I Chose the Lazy Option in College. It Completely Rewired How I Write

In college, I competed in something called intercollegiate forensics. Or in more normal words, speech and debate.

I joined because I needed to improve my English and what better way to do it than to completely embarrase yourself speaking about politics, economics and culture.

To travel with the team, you had to compete in at least two more events besides Debate.

I picked After Dinner Speeches and Impromptu Speaking.

Impromptu, specifically, because every other event required months of research and writing, and I was still uncomfortable with both.

I want to be clear: I chose the lazy option.

What I did not expect was that the lazy option would completely rewire how I write.

Here is how Impromptu Speaking works.

A judge hands you a piece of paper with a quotation on it. You get two minutes to prepare. Then you stand up and deliver a five-minute speech. On the spot. In front of people. With no notes.

When you watch someone do this well, it looks like magic.

It is not magic. It is structure.

Icebreaker. Thesis. Two or three supporting points. Callback to close.

That's the whole thing. You don't discover the structure mid-speech — you walk in with it already loaded. The only thing you're filling in is the content. And because the structure handles all the decisions about what goes where, your brain is free to actually think about what you want to say.

I resisted writing structures for years after that. I had this idea that every story was different, that real writers discovered their structure organically, that imposing a framework would flatten the creative work.

So I'd ramble on for 3,000 words when 1,000 would do. I'd lose the thread halfway through. I'd open documents, stare at them, close them, and tell myself I'd come back when I was more inspired.

Then one bad morning — no sleep, a full calendar, a story due — I went back to Impromptu.

Attention getter. Three anecdotes. Callback conclusion.

Done in one sitting.

The structure didn't flatten the story.

It freed me to actually write it. Because I wasn't spending energy figuring out what came next — I already knew. All that was left was the specific, honest, human work of filling it in.

Structure is not the enemy of creativity. It is the container that makes creativity possible.

You don't have to discover a new framework for every story you write.

Pick one. Load it. Write inside it.

See what happens when you stop fighting the walls and start using them.

Happy telling!

-Carlos

P.S. Are you working on any writing projects? Is there anything I can do to help you?