Public Writing

I'm tired of hearing people say that Writers can't give public performances. (Who are these people? Where'd you even hear that?) Shut up.

I'm going to blow your minds today by introducing a new performance medium which I have field-tested and approved.

Hook your laptop up to a meeting room or auditorium projector. Find an audience. Write a story. For the writer on the go, you'll soon be able to get a projector phone. Then all you need is a blank white wall somewhere and you're ready to roll.

Do it!

My very favorite story about the writer Harlan Ellison regards him going into a bookshop with a typewriter and sitting down and tapping out a story, all the while posting the typewritten pages on the wall for everybody to read. Well, I say to myself, I can do that one better!

This also works for making speeches and taking questions from the audience. They can speak their question and you can give a quick answer.

There are five benefits to this method:

1. More people can follow a story you babble-write better than one you babble-say, and you've got a convenient transcript of every thought that comes into your head.

2. You get audience feedback as you write. This is especially true if you're writing a comedic story, but it works just fine even if you're writing horror or suspense.

3. If you happen to be writing in Asia, it's a general fact that Asian speakers of English read a lot better than listen, and your audience has plenty of time to consult their dictionaries if you throw out a technical word and loads of time to unravel your grammar.

4. You'll write more if people are watching, and you'll write better because you want to entertain them. Your story will be more clear for having been written down in the same organic thought. Anyways, you can always clean it up later.

5. You won't need a microphone?

Yes, I know, you're amazed, shocked, stunned. But I'll let you in on a secret. I wrote this blog post using this very method.

Questions?

#

Yes, that's right, I typed all that before a live audience and then Copied it to Use on my blog. Gasp! The librarian was scandalized!

There was also a picaresque flash fiction about a boy moving to the big city and having many adventures, mostly involving a corrupt policeman who has it in for country bumpkins, but I'll be editing that up a bit.

It shows promise, though.

----
250 words? Yes
Project "Untitled"
- - - -
Reading - ?

*082