Thread: Live reading

I have been asked to do a live reading at my next appearance which happens to be in a pub. My fear of course is that my mouth will become filled with marbles and I will stutter whilst reading my own book. My mentor suggests I do it and my better half has even upped the ante and suggests I do a video taped reading and post it on Youtube.

Today I did a bit of rehearsing with only the dog as an audience. As my live appearance wont be until the 27th of October, I think I may take a kick at a video version to see how it looks. Maybe do two or three excerpts.

Anyone ever done this. Pointers, suggestions, exit strategies?

I wouldn't want to read mine live either. If this ever happens to me I'm going to have someone else read it for me while I sit there next to them or just not do it. I'm a writer, NOT a public speaker. I wouldn't mind sitting there answering questions or discussing it, but I have real issues reading aloud. I don't think we should be forced to do this as writers.

Do you have to do it? Can you bring someone to read it for you who is better with the spoken word?

No I don't have to do it, but grudgingly I think I should. I have some background in public speaking and have addressed approximately 500 people in that regard on more than a few occasions, but reading my own book will be different from that as I will be ever aware that any stumbling on my part may reflect on the piece I am reading aloud.

If I can hit the right tone and draw in an audience it may well be an excellent way to promote the work. As I said my wife suggests I do a video reading as well and use it to promote myself. That will be a far more controlled situation in that I can edit it and set it up comfortably. I may just do the video and see how it looks.

Don't count yourself out starseed, you may find that you are a better reader than you think.

Ah I see, you're ahead of me then. I was never good at public speaking in general, although I could probably do it. But I have a weird thing about reading aloud. It's very difficult for me, always has been. Maybe because I'm a very fast reader, and that, combined with nerves tends to make me begin reading faster than I can talk and I tend to start stumbling over words and my voice gets extremely shaky. That's with ANY reading aloud. For any audience, even times I've tried to read a little kid a book. :\ It's a pretty intense phobia, I probably should try to get over it at some point, but I think reading anything would be a challenge for me so to couple that with it being my own book, which I'd already be nervous about... that would floor me! lol

I suppose I could make myself do it if an agent were to demand so, if my career depended on it, but having someone like my boyfriend, who is an animated and confident public speaker and former teacher who's talked in front of large crowds of college students, would probably be a better bet for me.

I wish you luck though! I think doing it on youtube is a good start. Post the vid when you finish!

You are not reading "Your own book", you are reading a book - you are psyching yourself up to fail. Record yourself reading, listen carefully for how you are stressing certain parts and assess whether it is sounding the way you want to hear it. Doing this will also show you where you are stumbling, running out of breath, mumbling even; do this as many times as it takes. The number one rule of public reading is that without practice you will almost certainly be going to quickly, remember, you know what comes next the audience doesn't, so moderately paced AND SPEAK OUT. When I read at RADA I mentally took the old cowboy film attitude "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do..." and tried to divorce myself from the from the emotion of the situation (it was the first time I had stood on a stage and read one of my poems) - Don't imagine the audience naked, you never know, there may be some pulchritudinous young starlets hanging on your every word, and your attention might wander....

Haha yeah, I've always hated the "imagine them all naked" thing. How is standing in front of a large group of naked people who are all staring at you supposed to make you less nervous?

And even if someone else is a better reader, I'm always more interested in hearing it straight from the author. I saw Chuck Palahniuk speak/read once, and it was awesome. But if it was just some friend of his up there talking, I would not have cared in the slightest.

Presumably you're not a famous author yet, but I think the same idea applies.

From the pov of the reader who is listening, they want to know you better, want to see who you are, and so will listen. They will have patience, knowing that being in your place is not easy an if they don't, they are clowns. I would not have anyone else do it, but think practice is probably a very good idea. An author I have met, ends her talks basically when she has answered all questions, and then last time she had a drawing for a prize basket with books she'd signed. Then she signs her books for you. We even won the basket.
You've written a book and are sharing. People look up to that. You will do fine. And everyone starts somewhere. Practice in the real world will smooth the rough parts out eventually too.

Thanks Eluxia. I intend to do just that.

And Bloggs I have spent some time in front of an audience although I was a non commissioned officer at the time and the audience was made up mostly of subordinates who knew all to well that if they snickered they might find themselves in a world of hurt.

Originally Posted by j.w.olson

And even if someone else is a better reader, I'm always more interested in hearing it straight from the author. I saw Chuck Palahniuk speak/read once, and it was awesome. But if it was just some friend of his up there talking, I would not have cared in the slightest.

Presumably you're not a famous author yet, but I think the same idea applies.

True, and just the fact that people would gather to hear you speak is so flattering it pretty much counters the scariness of being asked to read. I could only hope people would take that much interest in my writing one day.

Hi MJ,

I was a College Lecturer for 10 years, I used video a lot as teaching though social learning, I had all of my courses available in the medium for the last three years I taught. Happy to pass on my experience(s), feedback courtesy from unruly 16-19 year olds!

Have your text visible to you, [or your reader], don't just read from your book. I quickly learn't to have the "live" video feed in one part of the computer screen, usually the bottom as my camera was built into the top. I would have the text just under the camera, so it gave the appearance of always looking directly into it. You can break that with glances down to your book, but you actually read from the screen. I am presuming that you don't have a teleprompter handy, though I do remember "How to's" online for creating a basic one if you so wish.

Choose your background carefully, neutral colour or static pictures are best. I used to use a lot of green screen, with video(s) playing in the background when I taught games programming. Stopped that idea when I found my students spent more time trying to guess the game running in said back ground, rather than listening to me!

Background music? Can add / highlight passages as you read?

Experiment with lighting. I used cheap clip-on spot lights attached to various bit of furniture, both high and low, boy was I popular at home! Satisfy yourself.

I used to inter-cut my speeches with images, videos etc, probably a little more difficult in your circumstances, but it was just something I learnt to keep the watchers watching! Maybe stills from your promo video or clips of the video itself.

Some of the less bizarre ideas from my students, yes I have filtered them!

Marquee banner running along the bottom of the screen so viewers can read along, a ticker-tape type banner. Not sure how you would achieve this, but its an idea that could well add something different.

If you really pushed for someone to read on your behalf, or you just don't want to do it yourself, have a look at the text to speech voices. Now the last time I did anything like this was about five years ago. The voice sounded a robot on speed, but I'm assured that advances have been made and now they sound a lot more human?? Advantages are that you can experiment with different backgrounds to emphasize passages etc. Disadvantages are that, I'm guessing here, you would loose the human emphasis on specific words, passages etc.

Get plenty of feedback / critiques from everyone outside of family.

Feel free to use some, none or all, just my experiences.

Please note that I was aiming at a specific group of 16 - 19 year olds, so bear that in mind.

Failing all of the above, a large dose of dutch courage! Mine was always brandy!

Well thats my two-penny worth, or should that be two-cents worth.

All the best with the book which ever direction you chose to take.

Thanks Dukane.

I will likely set up my digital video camera and pull a couple readings from the book then look them over for any mannerisms or difficulties. When I do the live reading it will be in a pub atmosphere, they have a private room, so I expect that will be a far more intimate. Doing a bit of live reading today, I noted that the further I got in the more comfortable I get. When I used to lecture I used to go through a similar two minute warm up as I got comfortable with myself and the audience.

I'll do some rehearsals over the next few weeks until I am comfortable, but it might be fun.

I'll stick to a couple of Ales to take the edge off.

Thanks again.

Mark

Originally Posted by starseed

I was never good at public speaking in general, although I could probably do it. But I have a weird thing about reading aloud. It's very difficult for me, always has been. Maybe because I'm a very fast reader, and that, combined with nerves tends to make me begin reading faster than I can talk and I tend to start stumbling over words and my voice gets extremely shaky. That's with ANY reading aloud. For any audience, even times I've tried to read a little kid a book. :\ It's a pretty intense phobia, I probably should try to get over it at some point, but I think reading anything would be a challenge for me so to couple that with it being my own book, which I'd already be nervous about... that would floor me! lol

I suppose I could make myself do it if an agent were to demand so, if my career depended on it, but having someone like my boyfriend, who is an animated and confident public speaker and former teacher who's talked in front of large crowds of college students, would probably be a better bet for me.

Starseed, here’s a way to overcome speaking nerves: count out a block of text of approx 150-160 words, find a timepiece with a second hand, and begin reciting. Ideally, it should take one minute. You may find you do it the first time in, I dunno, thirty seconds.

Now do it again, and again, and again, and look for ways to stretch it to the full minute – pauses for emphasis, pauses for what appear as natural breaks to draw breath, maybe simply enunciating individual words more slowly, that type of thing. Once you can take the full minute to recite your 150 or so words, just keep on practicing, with firstly the original text, and then as you become more confident, with different texts, on a regular basis.

Soon* you’ll find you’ve slowed yourself down permanently.

Good luck.



*Most behaviourists say it takes three weeks for any planned change to have a permanent effect. I guess it might depend on how often it's done.

I read some of mine to my friends and family. But it seems I do okay when reading out loud. What I find hard is just talking, shooting the breeze etc. If I have something specific to read I am ok. Practice in front of a mirror, and doing a youtube vid is a good idea.