Once more - with feeling!
Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 9:29PM Word count: 329 Reading time: 2-3 mins
Austra
lian author P.L. Travers said, “A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.” She learned so much that her Mary Poppins book series has realized every author’s dream: it thrives long after her death.
World Read Aloud Day came and went this week and I wondered how many writers were even aware of it. [I wasn’t until today.] Its primary focus is global literacy and surely that is important to writers. Who are we without readers? Who are we without listeners?
Reading aloud lets writers pick up weasel-words that sneak in and repeat themselves monotonously. It lets us hear the flow. It’s difficult at first so when we sit down in writing groups and stumble through our stories and poems, we hope our listeners are forgiving. A reasonable expectation for emerging writers.
What about readings by professional writers? Surely they work to a higher standard. On our epic Outback adventure a few years ago, my husband and I took along Bill Bryson reading his book Down Under. His wry style enlivened hundreds of miles of long dusty roads. When Angie Abdou read at the Vancouver International Writers’ Festival last October her quarrelling characters sprang to life around her.
But I’ve also squirmed through sessions where it sounded like the writer was seeing the words for the first time. One writer in particular turned her head to the page and obscured any view of her face with a broad-brimmed hat. She didn’t lift her eyes once as she mumbled her way through pages of prose. Shouldn’t writing professionals polish their reading before they step in front of a mic? After all, a writer is only half the performance, the other half is the audience.
Have you read your work aloud recently? Did you discover things in it that you hadn’t seen before? Have you heard a writer bring their work to life with a spirited reading?
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Photo: somethingway
Reader Comments (12)
This is something I need to do more of! It's a bit awkward though. Love the photo choice this week.
I use a voice recorder sometimes but I'm not fond of the sound of my own voice. Still it amazes me what I pick up when I read aloud. It's worth the effort.
Maggie
So great to read you here Maggie! How is Dust coming? I agree, reading aloud allows me to hear the cadence, rhythm, and authenticity.
Hi Cathy, nice to hear from you! Your question is timely; after a year working on another novel, I took Dust out of cold storage this week and have started working on it again. I think I’ve finally found the true beginning of the novel, with some help from marvellous editor Jessica Klassen.
How is One Thousand Tricks progressing?
Maggie
So true. Most authors/writers I've met are very uncomfortable reading in public. Reading aloud in private is a great way to catch errors, mistakes and clunky language, and for the stage-frightened writer it helps in becoming comfortable reading his/her own work. It's a real treat for readers to hear a good reading -- in fact, I think it's a vastly underappreciated way to pick up new readers!
Thanks, Maggie! This means a lot since I very clearly remember a time when reading aloud in public terrified me. I'm working on a new novel now and am paying more attention to reading-aloud as part of the writing process. Wouldn't it be great if every scene of a novel could be worth reading aloud? Impossible?
Did you hear Marina Endicott read at Vancouver International Writers Festival? When it comes to that kind of performance, Marina is my favourite. I could listen to her read a whole novel aloud. Her training in drama shows.
Thanks again for including me in this great post.
Thank you for commenting, David Jón Fuller!
One writer whose performances set the standard for me is Ivan Coyote. What a treat.
I’m looking forward to your blog: How to Revise and Rewrite a Novel Until You Want to Scrape Your Eyeballs Out. I'm at the eyeball scraping stage now. Perhaps you could hurry?
Hi Angie – I’m thrilled you dropped by. Writers have a lot of jobs these days, don’t they? Write, publicize, tweet, blog, mentor, teach, and perform. What have I missed? I guess the reading aloud requirement has always been there but I suspect earlier audiences had less of a microwave attention span.
I missed Marina Endicott but I’ll look for her in the future.
BTW my husband, who rarely reads fiction other than mine, is loving The Canterbury Trail. It’s a rollicking good read!
Hey Maggie: Ivan Coyote is one of the best at this. I also got to hear Mordecai Richler reading from Barney's Version prior to his passing -- he was a pro.
I once led a workshop in this, so I have an axe to grind. One of the worst things, IMHO, is when writers uses a big chunk of their time doing anything other than read: yak about themselves (for more than 15 seconds), explain why they wrote what they plan to read, providing laborious setup for the excerpt, or, worst, going into completely off-topic rant while the audience waits to hear them read.
As for that eyeball-scraping post... oooohhhh this has been a long time gestating. With luck it will be up this week. Torn between making actual progress on my WIP and making snide remarks at my own lack thereof. :) I will probably attempt both.
Hello David Jón – You heard Mordecai Richler read Barney’s Version? You lucky dog! That is my all-time favourite of his.
I’m naturally curious about how other writers incubate their ideas, which is an excellent reason to visit their blogs and websites. But when I have the chance to see them in person, mostly I want to hear them read, to hear the voices they heard when they captured the magic.
Ivan Coyote gives that to her audience and more. I have one of her audio books / performance CD's just so I can indulge myself with her voice whenever the mood strikes.
BTW, I finally finished that blog post... you gave me that kick in the pants needed to get 'er done.
Always happy to help, David Jón.
I read it. Loved it. Tweeted it!
Thanks for the encouragement, intended or otherwise.