home from school. What about that science experiment that went wrong? It doesn't have to be a spectacular error. If you found it funny, others might find it funny too.

And stories don't need to come from you. You can approach some of your classmates and ask them for anecdotes.

"But I want to inspire these kids!"

That's great, but it's difficult to find inspiration in a story that isn't there yet. Create your speech and find the inspiring message there.

What are things you know? Things that you've experienced, things you've heard about, things you've read, things you've seen, there's all sorts of sources for your message. You just need to make some effort in finding them.

But I wasn't born with speaking skills.

Congratulations, all of us were born knowing only to cry when we're hungry, in pain, or uncomfortable. The only difference between speakers and you is, speakers learned how to speak, and if they can learn, so can you.