{"id":5446,"date":"2016-03-22T06:34:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T10:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5446"},"modified":"2016-04-01T07:26:32","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T11:26:32","slug":"9-keys-to-a-successful-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5446","title":{"rendered":"9 Keys to a Successful Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"road<\/a>

(copyright Elvis Kennedy, creative commons license)<\/p><\/div>\n

Reading your own work aloud\u2014even without an audience\u2014is a helpful exercise for any writer. The sentences that seem to flow so smoothly across the page will reveal themselves to be scarred with rough patches, poor word choices like potholes, and cracks in logic.<\/p>\n

Members of my writing group do a public reading twice a year. Not only does preparation for the reading improve the writing, the audience feedback is strongly energizing (since so often, submissions to agents and publishers evoke no feedback at all).<\/p>\n

An audience isn\u2019t necessary for diagnostic work; you can read a draft aloud at any stage it\u2019s in. But if you have the chance to do a public reading, the route to success is simple: practice! The more run-throughs you do, the greater your confidence and the smoother your performance.<\/p>\n

Key hints are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Lighting: If you\u2019re over 40, you may need extra light. Maybe you\u2019re thinking, I\u2019ll use my laptop, no problem. Consider whether the laptop screen not only casts an unflatteringly cold light on you, but also sets up a perceived barrier between you and your audience. You may decide old-school is better.<\/li>\n
  2. If you use paper, print your manuscript in a BIG font. The less light you have, the bigger your font should be. I generally print mine in 20-point BOLD<\/strong>, after an embarrassing episode when I couldn\u2019t see what I was reading.<\/li>\n
  3. Be sure you understand time constraints, and when you practice, time yourself. If you consistently bump up against your time limit, cut something. You don\u2019t want to notice the clock and start rushing.<\/li>\n
  4. Stand up when you practice. Even if you\u2019re offered a chair at your reading, you\u2019re better off on your feet. Your voice will carry farther and your breathing will improve.<\/li>\n
  5. Plant your feet firmly, a little apart to prevent weaving (you don\u2019t want your audience to get seasick), and use natural hand gestures. Practice them, too.<\/li>\n
  6. Whenever you stumble over a word, circle it, so you know it\u2019s coming and can anticipate it. If a word or phrase is too much of a tongue-twister, or you consistently read it wrong, consider changing it.<\/li>\n
  7. Mark up your copy to indicate variations in intonation, speed, emphasis. If your piece has dialog, differentiate the voices.<\/li>\n
  8. On performance day, have a small bottle of water handy.<\/li>\n
  9. Smile and make eye contact!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you\u2019re like me and tend to yawn while reading aloud, you may need more oxygen. You probably won\u2019t have the problem if you read standing up. I don\u2019t. And you might also want to take a few deep breaths before you start!<\/p>\n

    Tomorrow<\/em>: Polishing Your Instrument–Your Voice<\/a> for a public reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Reading your own work aloud\u2014even without an audience\u2014is a helpful exercise for any writer. The sentences that seem to flow so smoothly across the page will reveal themselves to be scarred with rough patches, poor word choices like potholes, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"9 Keys to a Successful Public Reading","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[174,60,29],"tags":[31,89],"class_list":["post-5446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-draft-blog","category-storytelling","category-writing","tag-author","tag-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1pQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5446"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5505,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5446\/revisions\/5505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}