READING ALOUD YOUR WRITING

When I first took a workshop with the late Ed Wildman, he talked about taking a writing workshop with Natalie Goldberg in Taos, New Mexico. He’d learned from her that reading aloud was a valuable tool for writers.

A closet writer for five years, at first, I was terrified to read my writing. What I learned is that it’s part of the process of writing. You write – you read. I feel that I’ve grown as a writer and a public speaker. At my daughter’s wedding this year, I read a speech that I’d written. After I sat down, I realized that I had experienced any anxiety.

At Ed’s writing workshops, we always brought our writing from home and read it. The late Janet Bellinger and I would be up at 6:00 A.M. working on a piece of writing that we would read that day. We didn’t want to disappoint Ed.

I would encourage you to bring your writing to read at our writing sessions (twice a month) at the library.

Natalie Goldberg’s Wild Mind has an excellent piece in reading aloud.

If you have a good experience of reading aloud, please feel free to add a new post explaining how it has helped you.

Happy writing and reading aloud --- Keep writing, be happy.