For instance, a woman and a man are easier to distinguish than two women. (This will vary, obviously.) Within that cast, it will be easier if your characters are disparate in terms of type. Unless you’re Mel Blanc, four characters, including narrator, is probably your safe upper end. The more characters you have, and the narrator counts as one, the harder it will be to vocally distinguish between them. Primarily you’re looking for a small cast of characters. When you pick a story or an excerpt from a novel, make certain that it is something that is suitable for being read aloud and fits your voice. The first place to start is with your selection.
But what about going to the next level? How do you make your reading exceptional?
So that’s how to avoid the biggest pitfalls of reading. Use the same animation and pacing that you would use when relating a spoken story when you are reading a written one. The way you tell as story to friends about an incident in your daily life is probably totally different from how you read. When you are reading a story aloud, you are a story teller. Remember that the written word was created to record spoken language. They will, despite their best intentions, lose focus on what you are saying.Īgain, trust your body because it knows what to do. Droning or speaking in a monotone, sends a signal to the brain of the listener that this is a sound without information. One of those is tuning out sounds once we’ve identified them as not a threat.
Humans are animals and as such there are certain things we’re hardwired to do. When you get into performance, you will speed up whether you want to or not. I’ll warn you, that it will feel like you are speaking about half the speed you think you should. It’s easy to figure out how fast that is by taking a cutting that’s 150 words and timing yourself. You need to speak slowly enough that they can understand you.Īn ideal speed is about150 words per minute. Unlike printed stories, they can’t ask you to stop and repeat yourself. This is the first time the listener has heard your words. That’s because they are behind you thinking, “This is the twistiest road in the world! I’m going to die!” A year later, a friend follows you home and they are driving so slow. The first time you drive to it, you think, “This is the twistiest road in the world! I’m going to die!” And then gradually, you get used to it. The analogy that I use is this: Imagine that you’ve got a mountain cabin. The problem is that for the listener, this is the first time they’ve heard the story. Many readers go so fast that their words become jumbled together. If you are loud enough, you should hear a slight bounce as your voice hits the back wall and returns to you. Speak to the back wall of your space, not to the front row. Now say, “Hello! How are you?” Your body will automatically make all the adjustments necessary for your voice to carry across the street. Step outside with a friend and have them walk to the opposite side of the yard or street. The trap that people fall into is that they talk to the person closest to them, the front row. Fortunately, your body knows how to be loud. You can’t rely on every venue having a microphone or good acoustics. Let’s start by identifying the three pitfalls that most new readers fall into. Short of a background in theater, how can authors improve their reading skills? At the same time, a really good reading can make an audience excited and drive sales. There are few things that can destroy a good story faster than a bad reading. SFWA Middle Grade and Young Adult Writers.Operating Policies and Procedures (OPPM).