As a reader, I pledge to:
1. Abide by the time constraints and if I know what they are in advance, practice timing my selected piece
2. Introduce myself and my work before barreling ahead into the reading
3. Provide trigger warnings when appropriate and err on the side of less graphic violence, profanity and potentially offensive material when reading in a large, diverse group
4. Arrive several minutes before my time slot and stay beyond it to support other writers
As an audience member, I pledge to:
1. Refrain from looking at my phone*
2. Clap for every reader
3. Stay in my seat until a natural break (applause)*
*Except in emergency cases
As the moderator, I pledge to:
1. Announce the next two readers so those “on deck” may prepare
2. Begin timing after each reader’s introduction (as long as it is brief) so as not to cut off a reader before the rehearsed time allotment
3. Give clear and consistent signals when a reader is nearing the cut off
4. Politely but firmly clap down any reader who has missed/ignored the previous signals
While these may all seem like simple, obvious guidelines, they are in no way meant to patronize. I’ve attended many readings in which participants in every category disregarded most or all of them. I’m guilty myself. In a recent reading, I had timed my piece without the addition of my brief introduction, was unable to see the visual signals given by the moderator and therefore found myself committing one of my own pet peeves by running over with seemingly no regard for the social contract established before I’d taken the stage. Mortified, I retreated to my seat believing everyone in the audience thought me arrogant and inconsiderate.
After some time to reflect, I extracted several valuable lessons from the experience. From now on, I will ask moderators if it is their practice to begin timing as soon as a reader steps up to the mic, or only when they begin reading. As a moderator myself, I like to encourage readers to offer a brief (20 seconds or less) introduction including their name, the larger context of a piece (“This is an excerpt from my mystery novel, Blank,” or “This short story appears in the anthology Blank published by Blank Press) and any necessary trigger warnings. If a piece requires more than 20 seconds of explanation, such as excerpts with various characters and complicated relationships and/or backstories, consider selecting a section that better stands alone to avoid confusing, frustrating or boring listeners. Audience members are more likely to forgive a slightly longer reading with appropriate and helpful contextualizing introductions than a shorter but completely baffling one (or one that takes longer to explain than it does to read).
The other lesson I gleaned for future moderating is that auditory cues are generally more effective than visual ones—a lesson my last moderator learned after I, the first reader, and the one following me both failed to see her subtle hand gestures from the back of the room. The fact that neither of us needed glasses made me realize the limits of visual cues, as an effective reader will either be looking at their written material or their audience. That night, the moderator switched to offering sound cues with a Tibetan singing bowl, a technique I may borrow for this year’s Colorado Gold Conference. I will of course still provide visual cues on request to honor individual readers’ needs and also recommend bringing your own timer if you are overly anxious about these things as I clearly am, having just written an entire blog post on the subject.
As your moderator for the Open Mic session on Friday night of the Colorado Gold Conference, I pledge to—with your help—create an environment that is welcoming, accessible and fun for writers at all stages of their careers. We will aim for three minutes each, unless a huge number of participants (not a bad problem to have) necessitates limiting readers to two minutes. For more tips on how to select and polish a piece for public readings, check out my posts on Page Fright from last year. Start practicing those pieces; we can’t wait to hear them!
