- Don’t hit your rhymes, let them roll
- Silences are part of your poem/reading
- Allow your audience time to catch up with you mentally by providing spaces and silence
- Write in the words “pause” and “stop” into your work and highlight these two words to remind yourself when to pause and when to stop
- Identify the important words. Bold them on the page so you can highlight them with your voice
- Don’t read with only one emotion. No one wants ‘angry’ for 3 minutes. Your poem/piece of writing should be an emotional journey
- Practice for performance and practice again. The practice some more and again.
- Pick three spots in the audience and look over the heads of the people sitting/standing there
- Write your piece like it is a dialogue. Audience and silence are the other participants in this dialogue.
- Your feet are roots to the ground, square off, don’t let your arms fly as this spills the energy from your core.