What Reading Your Fiction to an Audience Can Teach You About Writing
Improve your writing and learn to perform
Photo taken at the event “Notes of a Dirty Old Man” © Jaap Beyleveld. Permission to use for the author. Author depicted.
Two weeks ago I did something most writers feel very uncomfortable about. I did too at first.
I left the comfort of my sweatpants, my bedroom and just me and my screen alone. Writing is ideal for introverts. And although I consider myself a social introvert, I went way out of my comfort zone.
I read from my own material in front of 80 strangers. For about 20 minutes I swapped the comfort of writing in solitude to “performing” in front of an audience.
There’s a difference between reading from your work and performing it. And the more you try to perform (without overdoing it) the more you keep the audience engrossed in your story.
Those 20 minutes of reading from my own material taught me some valuable lessons about my fiction writing.
And you know who might be sitting in the audience? Literary agents and publishers. Gasp.
It’s like editing
You feel when you lose people’s attention. If you dare to look the audience in the eye, you see it too. Repetition is one of the major issues here.
I thought I had a solid story. It’s been edited countless times. I always read out my stories out loud to find errors. But not like this.
I felt the repetitive parts invoked boredom.
I felt it when my prose lacked elegance. You see, when you “perform”, you read your work differently than in your head. You play with rhythm and tone.
The better your prose, the more natural this goes.
Again, I stumbled upon some style issues. I literally faltered when that happened. Because of that, I took myself out of the story and dragged my audience with it.
How to perform better while reading your work
Performing is a different artform when it comes to reciting fiction. In essence, you are doing a monologue on a stage.
Take into account the cadence of your performance. Play around with rhythm and tone. It’s no wonder that performing songs or even poetry works way better than reading from a regular work of fiction.
Joke around. I started off with a joke. And yes I made it up beforehand. It worked.
“If my book shakes then you’ve seen it correctly, it’s the nerves and the aftereffect of a city trip with my 12 best friends.”
Laughter ensued. What I said was true as well. Afterward, people came up to me and most of them mentioned this. Someone said it made me human to them and they wanted me to do well. That’s a good effect to create, isn’t it?
It’s always better than you think it was
Two other writers performed before me. One of them has received numerous national prizes and awards for her work. She knew what she was doing. She was a bit intimidating.
I was anxiously waiting for my turn, looking at her performance and not taking in a word. I was too stressed out. What if I get a dry mouth? What if I’m on too long? What if people hate my story and think I’m a fraud?
Accept feelings like that. It’s our natural defense mechanism. The beauty is that when you take action, get up on that stage and do it, it’s usually going better than you thought.
None of the things that I panicked about happened. Luckily, people applauded and came up to me afterward saying I did a good job (and not just my mom).
Watch others first
What I should have done in hindsight was to go to one of those nights as a guest and watch other authors perform. You’ll see how they do it and you can learn a ton.
The last guy who was up was my age as well and he just published his first novel. Besides the fact that his writing is hilarious, he also knew how to perform.
Granted, he writes and produces plays as well so he had some tricks up his sleeve.
He made fun of himself and his work. People laughed throughout his performance.
He used his whole body when reading. Expressing the story.
He made small introductions about his characters.
All the things I took notice of and hope to implement the next time. Because I will be doing this again. I actually loved it. Having done it now, I know it’s going to be less intimidating in the future. I can improve both my writing and performing skills.
Your turn
Dear writer, I dare you to come out of your comfort zone. Check your nearest city for writing events like this. They are everywhere!
Check Facebook and Meetup. Google events like this.
Take the stage and grow.
And who knows? There might be an agent in the room or a publisher.
In my case there were several. Sadly, all focused on the Dutch market (I live in Amsterdam). However, one agent works with US and UK publishers as well. Who knows if this leads anywhere?
Good luck, you can do it!
