As a new caller I spend way too many hours preparing. I used to start weeks in advance, just so I could read all the choreography books I have. Now I’m down to 1 or 2 weeks. LOL. Where I’m spending most of my time nowadays is developing a sense of “story” and “biorhythm” to the program, and not just a logical progression of complexity. I look forward to getting it down to an hour! 

By now I have been through my library enough and called enough that I have a couple special folders of fallback easy/fun/low-turnout dances to rely on when I need them. Having fallbacks makes programming simpler (thus faster) so I don’t need an absurd flowchart. (Yes, I tried that once.)

On Mar 13, 2018, at 17:28, Jean Gibson-Gorrindo via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

My calling took a big leap forward when I started paying more attention to what I would say during the walk-thru, and practicing saying it out loud as concisely as possible (Lisa Greenleaf influence!).

I do this as well. Saying the teaching aloud, alone, helps me test and pare the words down. Walking a couple positions as well helps me aware of the dancer perspectives as well.

\Bob Peterson
http://contracorner.com/caller/