Some thoughts about doing a good public reading

[catherineldf]

This is brought on by having completed 10 or so readings for this year, not including panels or workshops. Last year's tally was closer to 15 total and the year before that was around 8. While I'm not the greatest writer/performer on the planet, I do this enough to have strong opinions about it.
Without further ado:

• Time yourself and stick to the time limit. If you're reading in a group, no one likes a time hog. If you're given 5-7 minutes in a group reading, plan on 5-7 minutes. Not 15. To do otherwise is both memorable and discourteous.
• If you're reading by yourself, time it anyway. If you're pretty good, the audience's attention span tends to wander long about 40 minutes or so. If you tend to mumble or be monotone, it will wander sooner than that. Several short excerpts generally go over better than one long one.
• Practice, practice, practice. Read your story aloud so you know the good stopping places - the ones you want to emphasize, the ones where you want to look up and make eye contact with the audience and/or the parts where you hope they'll laugh. The more you practice, the less nervous you'll be.
• Work at projecting your voice. Get a long suffering friend to sit some distance away and make sure they can hear you.
• Try and add some expression to your voice. I don't mean to sound like Donald Duck but if you can indicate that one character speaks slower than another or uses different emphasis, it will go a long way to making your reading more interesting.
• Pause for breath. Take a sip of water. Relax if you can.
• Go to other readings by other writers and learn from them, the good and the bad. If you love it, ask yourself why and what you can emulate. If you're bored out of your mind, ask yourself what you can do better.
• Turn your damn cellphone off. If your livelihood depends on being on call or there's likely to be a life or death situation in the next hour, set it to vibrate. Go all the way out of the room and out of earshot to answer it if you absolutely must. Most things will wait an hour. Really.
• Bear in mind that public readings aren't for everyone. If you find the whole thing completely unbearable after you've tried it 2 or 3 times (actual mileage may vary), look for another way to publicize your work. Online, no one can hear you toss your cookies. Unless you put it on YouTube.

Comments

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

You know, I've been thinking about suggesting that MinnSpec do a reading workshop, one all about technique. Would you be interested in presenting something like this to our group?

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'd be happy to.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Sweet! I'll have to kick this over to Hilary Moon Murphy for scheduling.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

That'll be the exciting part. :-)

[thaedeus.livejournal.com]

"Get a long suffering friend to sit some distance away"

I do this all the time... not just while reading out loud.

Great advice Catherine!

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :-)

[cathschaffstump.livejournal.com]

I've linked to this in Writer Tamago. If that presumes too much, (ie ask first, link later), let me know, and I will rectify.

I just thought it was too good not to share.

Catherine

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Sure thing - glad it's proving useful. :-)