This article is the fourth and final in a series designed to help you stage more effective readings. Thank you to author Clare Toohey for sharing her wisdom, originally posted on Women of Mystery.
DELIVERY
You’re on! So you’ve practiced reading aloud–and you have, right? And your copy’s well-prepared–and it is, right? Once you’re in front of an audience, it’s still very important to read more slowly than you think you need to, and to emphasize with More Dramatic Pitch and Rhythm Changes than feels natural. Form the words More Deliberately than you do in conversation. All this, because nervousness makes monotonic mumble-mouths of us all.
Stand in a relaxed pose, one where you won’t need to weave, because lots of fidgeting or swaying can be distracting. But don’t lock your knees. (Many a high-school choir concert has seen fainting off the top riser from locked knees.) Try to keep your shoulders down, your chin up and your chest open, so you have plenty of air for your biggest moments. If you can, hold your copy in front of you, not flat. It’s pretty natural to want to hold the copy like a tabletop, then to curl your neck and head over to read it. However, your listeners are probably in front of you, not in the floorboards with the termites, and for the sound of your voice to get to them, it’s much better if you aim it in their direction, and the occasional bit of eye contact is always appreciated. The second issue is that crunching your windpipe like a shepherd’s crook isn’t very conducive to deep breaths either, the breaths that keep you calm, help pace your work, and provide support for dynamic range in your reading.
Feel it and see it! You know what it’s like when you tell someone something unusual, and they seem unmoved, so you respond by repeating it in a more emphatic, amped-up way to persuade them to get it? “I said he married the dog!” That second, more intense form of the communication is exactly what we’re listening for, so let yourself feel the emotional tides of your selection. That doesn’t mean you have to twirl an invisible mustache when you say “He was a bad man,” but if you can let that lousy ratfink appear in your mind while you’re telling us, he’ll come across. Really! That’s reason number infinity for advance preparation, because if you know the material well, your mind has enough spare wattage to visualize what you’re saying, and that really does help your delivery immensely.
I’ve never heard anyone call out “Read it with less feeling!” Also, no one will ever complain you’re too slow, as long as you’re within your time–and if none’s specified, think 10 minutes–it’s magic. The only thing better than a great 10-minute reading is a great 5-minute reading, seriously. You’re there to tantalize with a sample of your work that makes them want more. Boring them or overstaying your welcome is never in the service of that cause. (Also, I’d like to recommend a special cul-de-sac of Hell be assigned for writers at a group reading who chew up everyone else’s time and wear out the audience by going way over, because they didn’t bother preparing and tried to wing it.)
When you’re comfortable with the material you’re presenting, you feel confident, you can express dramatically, but still naturally, not stiffly, reacting to the listeners in the audience as they react to you. And when you have prepared great material, don’t be afraid to use it again, because those people in the crowd who’ve heard it may enjoy the encore!
—Clare Toohey
Click here to read part 3 of this essay.
Clare Toohey is a genre hack and friendly contrarian who wrangles CriminalElement.com and also blogs for WomenofMystery.net. A literary omnivore who wants a taste off your plate, she adores the uncanny as well as New England sports.