“Am I the only one who finds literary readings boring? I usually avoided them. Then I had to go on book tour and tried not to bore people. I learned to think of myself as a performer rather than a reader.”
Here are some tips for writers who have to speak in front of audiences:
1. Do not be defensive and think that you are a writer and that writing is different from performing. I have seen poets who say that the words on the page are what matter and therefore they will read them with minimal interpretation. I invite them to do so in the privacy of their own rooms, because listening to them in public was painful (for me). …
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2. Perform from a script rather than just read your book. I also like to blow up my font to 16- or 18-point size to make the text easier to see.
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3. Make eye contact with your audience. Not just once or twice. Regularly. This will help keep the audience involved.
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4. Do not just read 20- to 40-minutes straight while never looking up from your book and speaking in a soft monotone. PLEASE.
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5. Consider reading just short excerpts and insert them into a story you are telling or a talk about some larger issue. Imagine what the larger story or talk is about
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If you’re lucky enough to get an auditorium, dim the lights to get your audience in the mood for a performance.
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8.
Dress up, whatever that means to you. A vintage outfit, a motorcycle jacket, a cowboy hat. T.C. Boyle looks like a punk rock statesman.
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9.
Consider visual aids. T.C. Boyle has the advantage of actual movies made from his work that he can show. For my initial tour of The Sympathizer, I had a friend make a three-minute highlight reel from American movies of the war in Viet Nam.
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10.
If you just cannot perform, consider having someone interview you.
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11.
Writing programs should teach their students how to perform. Just a one-unit course.
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12.
Last, bring energy to the room. Your energy level will be the room’s energy level, which comedians understand