tellingpeople

For the Fallen, by Laurence Binyon is just about the hardest piece of public reading I’m going to have to work on for quite some time. I’m working on it to be read later today at a Poppy Service; and it’s important to me to get it absolutely right. Absolutely.

Normally I forgive myself if I make a mistake – the more you stress about a mistake, the more likely you are to make another… and another… and another… but this one needs to be perfect.

So how am I practicing?

Out loud.

Ignore those people who tell you practice in front of a mirror – it’ll just make you self-conscious; ignore those who say use a video (unless you’ve got professional input and feedback); but don’t, don’t, don’t just read things over. Public speaking is a physical act and you can’t practice something physical just inside your head. (Actually, there’s some research to suggest that practicing inside your head is better than nothing, but in general you know what I mean.)

Inside your head you never make a mistake that you have to recover from. Inside your head you never have problems with difficult combinations of sounds. Inside your head you don’t have to worry about timing. Inside your head you don’t get too caught up in the emotion to concentrate. Inside your head you don’t get trapped too far into the cadence, ending up sounding trite….

All of that kind of thing becomes very real when you do it for real, out loud. And given how important it is to me to get the Poppy Service reading absolutely right (people have died – the least I can do is make sure they are remembered as best I can) you can bet that I’m looking very carefully at not being ambushed by the list above.

Absolutely.

I’m guessing it’ll take me an hour and a half to get it as I want it – for about 40 seconds reading.