Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Promote Your Writing: 4 Tips for Public Readings


This article includes tips that will help you read your work like a pro. Public readings are a great way to increase your following, boost your profile among other writers, and in some cases attract an agent. Two years ago, as an unpublished fiction writer, I read with a group of novelists. After my reading, an agent approached me. Of the five readers that night, I was the only one who had memorized and acted out his work. (Once I finish my novel, I will send it to the agent.)

<editors note: most of these tips were originally developed by professional actor and live-performance coach, Michael Mack. He is directing me in my one-man show, "The Chronic Single's Handbook.">

1) Buy a Mic and Stand and Practice at Home

 

Pros handle the mic, like, well, pros. Amateurs handle the mic like they're afraid of it, like it might bite. You want to be able to adjust mic height and remove the mic from the stand without having to enlist the host or audio technician. You want grab the mic with authority, like you've done this thousands of time before. 

If you are reading multiple scenes, you can let the audience know that there's a change coming by either adusting the mic or -- better yet -- removing it from the stand. (This works best when you've memorized your piece -- see tip #4 below.)

I went to a local music store in Boston and bought a cheap mic, stand, and clip for holding the mic on the stand for $42. Before a reading, I set it up in my living room and practice adjusting the height, moving it around like a rock star, and removing and replacing the mic on the stand.

Here's what I bought (before sales tax)
- Cheap stand: Ultra Stand 6521bbk ($20)
- a $4 mic holder that affixes mic to top of stand. (no need to mention brand, just make sure it's the right size.

2) Use Props

 You don't need a trapeze or a flame-thrower, simple stick drawing or other household objects will do. For one of my pieces, the narrator is discussing a spreadsheet he keeps that lists his past girlfriends. When I reach that section of the story, I pull out an Excel page I created on my computer. As I'm reading, I point to the spreadsheet. The audience probably can't see the spreadsheet, but just the act of pulling it out always gets a laugh. (I always keep it in the same pocket -- my front left pocket.)
Here's a video of me performing the piece -- I take out the spreadsheet at around the 1-minute mark)



In another section, that same narrator is offering different theories on why he's still single. During this passage, I put on a pair of nerdy glasses and show the audience child-like, stick-figure drawings to illustrate the author's different theories: The Fish Theory (a drawing of a fish with a frowny face) and The Valency Theory (a simple drawing of a molecule.)

3) Use Gestures and Voices for Scenes with Multiple Characters

 

Scenes and pieces in which two people are talking can be great for wowing an audience. Just be sure the audience is clear when each character is talking. Some tips for differentiating characters:
- Turn your head one way when one character speaks and the other when the other character speaks. Face forward when offering background or narration.
- Stay on the mic: even when you turn to face different directions, make sure your mouth is within four to six inches of the mic.
- Use different voices: most people can do a Southern accent, Northern accent, and a woman's voice/man's voice -- that's four different characters already.
- Put attributions and dialog tags at the beginning of changes of dialog so the audience know who is talking.

4) Memorize Your Work

 

This is the best way to stand out from the other readers. With poetry and comedy, performers memorize their work. For some reason, authors reading prose generally read from the page, which can be boring.

Also, if you memorize your piece, you can perform with the mic in hand without the stand. Nothing is more impressive that taking the mic out of the stand -- going bareback -- and moving the stand off to the side or behind you before you start your performance. This move let's the audience know something special is about to happen.

Tips for memorizing:

- Memorize a short segment. You don't need to memorize your entire reading: One three to five-minute section or scene is enough to impress.
- Start practicing a month before the reading. (That is more than enough time.)
- Read the story or passage you want to memorize several times from the page, out loud. Then try to do as much as you can from memory. (After a few tries, I can typically remember the first few paragraphs of a new piece. Remember: you wrote the piece, you know the story.)
- Try to memorize one-page a day. (You don't need to have it down perfect -- you just need to have enough in your head to practice. A double-space page is a little more than a minute of reading.)
- Memorize the plot: first he goes to the bar, the girl approaches him, they dance, he attempts to nibble on her ear, she slaps his face...
- Practice twice a day. Practice sessions can be as short as ten minutes. Practice while waiting for the bus, while in the shower, before meeting with your parole officer.
- Once you have the piece more or less memorized, hard-wire it into your memory by performing it as fast as you can without stopping, ignoring any errors -- just get to the end as fast as possible. This is a good way to eliminate pauses and show you where you still need work.
- Use gestures. The more you practice, the more you'll embed certain sections into muscle memory. You're body will know that when you raise your hand, that's the beginning of section X or section Y.
- Fear is good. If you're like me, you will be terrified. Before your performance, you'll be asking yourself, why do I do this to myself. Just let your mind go -- you've done all you can do, you just have to count on the material being there when you get on stage -- it will be there.
- While performing: If you forget a line or a passage, just keep going. The audience won't know. I recently performed a piece and, when I got a passage, I just blanked and couldn't remember the next section. As I stood on stage rooting around in my mind for the section, I said out loud: "Give me a second, it's in there somewhere." I just never remembered the section and moved onto the next section I could remember. After my performance, people still complimented me. Some asked me if I was an actor.

More Self-Promotion Tips for Writers


Includes two videos of me reading. In one performance at a story slam, I'm so terrified, my hand flops around like it wants to run off he stage and hide. The audience didn't care or didn't notice or gave me their sympathy vote -- whatever, I won the slam.


I consult a small business counselor specializing in helping artists earn a living. His advice is sobering, but useful.

 

Original Naughty Humor from My New Site: ChronicSingle.com

 


 

Art attribution: Microphone photo

By MARCUS NUNES [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 

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Monday, April 8, 2013

More Quick, DirtyTwitter Tips for Writers: Tweeting Tricks






Here's a handful of tools that can save time posting to Twitter. These free programs let you preschedule Tweets and automatically add your Facebook, blog, and Linked In posts to Twitter. I've also included a freebie that adds links for your blog and social media pages to your e-mail.

Executive Summary


For those in a hurry, here's the list of the tools:
- Hootsuite for prescheduling posts. (I schedule a week at a time)
- Hootlet, a free Hootsuite tool that makes it easy to capture Web pages you want to post to Twitter, as well as Facebook, Linked In and social media groups you follow.
- Tweetdeck automatically posts your latest blogs to Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In. (There are some notable gotchas, noted later in this blog.)
- Linked In and Facebook include tweaks that will automatically post your activities to Twitter.
WiseStamp enhances your emails with a signature that can include  icons and links to your social media profiles. The tool has recently added some slick enhancements.
- The end of this blog has some additional Tweeting tips.



More Detail

Preschedule Tweets with Hootsuite and Hootlet


Hootsuite allows you preschedule posts to Twitter, as well as to your other social media profiles and groups, including those on Linked In and Facebook. (I apologize if I sound like a shill for this product. I use it and can recommend it. Other people use Tweetdeck, which has made some concerning announcements, and other Twitter automation tools.)

How the Hootsuite Scheduler Works In Three Steps

Create your Tweet. Here, I'm planning to promote a link from my blog. I want to schedule it for Thursday at 11:25 p.m..



Then, I choose where I want to promote the link. My options, which I previously set up in Hootsuite, include my two Twitter profiles, as well as some groups I've joined on Linked In. (The free version of Hootsuite limits you to five options.)


Hootsuite also includes a calendar where you can view scheduled Tweets and posts.




Hootlet, a free tool included with Hootsuite, lets you quickly share interesting Web pages and links with your followers. When I come to a Web page I want to share, I click on the Hootlet bookmark I created and it captures the link. Here are the basic steps for using this tool:


Hootlet is listed under Hootsuite's tools button. I installed it and then bookmarked it. When I see a Web page I want to share, I click the button on my bookmark menu bar. (top red-highlight).



Once I click Hootlet, it captures and shortens the link for easy posting to Twitter and elsewhere.


Automatically Share Posts from a Blog, Facebook, and Linked In to Twitter

Twitterfeed: Share Your Blog Posts


 This freebie automatically forwards your blog posts to Linked In, Twitter, and/or Facebook. It's straight-forward and easy to set up.

Twitter has three simple steps and allows you to automatically share blog posts to Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In.


After adding your blog address, Twitterfeed lets you add social media for automatic posting.


Notes and Gotchas: Twitterfeed will grab your headline, description, and a piece of art and create a post for Linked In and Facebook. You are relying on Twitterfeed to decide how your post will look best -- the program may truncates text or do other weird stuff. For Twitter, I don't really care because I will post the same link multiple times with different headlines. Also, Twitter followers may be more accepting of text slop. But my Facebook Fan page is too important to risk a weird, computer-generated post. So, in the Feed Publishing screenshot above, I had NOT clicked the Facebook box. For my Facebook Fan page, I post my blog manually and write a custom description.



Automated posts can turn into a bit of a mess with Twitterfeed. It's probably fine for Twitter, but you may not want this type of slop to appear on Linked In or a Facebook Fan page.


 Share Facebook and Linked In Posts to Twitter


Twitter for Linked In

Once you add your Twitter handle to your Linked In profile, you'll have the option to have your updates automatically posted to your Twitter account. Again, this is an automated process that truncates your post, but provides a link. Sometimes, comments you make to Linked In groups will also appear on Twitter. This helps provide a stead stream of content for your Twitter feed.



Adding your Twitter handle to Linked In lets you post truncated versions of your post to Twitter.



Twitter for Facebook    

This tool is pretty straightforward. This link provides the details.


Other Tweeting Tips



- Don't just post links: Include some full statements or comments or musings that don't need links. I post statistics, one-line jokes, etc. Posting photos and videos is another good way to mix things up.

- Leave 15 or so characters at the end of Tweets, so people can retweet your tweet without cutting off text. (instead of using all 140 characters, consider using only 125.)

- Don't use too many hashtags -- three is a good limit -- in one tweet or it will look like gobbledy gook.

- Repost your own tweets. Post one at 9:00 a.m. one week and at 5 p.m. the next. You never know when people will be checking Twitter. By experimenting, you can find out which times are most effective. I've read that immediately before and after work are best times. I have no data to back up that claim.


E-Mail Freebie: Include Your Web Sites and Social Media Profiles in Messages


WiseStamp lets you add a fancy signature to your e-mail messages. I've been using it with Yahoo! Mail for over a year and haven't had any problems. Also, they recently added the capability to include a Like button for your Facebook Fan Page.

The WiseStamp interface is relatively straight foward and allows you to add icons and links for blogs and your social media profiles to e-mail messagess.



WiseStamp adds a signature with links and icons to the bottom of your e-mails.




More Social Media Tips

Quick and Dirty Facebook Tricks for Writers


Linked In Tips for Writers


Just for Fun

Chronically Single? You've Got Company (a recent comedy performance promoting my novel and one-man show.)

How One Group of Writer's is Making Living


Art attribution: Twitter image by Twitter_logo_initial.svg:en:User:GageSkidmore, modified by User:Cproderivative work: Zapyon (Twitter_logo_initial.svg) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

 

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