“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings – words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.”
Stephen King said that. What he didn’t say was there is a way to restore those most important things to their original size in the author’s minds. I have written four novels and each one contains scenes, passages, and dialogue that is difficult for me to read aloud. It doesn’t matter if I’m reading to one person, twenty people, or my cat. You will hear it in my voice and see it on my face. I will pause; I will take a deep breath; I may or may not be able to continue. You will know that the passage I am reading, or trying to read, contains things that are enormously important to me. That’s why I love to read aloud and it’s why I hate to read aloud.
I am currently working on my fifth novel, “Soul Man,” and I can assure you that it is filled with important things.
I have to admit – I love to read – silently… I love to write – silently…
And when my cousin once asked me to read aloud one or the passages of my book I nearly kicked her…
And then I started worrying… would I ever be able to do this? How am I going to introduce people to my stories when I can’t do this?
For the moment, until the book’s up and running I don’t need to worry about it – but once it will be – and then??
For me, the passages/scenes/dialogue that were the most emotional for me when I wrote them are also the most difficult for me to read aloud. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I haven’t done any formal public readings. I’m not very comfortable in front of groups, but if I ever do such a reading I’ll probably try to read one of the emotional passages just to see if the audience reacts.