I’m speaking this Sunday at a Sisters in Crime meeting in High Point, North Carolina from 2-4.
I’m looking forward to the talk because I’m most comfortable with writers. Although I probably should be more comfortable with readers…it just hasn’t worked out that way.
I don’t have an assigned topic to speak on (sometimes when I speak with groups, they ask me to talk on a particular topic.) So I’ll set my own topic—it’s always better to go in with a plan. I’ve found that most writing groups want me to talk about how to juggle different series and publishers at once, how to use social media to promote, and how I got my start in publishing. This is all stuff I know by heart. :)
But I also speak with other types of groups, although I don’t think of myself as a good speaker (I’m getting better.)
Here are some of my thoughts and tips on speaking to different audiences:
Talking to children (if you write for adults): This is so dependent on the age-group you’re speaking to. I’ve done presentations for early elementary through middle school age, and my tip is to know your audience. The little guys just don’t have an attention span. Bring in lots of props. For early elementary age, I usually bring in my journals and writing from when I was a kid, encourage them to write their own stories, show them a marked up manuscript (for some reason they’re always very interested in this), and then follow up by reading a favorite picture book.
For older children (again, if you write for adults): I ask the teacher (whoever gave me the invite), how they’re teaching writing and what they’re focusing on. The last thing I want to do is undo what they’ve taught! I follow their lesson plan (frequently on topics like elaboration, how to start and end a story, focusing on a small part of a story instead of throwing the net too wide) and talk about how I use what the teacher has taught in my own writing. Older kids really want a Q&A session, too.
Talking to other writers: It’s important to know what you’re there for. Once I apparently didn’t get the memo and found out when I was at the event that I was talking about humor in mysteries. That was fine, but I usually don’t do well shooting from the hip! Sometimes they’ll want you to talk about something really specific—editing or promo or dialogue or POV. Sometimes they’ll leave the topic up to you (but you’ll want to plan ahead for what you’ll speak about….just to make your talk more polished.) I’m fond of handing out sheets with helpful websites, resources for writers, etc.
Talking to readers: This is always completely different from talking with other writers. Readers like to hear more about the writing life, how we come up with characters, why we chose our genre, where we find our inspiration, our favorite authors, etc. There’s also, subtly, a bit more of a sales aspect to talking to readers (because your books are for sale on the back table) and so you’ll want to use quick and interesting examples from your own work.
Talking to book clubs. How is this different from talking with readers? Because these folks have all read your book! And boy, you should know that book backwards and forwards. If you have written a fair number of books or have a poor memory (I can claim both) then bring a cheat sheet with you of characters and plot points. Believe me—you’ll need it.
Readings. Um…well, I hate readings. But you should always be prepared to give a reading, no matter who you’re speaking to. I’ve been surprised before by moderators who asked me to read from my book and was frantically flipping through, trying to find a good spot to read from. Just mark a book with a Post-It note and be sure to bring your reading glasses. Try to read with inflection. Keep it short. That’s about all the advice I have on this topic. :) I keep mentioning to event organizers that I don’t do readings, but apparently this message gets lost.
I could also talk about speaking on panels, but I’ll skip it here because it’s pretty easy—you’re usually speaking on an assigned topic, responding to moderator questions, sharing time with other writers (don’t hog the spotlight), and addressing one of the groups I’ve mentioned above (readers if it’s a readers’ convention, writers if it’s a writing convention.)
Have you spoken to different types of groups about your writing? Do you have favorite groups to speak to? Got any public speaking tips?
Elizabeth – Oh, I wish you well with your talk :-). It sounds interesting! I’m so glad that you mention how important Q and A are to older students. Young people love the opportunity to find things out and they want to be actively involved in what they learn. They want to take ownership of their learning and that includes asking question. Little children want to do the same thing, so I’d like to add to your excellent advice that anything you and the children can do together is really helpful. Depending on the amount of time you have, for instance, you can even do a language experience activity, where you and the students come up with a very short (3-5 sentence) story together. The children tell you the story and you write it if they’re not old enough to write. If they are, you write it together. If they are active and doing something, it just works out really well.
Whoops! The educator in me just came out to play; I won’t take up any more of your comment space ;-).
Older kids are often interested in a “vocational” view of writing — the same as many writers groups. What do you have to do if you want to BE a writer. How to submit, etc.
A related issue is in writing a blog — where your audience can be anyone and everyone. You don’t want to bore everyone equally by trying to be too neutral. But when I think something is aimed at a particular audience more than others, I try to at least put in a little extra context.
Good input for speaking to differing groups, and I concur with your take on the various approaches. I actually like doing readings, though … maybe it’s the actor in me – I’ve always wanted get a shot at being in movies, lol.
Marvin D Wilson
And I bet you are very interesting to listen to.
Thanks for the helpful information.
Happy Labor Day. Enjoy!
Hi, Elizabeth. I did an entire blog post on speaking to groups (don’t we always touch the same topics).
I recommend handouts — gives them something to look at if they don’t want to look at you. And talk from bullet points, DON’T READ your presentation.
I hate reading from my work, too, and normally avoid it except maybe to illustrate a point in my talk.
And you’re right about being able to tailor your talk–sometimes on the fly–to the makeup of the group. I usually take a quick show of hands to see who’s a reader and who’s a writer.
Then there are conference workshops, which to me are the most fun. I prefer to keep those interactive.
And bring chocolate!
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Thanks Elizabeth for the tips. I haven’t done any talk yet but I’ve spoken in a conference. It was quite ok. I prepared PowerPoints with some stats and useful websites. The only sore point was the MC didn’t seem to know me and what I was supposed to speak about. Talking about unprepared.
Every Savage Can Reproduce
This is really good information. I think it’s so important to plan what you want to say with the various listeners. You can’t say the same things or else it’s boring or inapplicable. Thanks for the info and I hope your talk goes well.
I hate readings, too! Boring…
For children, I do my characterization session and help them design their own character. That usually goes over well.
Great summary of the different kinds of presentations that authors are called upon to do! I, too, hate doing readings and try to keep them really, really short if I’m asked to do one. Another option is to ask if audience members are willing to come up and play the character parts and read the dialogue while I read the narrative.
Whatever kind of talk I’m asked to do, I try to avoid making it just a “talk” where I do all the speaking. I ask questions to get the audience participating, and I have exercises for writers (and writing kids) to work on themselves.
Well, dang! I live in High Point, and I would have gone to the event if I’d known about it.
I’d panic if I arrived and they told me I was speaking on something different!
Margot–That’s a great plan! Love the idea of helping small children to come up with a story. :)
The Daring Novelist–And that’s a question that’s hard to answer these days! The vocational one. It’s all in flux.
Blogging can be tricky, for sure…I like your idea of honing in on a particular topic when you’re aiming for one audience that day.
Enid–Sounds like you were prepared, but the moderator wasn’t!
Clarissa–Thanks so much!
The Old Silly–I think your readings would be interesting, Marvin!
Journaling Woman–Thanks so much, Teresa!
Terry–Definitely a bad idea to read from a set of notes! Boring…
Oh, good idea to see who are readers and who are writers in the group! I’ll have to try that.
Diane–I like that idea!
Marilynn–Oh, it’s *next* Sunday…the 11th. Hope you can come!
Alex–Yeah, the panic was definitely there for a few minutes! Ha! But I’ve found if I’m panicking, then I can’t plan…and I needed to come up with a quick plan of what I was going to talk about.
Beth–I think it’s a great idea to have the folks in the audience participate in the talk! That definitely would help keep their interest.
My favorite groups include teachers and librarians.
I think, also, there is a big difference between readers of literary works versus commercial works. People who read the bestsellers want to hear the stories behind the writing – where you came up with a particular plot or character or scene, where literary groups (those who read Pulitzer Prize winners) tend to want to hear the author read passages in their own voice.
I am much more comfortable telling stories about how I wrote the book than reading the passages out loud.