Do you want to become more involved with Writers of Kern and your fellow writers? Want to find a welcoming place to read and share your work? Beginning Monday, October 5th WOK members are invited to participate in Open Mic Mondays over Zoom.
Open Mics offer a friendly environment of like-minded people for you to share your work with, but you are also welcome to just come and listen to others read.
You may be nervous about reading your work. You may even be thinking, Hey, I’m a writer, not a performer! Daunting or not, public speaking is an important skill for a successful writer. You want to be ready when your award-winning poems and short stories are published or your break-through novel or screenplay is optioned for a film.
So plan ahead for Open Mic Mondays with these steps:
- Choose your material. Search your files and find something that:
- Represents you and your writing well
- Lends itself to being read aloud
- Can be read in the allotted time
- Take time to prepare your material.
- Print out your selection. Double space. Use a 14pt. (or larger) font so you can see it easily. Number the pages, but do not staple them together.
- Read through aloud two or three times. Notice where you stumble, and notice where you want to emphasize or change your inflection. Highlight or use a BOLD font for those areas before you reprint the page.
- Check to see if you need to polish anything in your piece. Do you need to: add or delete a word or two? Rewrite a sentence for clarity?
- Rehearse.
- Read aloud to yourself. Read aloud to your mirror. Read aloud to your pet. Read aloud to another person.
- Record yourself reading aloud.
- Check your timing and cut where necessary.
- Show up on the first Monday of the month for Open Mic.
- Be sure to Register for the event each month.
- The flip side of nervousness is excitement. Feel the nervousness, but transform it into the energy you put into your reading.
- Be proud of yourself for taking this step in moving your writing career forward.
Writers of Kern is dedicated to assisting writers of all levels in meeting their writing goals, and we’re proud offer Open Mic Mondays for our members. You can go directly to the Eventbrite site to register by clicking HERE. You must register to attend.
We hope to see you there—as a reader or as part of the welcoming audience.
If you have further questions, contact us by email at [email protected].
