Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay

A large part of my time as Books Editor at LeftLion involves encouraging other writers to come and read their work on the podcasts or read live at our spoken word events. I tell them how important it is for their career, put them in contact with local organisations that can help promote their work and comfort them with positive anecdotes about how everybody watching wants them to do well. Unfortunately I am a complete hypocrite who has avoided public performances like the plague and so do not have the right to console or encourage anyone.

The reason I’ve never read live is the same reason a lot of writers haven’t – because performing is antithetical to the gorgeously solitary discipline of writing. And why do people write – other than because they are unsociable – because it enables them to have complete control over their environment, a control over characters and situations that real life rarely, if ever affords. Placed on an evolutionary scale we’re perhaps one up from the jigsaw puzzlers. In conclusion then, the reason that people like me write is not because we have something beautiful to share with the world but because we a) suffer from delusions of grandeur b) are vane and c) are social misfits with control issues. It is hardly surprising then that so many writers don’t want to read live because it means stepping out of the comfort zone.

Personally, I think more people should write. It is the cheapest and most enjoyable form of therapy. The minute all of that angst is emptied from the head and transferred to the page, the world seems manageable, the air breathable. Of course this is only a temporary reprieve. It will all start again. But just because you write and have a few ego issues, doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to read it in public. I guess this is the Faustian Pact we make when we publish those thoughts in the public sphere. Readers inevitably want to meet the person who created the words and publishers want to promote and shift copies. Just as writing down an initial thought is a betrayal of the self because language can never fully represent that which is innate, so too publication is a betrayal of the initial words because it places demands on the self which would never have existed if that idea had remained private.

From the 11th November I will be able to look other writers in the eye having finally read in public at the forthcoming Word of Mouth event. The reason for my sudden change of mind is partly to avoid accusations of hypocrisy and partly to prove that I am not the kind of egomaniacal control freak that I have previously accused writers of being. There is of course a simpler explanation. Over the last year I have seen some fantastic spoken word events across the region from the phrased and confused tent at Leicester’s Summer Sundae to Hello Hubmarine at Quad in Derby. At these and other such events I have discovered lots of different writers I would otherwise never have heard of, seen a variety of different styles, contemplated the acoustics and aesthetics of surroundings, participated in spontaneous audience debates, realised poetry is so much more emotive when read live, made friends through eye contact and conversation rather than through ‘poking’ or ‘adding’ online and most importantly realised that people simply enjoy sharing their thoughts with one another. This is why reading in public is necessary. Once I have finally discovered this for myself, I’ll be coming at you on the writing forums with a new found zeal, demanding you read work at local events and on the podcasts. And for the first time I’ll be able to do this with integrity, sincerity and conviction; I’ll probably be a little smug as well. So be warned!

Kick off: Nov 11th 7.30pm Ground: Theatre Royal Team: as follows

• Frances Thimann – Shells (Short Fiction)
• Rowland Nelken – Christmas Sonnets and Paradise series of poems
• Matt Hurst – Rutger the Rabbit (Radio play)
• James Walker. White Van Man (WIP novel)
• Clare Littleford Also known as Melissa Grady (extract from WIP novel)
• Maria Allen Earthquake Time (extract from new novel Before The Earthquake)
• Ann Featherstone Extracts from Walking in Pimlico and The Newgate Jig.
• Nicola Monaghan The summer of love, Extract from WIP novel We all sing, we all smile.