Unfortunately I am terse and need help becoming a chatterbox. Any suggestions?

Question

Unfortunately I am terse and need help becoming a chatterbox. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Limit what you say by using only words that are very short.  Do not use a choo-choo-train word when a one lung word will do.  Throw out words like 'terse' (even though that's a lot better than, say, 'Laconic').  Find a way to say things so that any fifth grader can follow you.  

If you deal with things that matter, that have many moving parts, you will become a chatterbox right away.  It takes a mess o' short words to carry all of the mind's cargo.  On the other hand, you might find that taking the time to put things in (something like Churchill's 'Basic English') makes you see again how you got to 'terse,' and why the chatterboxes might find 'terse' annoying.

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For your phrase book:

"Too bad I'm stingy with words.  Help me learn to speak again so others hear me."

AFTERTHOUGHT:  Find Rudolf Fleisch, Art of Readable Writing.   Buy it.    Read it.  Do a Fog Index calculation on your own writing.  Then embrace your internal chatterbox.

Answer 2

why would you want to became a blubbering, bathering, babbling chatterbox?

i think that it's good that you're so terse. the world today is flled with people who talk but have nothing to say. don't be one of them.

just be yourself.

Answer 3

Good lord, yes...alcohol.

I am normally not much of a talker, but after a couple of cocktails I can't shut up.

Answer 4

At the end of the day, you are who you are.

Still, there's nothing wrong with trying to improve yourself, if you think becoming less terse will achieve that.

Perhaps this is something that you can develop gradually, rather than overnight in one fell swoop.  Rather than trying to go from being rather terse to being a motor-mouth, try simply loosening up a bit more to start with.  Perhaps you can set yourself attainable targets, eg. make a point of chatting a bit to shop assistants rather than just saying 'thank you'.

Answer 5

Fortunately you are terse and only speak when you have something to say; making sure that it is worthwhile.  That's a gift.

Answer 6

Well, the way you phrased that question sounds kind of pretentious. I'm not judging, but "terse"? Being less pretentious makes it easier. Watch more fun TV shows and get more comfortable with more casual talk. Read less! Dumbing it down a little makes it a lot easier. It also makes anything a conversation starter, as opposed to a conversation with substance.

Try watching the TV show Friends. It has a variety of types of people interacting. www.surfthechannel.com

It has a guy with a PhD, a professor, talking to a guy that didn't graduate from highschool, a spoiled girl, a girl that grew up on the streets, a college-educated career driven man, a chef girl, etc etc. Anyway, if you're familiar with DeBono's theory of hats or whatever, I feel like it has all of those types.