Page 6 - 2021.1221.The Passionate Plotter Guidebook Four.Marketing Matters_Neat

Diana Kathryn Plopa
THE PASSIONATE PLOTTER: MARKETING MATTERS

this understanding of story time into our
adulthood. There’s something special created in
that moment, a feeling of acceptance and
belonging. Reading a book aloud is taking the
time to connect with another person on a level
that lets go of pretense and allows for pure play.
It’s an endeavor that’s very forgiving of mistakes
because we all want the connection. We all
want to hear the story.

Okay, so perhaps you were uncomfortable
reading aloud during class in school… but that’s
because you didn’t know the material, and so
you couldn’t relax. Your teacher was LOOKING
for mistakes to call you out on. That’s how they
teach others… to notice and learn from you. It’s
an awkward thing, but isn’t everything awkward
at that age, anyway?

Reading your own work for an audience
who loves story is completely different. You know
this material, better, in some cases, than you
know your spouse or children. You’ve lived in
these spaces you’ve created. You actually
breathed life into the characters that ramble
through your pages, using phrases that perhaps
you aren’t brave enough to say yourself.
Although... you were courageous enough to give
those words away to them… your stalwart
sentries to imagination. This is a pretty cool thing.
So, when you read your work aloud, you’re
simply sharing who you are – albeit perhaps a
secret part of you – but you, nonetheless. When
it’s you, you can’t make mistakes that will be

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