Readers Are Your Friends
Yesterday, I had a fairly large speaking engagement--I would guess 70 people for wine and cheese and a book signing at a local golf club. Surprisingly, since I don't like public speaking, I didn't throw up, didn't put them all to sleep, and the whole thing went rather well--at least for me. Hopefully they all felt the same. If not, hopefully they all enjoyed their wine and cheese. Oh, and there were pastries . . . so that was a bonus.
However, prior to my speaking engagement, while freaking out at home, my father told me, "The trick to public speaking . . . ."
And I assumed he was going to tell me "is to picture your audience naked." Which I have never understood. Why would talking to nudists make it any easier--yet people routinely give this advice.
But my father surprised me. "The trick to public speaking is to imagine that everyone in the room is your FRIEND. You're just hanging out with friends talking."
"But I don't HAVE 70 friends."
To which my dad thought I was being difficult.
BUT, while I was there yesterday, it was surprisingly easy to picture them all as friends. The gathering was large, yet intimate. It was a lot of fun. (Again, at least for me. Maybe they all were simply plied with wine.)
Which got me thinking . . . when I write, I never picture readers as real people. It's only at signing events that I ever stop to think that real people read my books. Fan mail does that, too, I suppose. And reader emails, of which I get quite a bit. But even that is somewhat faceless with the anonymity of cyberspace.
So when you write, do you picture a room full of friends? Your critique partner? Readers browsing a bookstore? A single solitary reader? Yourself? No one? I'd love to know . . .
However, prior to my speaking engagement, while freaking out at home, my father told me, "The trick to public speaking . . . ."
And I assumed he was going to tell me "is to picture your audience naked." Which I have never understood. Why would talking to nudists make it any easier--yet people routinely give this advice.
But my father surprised me. "The trick to public speaking is to imagine that everyone in the room is your FRIEND. You're just hanging out with friends talking."
"But I don't HAVE 70 friends."
To which my dad thought I was being difficult.
BUT, while I was there yesterday, it was surprisingly easy to picture them all as friends. The gathering was large, yet intimate. It was a lot of fun. (Again, at least for me. Maybe they all were simply plied with wine.)
Which got me thinking . . . when I write, I never picture readers as real people. It's only at signing events that I ever stop to think that real people read my books. Fan mail does that, too, I suppose. And reader emails, of which I get quite a bit. But even that is somewhat faceless with the anonymity of cyberspace.
So when you write, do you picture a room full of friends? Your critique partner? Readers browsing a bookstore? A single solitary reader? Yourself? No one? I'd love to know . . .
Labels: booksigning, readers
posted by Erica Orloff at 7:08 AM
8 Comments:
I'm sure the audience was sober and enjoyed your talk very much!
Public speaking. :0...It seems completely unreal to me now, but when I was in the 8th grade I won a province-wide competition. Can't remember the speech it had something to do with dogs and super highways made of toilet paper...anyhow, the point is, at EVERY stage of the comp. I puked and swore I'd NEVER do it again. And I couldn't do it again to save my life.
I prefer to picture no one when I write. Not sure why. I do hope to have an audience someday???
Just haven't come to terms with the fact that in order to gain readership someone might have to actually read my stuff!
p.s the girl got an A+ on her novel study of The Poker Diaries!!!
I think of my readers after I finish each draft.I imagine how they'll react to some of the scenes that stick out in their minds. If anything, I hope my stories bring some joy, maybe even a chuckle or two.
Congrats on the event!
Mary
Hi Lainey:
The torture I put myself through . . . I'm the same way. Swear I'll never do it again. And yet . . . I usually have a good time once I'm underway.
E
P.S. YAY on the A+
mary:
I think of my readers afterward--when it's "real" and in the bookstore. Until then, it's all internal for me.
E
Erica,
This blog gave me an epiphany. I write for a newspaper and I am always writing for the critic. I always think of the things people are going to hate about it! Yikes, what a terrible revelation!
I'll definitely have to start thinking of them as my friends.
Thanks,
K
Hi Kelly:
It's definitely much more pleasant to think of the audience as friends. But you know, this can be a terribly negative culture. I've blogged before about friends who have gotten ripped up by Amazon reviews--horrible, personally attacking ones. We're a nation of bloggers--some very negative, too. So it's easy to feel that unless you achieve perfection, you're going to write something people hate. But the truth is no one could ever write something that pleased every single person. So much better to write for the friendly ones.
E
"Someone--I can't remember who, for the life of me--once wrote that all novels are really letters written to one person. As it happens, I believe this. I think that every novelist has a single ideal reader; that at various points during the composition of a story, the writer is thinking, 'I wonder what he/she will think when he/she reads this part?'"
--Stephen King
I think Steve's right. I think we all have an Ideal Reader, whether we're consciously aware of it or not.
Jude:
I can honestly say unless that reader is me, I don't think I have one. I just very much get lost in my books myself.
E
P.S. But a very interesting quote and food for thought.
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