Photo by Cara Lopez Lee A few nights ago, for the first time, I stepped in front of an audience of more than a hundred, without book, paper, or index card in hand, without a memorized song, dance, or play in my head. Just the mic and me. The place was in Los Angeles. The theme was Heat . The event was StorySlam. An organization called The Moth puts on these competitive events all over the country. The premise is: “True Stories Told Live”… no notes. Are you kidding?! When I first heard of StorySlam it sounded petrifying. I didn’t even want to watch. Why? It might be like watching amateur trapeze artists perform without a net: could be beautiful, could be painful. Then I started taking long drives to visit my sister, and on the way back I listened to The Moth Radio Hour on NPR. These storytellers mesmerize. Each spends 10 to 15 minutes revealing their most frightening, embarrassing, grief-stricken, weird, dysfunctional moments. Their stories are inspiring, hilarious,...

It's that time of month again for What's Your Answer . Today's questions are based on The Blood-Red Pencil's topic for October, which is Fear . It's easy to participate. I'll present three questions and my answers. You can answer one or more of them. One answer means you get more room to expand on your answer. For more than one, please limit your space for each. Only one website or blog link, please. My questions and answers are: Q: When you start a book, are you afraid your inspiration will vanish and you'll never make it to that last page? A:  Yes. I usually have an idea how a book will begin and how it will end, but I need to count on my imagination and perseverance to fill in the blanks. I've never written an entire book while in the flow, but wish I could. At times I have to force my mind to think plots through, and ask myself if what I've written makes sense. Q: After you've finished a manuscript and it's about to be relea...

So far in this Public Speaking for Authors series, we’ve covered Organizing Your Talk , Practicing Your Talk and Preparing for a Reading . Now it’s time to actually give the talk. You’ve done your preparatory work. You decided what to speak on and the points you want to cover. If you’ll be doing a reading, you’ve brought your book with the marked pages. You’ve put your talking points or keywords on note cards or a single piece of paper. You’ve practiced and timed your talk. Now, the day has arrived. It’s time to actually talk to an audience. 1. Dress comfortably. Look nice, but you don’t have to wear high heels or, for men, a suit, unless you’re comfortable in them. One time I was emceeing an awards event. When I got to the venue and saw the stage with its stairs, I did a U-turn, went back to my car, and changed my heels for flats. Very, very glad I did. 2. Get to the venue early. If it’s at a bookstore, introduce yourself to the CRM or booksellers. Thank them for hosting the even...

Welcome to Part 3 of Public Speaking for Authors. We started with Organizing Your Talk , then moved to Practicing Your Talk . Today, we discuss doing the prep work for a reading. Sometimes you’re asked to do a reading, either as part of a talk or as strictly a reading. Even though you know your book - you wrote it, after all - you still need to practice. 1. Find out how much time you’ll have for the reading. Deduct time for someone to introduce you - or for you to introduce yourself. Deduct time for questions and answers. Now, you have an idea of how much time you’ll have for the actual reading. 2. Choose a passage from your book that’s appropriate for the expected audience. If it’s an open audience or children might be there, choose something G-rated. I remember an author reading from a book as part of a Writers’ League event. He was hooked up to a microphone in an open space at Barnes & Noble, our host for the night. Everything was going fine until he got to a tense part of th...

In the first part of this Public Speaking for Authors series, we covered Organizing Your Talk . Now that you’ve made your notes and have decided on the points you want to cover and have tied it all together, you’re ready to start practicing. Remember, don’t write out your talk. Or, if you absolutely must write it out, then now’s the time to set it aside and work from your notes. 1. Sometimes, instead of giving a talk, you’re simply doing a reading. You probably won’t need notes for that, but practice what you’ll say about yourself (in case there’s no one there to introduce you) and what you might say about your book. Be sure you bring a copy of your book with you, with the pages marked that you’re going to read - the starting point to the ending point. 2. If you are giving a talk, you still need to know what you’ll say to introduce yourself and your book - even if someone is supposed to introduce you. You never know what might happen to delay that person. So be prepared. 3. Now tha...

We spend hour after hour, day after day, month after month, in front of a computer, writing. For the most part, that’s what authors do. We write. Then we get published. And realize we also have to speak … alone, in front of the room. With people looking at us … waiting to be entertained … hoping we’ll tell them the secret to finding an agent or getting published … or expecting us to enthrall them with a plot that will make them happily open their wallets. When what we most want to do is hide in our offices and write. But we have to sell the book - and to sell the book, we have to speak. The good news is: To speak we have to write. We can do that. We’re writers. Preparing for a speech or talk is not the same as writing a book or story, though. 1. You’re not going to write the speech out. If you do, then you’re likely to try to take the written speech to the podium and read it. Reading is for excerpts from your book. 2. If you’re doing a book tour that takes you from city to city, y...