Kim Chamberlain - Woman to Woman 1,000 Conversation Starters for Talking about Anything

Copyright 2013 Kim Chamberlain

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-62636-426-4

eISBN: 978-1-62873-889-6

Printed in the United States of America

Why a conversation starters book specifically for women?

Within a short space of time womens conversation can cover many and varied topics and may include much laughter, intelligent observations on life, and a sharing of innermost thoughts.

While conversation in mixed company isnt always different, there are certainly times when the conversations tone, the topics covered, and the depth of sharing is different in all-female company. Some topics are those that women would feel comfortable only discussing with other women in an empathetic, supportive, and non-threatening environment.

Although many conversation starters in the book can be used with both males and females, there are also many that are intended specifically for women, such as talking about your body, puberty, pregnancy, women and work, beauty, and other women.

This book is aimed primarily at situations where women are together having a conversation with other women, and builds on this situation by providing a wide range of questions and conversation starters that offer a great way to stimulate many types of discussion. Some topics may be ones that you regularly talk about, some may offer a new slant on a familiar topic, some may be ones you have wanted to talk about but have been uncomfortable about broaching, and others may be ones you hadnt thought about. All will most likely lead you into other conversation topics.

The book also touches on situations where you would use general conversation starters when you are out meeting people, say at a party or network event. A number of conversation starters, tips and techniques cover these issues.

A very easy book to dip into, Woman to Woman is suitable for adults and contains conversation starter topics that are thought-provoking, entertaining, controversial, factual, amusing, ridiculous, risqu, intellectual, and intimate. They provide the opportunity for fun, laughter, a way to learn new things, new ways of looking at issues, a chance to be listened to, a chance to work out what your thoughts are on a topic, a way to air issues youd like to talk about, and an opportunity to discuss serious topics. They may allow you to open up new areas of discussion; perhaps discuss a subject you havent been able to talk about before. You may be able to talk about issues you cant talk about with your partner or members of the opposite sex, along with the opportunity to develop your communication and thinking skills, and especially the chance to build a deeper level of connection and intimacy with others.

Speaking skills

Along with the hundreds of conversation starters, this book also offers insights into speaking skills, along with many tips and techniques incorporated throughout.

One of the ways to increase your speaking skills is first to become aware of speaking techniques. You may not, for example, have given any thought to issues concerning supportive feedback, interrupting, swearing, paraphrasing, how to avoid rambling, or different types of listening. Once you become aware of them and the factors involved, you then have a choice as to if and how you would like to develop your skills. The techniques will give you suggestions for ways to work on these skills.

A benefit of this book is that you can use it for as long or short a period as you like, either in one-on-one situations or in a group. You can simply dip into it when you are with other females and want a bit of light-hearted conversation; you can use it for more in-depth conversations; you can use it for icebreakers; and you can create the right environment and use it as a way to build deeper connections with other women. You can even use the starters on your own to learn how to formulate responses, get to know your own thinking style, and work on your conversation skills.

1. How the book is organized

Speaking skills

The beginning of the book contains awareness-raising information on a range of speaking skills. This can help provide an understanding of some of the issues that are present in speaking and conversation. It also contains suggestions for developing skills in these areas.

Conversation starters

The starters are grouped into one hundred different topic sections, each containing ten questions and conversation starters.

The first topic section covers Easy Conversation Starters, simple starters that can be used in general situations. The others are in alphabetical order starting with About You, weaving their way through many and wide-ranging topics, and ending with Your Call!

The starters fall into different types of categories, including ones that ask about you, What was your favorite book as a child?; ones that ask about your views or thoughts on issues, Is social media helping or hindering real communication?; ones that ask you to use your imagination, In my wildest dreams this is what I would look like...; and ones where people have to make guesses about you, What types of pictures or posters did I have on my bedroom wall I was a teenager?

At the end of the book is a page for you to make a note of any of your favorite starters or to compile some of your own.

Conversation tips and techniques

These are practical techniques you can use that will help improve conversation skills. They are included amongst the conversation starters.

There are three types of tips and techniques: Suggestions for asking good questions (Q); suggestions for answering questions (A); and general tips and techniques for conversation skills (G). They will have the letter (Q), (A) or (G) in front of each technique. Some give specific examples related to a particular conversation starter, though the techniques can be used in many circumstances.

2. A note on choosing conversation starters

Please note that some of the starters are not suited to beginning a cold conversation. Some starters cover, for example, personal matters, sensitive, controversial, or in-depth issues and are more suited to beginning a new topic during a conversation once things have warmed up, or with people you know well. Choosing these too early in a conversation may make others feel ill at ease, and may work against relationship-building. Choose starters that suit the people, the circumstances, and the flow of the conversation.

As a generalization, the type of starters that are more suited to opening a conversation, especially with someone you dont know, are ones of a general nature that dont delve too deeply into personal matters. This is explained later in Understanding conversation levels, page 6.