The joy and terror of reading your writing to an audience is the feedback. Perhaps you hear silence, perhaps you’re lucky enough to have an audience member congratulate you.
At Fresh Fiction we’ve programmed 20 events in the last five years. Fresh Fiction gives writers a stage, and builds an audience who want to listen to original short fiction. So here are our thoughts about writing a story designed to be read aloud.
Silence is positive feedback because
the audience are listening intently. They are engrossed, in a state of deep attention. If you hear noises and rustling that indicates they’ve turned off, their minds have wandered. In my view, the most electric moments of reading your writing aloud are when a story lands with an audience and the whole room hangs on a writer’s words. The experience of listening is shared and the emotion of the piece becomes heightened.
Of course clapping tells you a lot too, or laughter, but for my mind, once you’ve heard the silence of an audience you’ll want to hear it again and receive that ‘audience hit.’
So what makes a good story to listen to?
When the reading panel choose the short stories for Fresh Fiction we pay attention to clarity. Is the story understandable on first hearing? If anything is unclear the story moves to the maybe pile. Does it have a satisfying narrative structure and arc? We enjoy experimentation but the story has to move confidently through time to take the audience along. The audience have only one chance to hear and understand your story, they cannot see it in advance, or return to the page for clarification. You may need to simplify a complicated story or reduce the amount of characters if it is to be read aloud. That’s not patronising, but realistic. Remember that at our events or, in Open Mic situations elsewhere, your story will be heard alongside many others, so it needs to be distinctive. Edit vigorously, without taking away your unique voice. Balance action, dialogue and description without too much of any of these three. Get the story moving along.
The ending
Our reading panel for Fresh Fiction also hope for some sort of pay-off or a feel of a resolution at the end of the story. We need to feel that the story has rewarded our time and attention. It’s not that we want a predictable finish, but a story with weight that has made us feel, or shown us some change from start to finish, is more satisfying.
An audience needs to care
The most successful stories, I believe, are those where an audience is given a reason to care. That could be achieved through characterisation, jeopardy, or pathos or simply the audience wondering what happens next. The story idea itself might be interesting and engaging, provoke discussions.
Rhythm and sound
Well written prose is a joy to read and hear. Consider how your story sounds. Explore the soundscape available to you. Try varying your sentence lengths.
Your delivery, and writing stories you believe in.
Do practice reading your work aloud. If a word feels odd in your mouth, change it to something more natural for you. One hidden benefit of reading your work aloud is that you can use your voice to enhance the story. If you can read your work with emotion, full of sincerity or conviction, the audience will want to follow your words. So write something you love, and the audience will, most likely, love it too.
Be unique
Have we heard this type of story before? At our events we ask for submissions on a theme, so it’s a good idea to consider what tropes others might use. We want to hear your story, in the way that only you can tell it. And titles are important. They can intrigue, or be a wasted opportunity.
Why Fresh Fiction encourages feedback for authors
We ask our audience to give flowers to writers, or write them a note, because we know how much it means for your stories to be heard and appreciated.
Be free and write what you want – creativity is amazing.
Don’t let this list put you off. Write what you want, in your voice. As we said before conviction and sincerity create good stories. The audience at Fresh Fiction will be different from one in inner city Bristol or Exeter. It’s always a good idea to check out a venue or event first before submitting so you can decide what work might suit the event. And if an audience don’t respond how you wish they had, that’s fine too, it happens. It doesn’t mean your work isn’t any good, or reflect on your as a writer.
