Letters to Young Writers, Letter Two: Stacey Levine

My first "reading" took place my junior year of high school. It was a benefit for the school literary journal, and I was coerced into sharing one of my poems, an overwrought meditation on the film "What Dreams May Come" with Robin Williams.

It was one poem. It wasn't even my own reading, per se. But when I ambled up to the stage and looked out at the audience — a spotty bunch, three athletes in the back who came for English-class extra credit, one actually slumped over, sleeping — I froze. It came out broken and shaky. I doubted everything I had written.

This brings me to this week's letter, brought to you by fiction writer Stacey Levine, author of the story collection The Girl With the Brown Fur, Frances Johnson (a novel), Dra- (a novel) and My Horse and Other Stories. In her brief but potent letter, she suggests using nerves as a basis for your reading instead of seeing them as an undoing. She also, quite accurately, touches on the writer's relationship with doubt. 

Read her letter at the bottom of the post, and click the thumbnail below to see the handwritten version (there's a cat sticker, so I recommend it).

Dear You:

If you’re nervous before a reading: Build an umbilicus between your work and your nervous mood. Pour your nerves into your piece as you read. It will make the audience look up from their texting. Remind yourself that this kind of nervousness is part of what makes writers a little bit different from other people – we experience extreme doubt such that virtually everything can be called into question … and this is something that the majority of people can’t tolerate. They run away from it. So make yr. nervousness part of who you are at the moment. Anyway, it will subside. Promise yourself a treat (a drink) when it’s all over. When the night is over, forget about the reading and think about the next piece you want to write.

Stacey