Page 10 - 2021.1221.The Passionate Plotter Guidebook Four.Marketing Matters_Neat

Diana Kathryn Plopa
THE PASSIONATE PLOTTER: MARKETING MATTERS

As you read, look up at your audience
occasionally, and make eye contact with
individuals. This draws readers into your story,
helps them to identify with the characters, and
makes them remember that experience of sitting
on an adult’s lap, being read to as a child. It’s
an intimate memory that you are asking them to
recall and associate with you. It’s difficult to do
that with your nose in the pages. This can be a
challenging thing for some people, so I suggest
that you practice in front of a mirror… or if that’s
too awkward (and it is for me, I’m not a big fan
of looking at myself)… draft a few friends or
relatives to listen while you read. Buy them
Saunder’s Bumpy Cake as a bribe, if necessary,
but practice A LOT!

Think of Broadway actors. They don’t just
do one read-through of a script and then
perform. Nope, they rehearse for weeks to make
sure they have all the nuances of their
performance down pat.
Now, I’m not saying that
you need to read your
piece aloud every day for
ten weeks… but certainly,
practice reading at least
ten times privately before
you do it publicly. You
need to be REALLY
comfortable with it so the
butterflies of standing in
front of a group won’t
distract from your delivery.

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