Week 113 – Speak slowly and breathe…

I did it – my first proper, formal, public poetry reading is done. And I’m typing, so I must have stopped shaking…

What an afternoon!  I started with my newest poem, and in reading it out had a horrible whoosh of what I will refer to as performance anxiety thinking it wasn’t really ready to present.  I have rushed to get it finished, or at least presentable, and I just don’t think it’s refined enough to read in an open forum yet. I take that sense of incompleteness very seriously and it put me off my stride.

Once that was out of the way, my friend sang one of her songs and I had time to collect myself a little bit, and the rest of the afternoon was a lot smoother. The next poem I read was a very familiar one and from there on in it was a case of remembering to speak slowly, breathe – and project my voice because there were issues with the microphone.

It’s done, and I’m glad to get it under my belt, and I now have to decide if I ever want to do another!  I feel quite exposed doing poetry – not only is it more physically intimate than blogging, but it’s also more personal in terms of how I am addressed and how I am expected to behave.  It’s as much about performance as it is ability to write, and I have never considered myself a great orator.  Maybe I don’t just need public speaking tuition – I should do acting classes as well 🙂

I am however utterly exhausted.  I didn’t realise how tiring the afternoon would be, and how much it would take out of me, and now I just want to go to bed!

However, I’ll do one ‘in other news’ just for you! – I found this article about lost words, and following on from the news that twerk made it into the OED in August 2013, it reminded me how much language changes and mutates over time.  Of course some words are commonly used and will probably stay in use for centuries (the, and, at are some of the more obvious examples!) but will other words we use now?  One of my favourite words is flibbertigibbet  and I’m convinced this will fade out of use within the next hundred or so years because other words have taken over from it.  Whether twerk lasts as long as waltz remains to be seen, but it’s a good lesson in keeping our language appropriate for the historical setting of our stories.

Now I must go and rest up, it’s been a very long day!  After this weekend I’m back into novel 2 to get that ready for the end of November’s deadline.  Watch this space…

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂