How long does it take to write a best mans speech?

Hi Terence,

Good question.

Let me start by congratulating you for thinking about the speech this far out. You are one of the more dedicated best men out there to be giving it some good forethought. It’s not uncommon for some guys to leave until the weekend, or even night before.

How long it takes to write a best man’s speech depends on a number of factors which include, but are not exclusive to:
1) Whether you are one best man or part of two. If there are two of you, it takes longer to write and work out the running order.
2) If you’ve written a best man’s speech before. Like everything that’s new, it takes longer first time around than the second.
3) If you plan to use additional props or material. If you’re looking to make a video for example, which is a growing trend, then this will take a lot longer.
4) If you are planning to write it yourself. The majority of best men do write their own speech but not all. There are professional speech writers who can compose one for you which obviously speeds things up considerably.
5) How confident you are at public speaking. You should be looking to build practice time in to your speech as well. This is something far too many best men underestimate. They focus almost exclusively on writing the speech and then forget that they have to deliver the thing! To do it properly I recommend saying it out loud a minimum of three times, and at least one of those should be in front other people, to get you used to speaking in front of an audience, even if that audience is just one person.
6) How much free time you have to spare. If you’re a busy guy who rarely has a moment to himself then this is obviously tricky. Everyone works differently but experience tells me that best men tend to make better progress by working in 3-4 hour chunks over a single occasion than 3-4 one hour sessions over several days. This is particularly the case when in the research mode.

So your nine weeks depends a little on some of the above but should be sufficient time.

Thanks,
Oliver