If I Speak In The Tongues of Men and Angels…

How do you feel about reading your work to an audience or giving presentations to groups? Despite having spent years doing this within my employment, the thought of talking about my writing or reading extracts from it fills me with excitement and terror.

For writers today, giving talks and readings are part and parcel of promoting your published books. Many, like myself, learn what people are interested in and which bits to read to grip the audience’s attention via trial and error.  Recently I gave my first public reading. I read an extract from my soon to be published novel In-Between Girl. I am sure more experience hands can provide tips but here are few I picked up in preparing for the event.

• 1.       Decide what kind of group you want to start with. Do you want to pick a group you know well as a member or know someone who is or do you prefer an unknown group?
• 2.       Choose an extract that represents your main writing focus and style. If you are poet 1-3 poems that give a good range of your interests, if you write novels the latest to be published one or a recent story.  If you write non-fiction or devotionals, choose a piece people will be able to relate to.
• 3.       Keep it short – 3 sides of A4 equals about 5 mins. This is long enough if you are one of many giving readings at an event. If you are the only speaker, then a couple of short pieces lasting 10 minutes is a good target.
• 4.       Practice reading the piece ALOUD. Obvious I know, but an audience can tell if you have not. Reading it aloud will help to smooth out any awkward phrases, alert you to tricky words, pace your breathing, the ebb and flow of your voice, and where to emphasize emotionally as you read. This will make the audience’s listening experience a better one.
• 5.       The way we read and write and the way we speak words are not the same. You may need to tweak the passage. For example, I changed the opening sentence’s ‘she’ to ‘Hannah’, the main character, so people knew whose point-of-view I was reading from.
• 6.       Do think about context – it is worth preparing a short summary of the larger work’s content and whereabout the extract comes from. This helps the audience orientate themselves to it and provides an opportunity for you to promote the work to them.
• 7.       Have some PR material and/or books to give/sell.
• 8.       ENJOY.

The one other thing that helped me to calm my nerves was knowing that I stand in a long line of public speakers going back to the disciples. Were they nervous when Jesus sent them out to spread the gospel? Did they retell his parables to crowds? There is in Acts that wonderful Pentecost account of Peter addressing the crowd after receiving the Holy Spirit. Without the likes of the Peter and the disciples, Christianity may have stayed a provincial religious group and not become the global faith it is today. While I do not imagine my work becoming international, I do take comfort from their example and I hope, when you prepare for your next speaking engagement, you do too.

In-Between Girl, a contemporary suspense novel and 1^st instalment of The Birchwood Inheritance, will be published by Resolute Books in late August. You can find out more about Sheelagh here