What I Read at Open Mic Night

*Go here for my latest free newsletter full of writing links and resources.*

Announcement about upcoming event:

I didn’t get a chance to put this in my latest free newsletter, so I’m putting it here:

Don’t miss the FREE online Find Your Readers Summit, August 2-5, 2025.

Even if you’re at an early stage of your writing career, it’s still valuable to weave the idea of a future reader into your process, and to find ways to share your journey (and your writing) with an audience.

Whether you’re just starting a novel or preparing to launch your third book, this summit is full of accessible, practical sessions to help you authentically connect with readers.

Topics include:

• Writing a plot people can’t help but talk about

• Being relatable in the AI age

• Discovering your ideal reader — and speaking directly to them

• Publishing strategies that make sense for your goals

• Finding readers and a writing community on Substack (this is the one I’ll be teaching on August 4!)

I’ve never given this talk before! Wish me luck! Register for the summit here.

There are over 25 sessions, and you can attend the whole summit live for free. There’s also an All Access Pass that gives you lifetime access to replays, transcripts, and speaker bonuses.

Check it out and sign up here. (This is an affiliate link, so if you do end up getting the paid pass, I may get a commission at no extra cost to you.)

And now, on with our regularly-scheduled program…

Why you should read your work to an audience:

You might think, given my acting background (I used to do community theater), that I like getting up in front of a crowd and reading my own work.

You would be wrong. I do not. At least, I don’t like it for the two hours leading up to the reading, when my chest feels tight and my stomach is full of knots. Back when I was acting I used to get terrible stage fright, and I find my stage fright is even worse when I’m reading my own words.

But sometimes, in the moment, when I’m up there reading and it’s going well and I see people in the audience reacting to my work, I find myself enjoying it. And, afterwards, when I’m back in my seat, the tension draining from my body, I’m always glad I did it.

Getting up in front of people and reading your own writing out loud is really scary — trust me, I get that — but it’s also really important.

Which is why I always recommend to writers, no matter where they are in their career, to take every opportunity to read your work out loud to an audience. Not only will it help you experience your own work in a different (potentially helpful) way, but hopefully, one day, you will be having a book launch, or you will be invited to speak at a conference or book event. So you should start practicing now for that time in the future when people are showing up to hear you read.

But you don’t have to take my word for it!

The amazing Courtney Maum and I talk about the importance of reading your work to an audience in Episode 1 of The Long Road to Publishing, and she has an interesting suggestion for how reading your work-in-progress at open mic nights can actually help improve the work.

AND, bestselling author Julia Bartz, in Episode 2, talks about how she overcame her debilitating fear of public speaking so she’d be able to speak and read her work to audiences at book events.

Open Mic Night:

If you live in the DC area and are looking for a safe, encouraging place to read your work, I highly recommend the free Open Mic at The Writer’s Center every other Wednesday. It’s a small, diverse group of supportive writers at all stages, and a great opportunity to test the waters.

I went last week, and I decided to record my practice session on Zoom. Obviously, you should practice what you’re going to read, and it can be helpful to record your practice session to make sure you’re staying within the time limit, and to see if you’re giving enough eye contact. It’s such a balance between giving enough eye contact and not losing your place on the page! So, the more times you practice and the more familiar you are with your piece, the better.

What I read at Open Mic Night and how it went: