Tips for Reading Your Work to an Audience

This weekend I'll be reading at a poetry open mic in my town. As I prepare the poems I'm going to read, I though I'd share with you a few snippets of important info to keep in mind when you do a poetry reading aloud to an audience.


1. Slow Down: It's easy to get caught up in the adrenaline of the moment and race through your poem or short story. But remember, the crowd is gathered to hear your work. They want to be able to absorb and contemplate the beginning, middle, end, and every piece of metaphor and imagery you toss their way. If you speed through your poem, they won't be able to appreciate what you've created. So, take a deep breath and read slowly. You will undoubtedly think that you're reading much too slow for anyone to stay interested. Trust me, this is the correct speed.

2. Make Eye Contact: There's nothing that says amateur like reading your poem, line for line, without ever once making eye contact with the assembled crowd. Not only does it seem awkward, but it bars your listeners from making a connection with you, which means they won't feel connected to your poetry either.

3. Find Your Rhythm: Much like musicians, writers spend hours deciphering the mood of a poem. Read your poetry out loud. Find the correct cadence for each piece (which will be dictated by whether the work is serious, humorous, narrative, lyrical, or a combination of two or more styles). You can even write notes in the margins of your poem to remind yourself when to pause, speed up, and change your tone of voice.


Ready for your own poetry reading? Do a little homework by watching famous poets read their work aloud. Many are readily available on YouTube. Here are a few of my favorites:

Check out Billy Collins reading four poems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTxpQCY7df8&nohtml5=False

And if you're into slam poetry, this one by Lily Myers is amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQucWXWXp3k&nohtml5=False


Above it all, though, just relax. The people gathered there do indeed want to hear your point of view and your ideas. Stay confident, stick to what you practiced and the performance will be over before you know it!

Why We Write (AKA An Explanation for Non-Writers with Questions)

It's been a busy week for me: meeting new people, explaining that I'm a writer, trying to answer their questions when they ask what I write.

Sure, it's easy enough to tell someone about your current project, but if you're like me and you write in a variety of genres (novels, short stories, poetry, nonfiction) and also for a variety of readers (children, teens, adults), chances are the questions get deeper, especially when you're talking to a non-writer.

So how do you explain to others exactly what you write without going into a twenty minute long explanation of all you can do?

I've found a simple way to do just that. Now, it won't stop questions from the most determined person, but it seems to be an alright explanation for most people.

Why We Write:

We write to describe something new and unusual in a simple and attainable way. Or, to describe something simple and commonplace in a new and unusual way.

What exactly does this mean?

It's easiest to explain with poems. Have you ever written or read a beautiful poem about washing the dishes or dusting the TV set that made you in awe of how someone could describe something so everyday in a beautiful way that made you never look at dishes or dusting the same way? I have. That's describing something commonplace in a new way. And it's definitely needed.

On the flip side, there are situations that are unique to a subset of our population that not all of us experience in our lives. Genre fiction, like fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery are great examples of this. Fantasy writers have to introduce you to the characters of their world and the rules of their setting. This is something none of us have ever experienced before, since the author is setting up the world from scratch. However, they must do their writing in a way that makes even the most outlandish idea possible for readers to understand. In that way, they explain something new and unusual in a simple way so we don't get lost. And it's definitely needed.

So, the next time you find yourself, drink in hand, speaking with someone about what you do, feel free to use this explanation to help people understand your drive to write.



[Special Note: I'm not sure if this idea came from a famous writing quote or from a previous professor of mine. However, if you ever find the origination of this idea out there on the internet, link me in. I'm sure whomever described it first did a better job than I, and I'd love to see that!]

Market: Ekphrastic Challenge - Rattle Magazine

Many of you know I am an artist as well as a writer. In fact, many pieces of writing inspire me to create art and many pieces of art inspire me to write a short story or poem.

If you find yourself in the same boat, may I suggest a relatively new market from Rattle, a poetry magazine.

If you go here you can read the guidelines for their monthly Ekphrastic Challenge.

Basically, each month they post a new image of photography or artwork and ask poets to craft poems that are inspired by them. The artist picks their favorite and it is published, and an editor also picks their favorite and it is published.

It's also a fantastic writing prompt to get your muse going on a sluggish creative day.

So, head over to Rattle poetry and see if this month's image inspires your writer brain. If you happen to get a poem out of it, why not submit?

What You Find in the Trunk

**Please note: I will be posting on Tuesdays now due to a new work schedule. Thanks for understanding in advance!**


Place: My garage, more specifically, inside my Honda CRV which is parked in the garage.
Time: Early. After I've eaten some granola but before a shower. Probably 8:00 am on Labor Day morning.
Climate: 52 degrees, raining, with an icy wind gusting through the open door.


I decided to spend my extra day off cleaning out my car, which hasn't been cleaned in a little over a year due to college demands. Within the first few minutes of tossing receipts and deflated straw wrappers out the door, I discover a pair of blue gloves in the passenger side door. They are knit and have silver patches over the thumb and index finger to keep warm while texting. I unball them and slip them on. I don't remember ever owning a pair of gloves like this. In fact, I'm pretty sure they aren't mine at all. It's cold enough this holiday to wear the gloves while I work. I clean the front seats, the back seats, and then open the hatch. The rain spatters onto it so I try to move quickly. I'm emptying it out so I can vacuum away the little leaves and bug carcasses when I find a pair of black socks. Like the gloves, they are neatly balled. After removing my ice scraper, I find another pair of identical socks, also balled. I know these socks are mine and I suspect they got loose in the move. I stuff the socks into the pockets of my sweatshirt and keep cleaning.

End Scene.

***

Much like my car-cleaning experience, I recently rediscovered a poem I wrote almost two years ago. Like the gloves, I found little gems I didn't remember writing, but that I found to be pretty good lines or ideas. I kept them.

But I also found lines or ideas that were out of place - like the socks. I found myself asking, why is this line here? Can I cut it? What does this scene do to my narrative? Can I cut it?

The socks didn't belong in my trunk. They went rogue in a move and I forgot about them. The lines of poetry had the same syndrome. During my first draft (and second draft) I either didn't see them as problems, or had read the poem so many times, I didn't see them at all. They popped out of my mind like my socks popped out of their suitcase. And just like my car cleaning, they needed to be cleansed from my poem.

This is the beauty of letting a piece sit for awhile before you go back and revise/reedit it. The time apart can force you to look at it in a new light, just like a reader who finds it in a magazine or online. Gone is the sense of creation and instead you can focus on what the piece needs to be truly brilliant. Does this mean you may miss a submission deadline for a contest or literary magazine? Yes. But don't you want to submit your best work? If you don't give the piece some space and some time apart, you will never be able to see it anew. You could be missing the black socks against the black upholstery of the trunk. In most cases, you will be rejected because the editors can definitely see the socks. If you are accepted, though, and you reread the poem a few years after publication. I'm sure you'll see the socks too. It will drive you crazy.

So, make sure you take your time. Don't rush into submission or queries. Do what is best for you, your writing, and your career and take a step back. Let the piece breathe. Revisit in a month or a year and do your cleaning.   

Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective - Reading

I have intriguing news for all who live near the South Eastern part of Wisconsin. I have been invited to represent my college at the Annual Student Invitational tomorrow, March 19th.

The Student Invitational has been conducted the past eight years by the Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective. They invite regional colleges to nominate students for a reading. There will be one poet, one fiction writer, and one nonfiction writer from each.

I have the great honor of representing my college in the fiction section, where I will be reading a short story.

If you want to come out and hear me read, here are the details:


Eighth Annual Student Invitational Reading
Tuesday March 19th
beginning promptly at 7pm
at the Riverwalk Art Center
downtown Fond du Lac, WI


After the featured readers there is also an open mic segment. So if you've been working on a poem, here's an opportunity to read it amongst other writers.

Every second Tuesday of the month, the Collective does other readings and events as well - all in Fond du Lac. So if you can't make it tomorrow, but want to check out the other events, go here.