PUBLIC SPEAKING....
Yep, it's up there with one of our greatest fears. Up there with fear of flying and fear of heights. It even has a name - glossophobia or speech anxiety.
I used to be horrid at public speaking. Absolutely horrid. My heart would race, my hands shake, my face turn fire engine red- and I would read my work at one hundred words per second. In my mind the sooner I finished, the sooner I was out of there.
I doubt if anyone ever understood a word I said.
However, over time, with the help of a friend who ran a poetry gig and actively encouraged me to read (even to the point where she would smile and wave her hands forcing me to slow down)...I have improved.
That does not mean that I don't have a quiver of nerves each time I do read.
On the weekend I went to one of my regular haunts, the Hut Poetry in upper FTG, and because due to work and life I had not been at all this year, the nerves really got to me.
I could feel my stomach churn, my hands were clammy and then of course the regrets. Why on earth did I bring these poems? What was I thinking? These are crap, pure rubbish...and I think I'm going to read these here?
And so when I did read, even those horrid poems, I didn't read well. I know I rushed and stumbled. I allowed my nerves to take over.
At the interval whilst chatting, I came to understand I was not alone in feeling this way. One had recited for the first time, ever (and did a great job) yet felt as though she were physically shaking with fear. Another, who had read at the Dan the day before, and whose work is enjoyed everywhere she goes, had shaking hands and that dark feeling of 'why read this?'
I understand that having nerves will always help a performance. I think that if you had no nervous energy, the performance (and that is what public speaking is) would be flat and dull. But it's drawing that balance of enough nerves to make your reading edgy and sharp....and not having too many so that you stutter and stumble, mumble and just sound horrible.
I plan on going to another event next week- as yet my poems are not chosen (in fact not even written) but I hope to improve on the weekend's result.
So here's to settling the nerves....just a bit....
Vicki
I used to be horrid at public speaking. Absolutely horrid. My heart would race, my hands shake, my face turn fire engine red- and I would read my work at one hundred words per second. In my mind the sooner I finished, the sooner I was out of there.
I doubt if anyone ever understood a word I said.
However, over time, with the help of a friend who ran a poetry gig and actively encouraged me to read (even to the point where she would smile and wave her hands forcing me to slow down)...I have improved.
That does not mean that I don't have a quiver of nerves each time I do read.
On the weekend I went to one of my regular haunts, the Hut Poetry in upper FTG, and because due to work and life I had not been at all this year, the nerves really got to me.
I could feel my stomach churn, my hands were clammy and then of course the regrets. Why on earth did I bring these poems? What was I thinking? These are crap, pure rubbish...and I think I'm going to read these here?
And so when I did read, even those horrid poems, I didn't read well. I know I rushed and stumbled. I allowed my nerves to take over.
At the interval whilst chatting, I came to understand I was not alone in feeling this way. One had recited for the first time, ever (and did a great job) yet felt as though she were physically shaking with fear. Another, who had read at the Dan the day before, and whose work is enjoyed everywhere she goes, had shaking hands and that dark feeling of 'why read this?'
I understand that having nerves will always help a performance. I think that if you had no nervous energy, the performance (and that is what public speaking is) would be flat and dull. But it's drawing that balance of enough nerves to make your reading edgy and sharp....and not having too many so that you stutter and stumble, mumble and just sound horrible.
I plan on going to another event next week- as yet my poems are not chosen (in fact not even written) but I hope to improve on the weekend's result.
So here's to settling the nerves....just a bit....
Vicki
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