Advice on Reading From T.C. Boyle

I have now gone to four years' worth of Creative Writing readings, and T.C. Boyle was one of the most expert readers I have encountered. That's not to say necessarily that he was one of the best writers Stanford has brought, but I think you could tell that he had performed many readings before and that he knew what he was doing. If Boyle was giving advice on how to pull off a successful reading, this is what I think he'd say:

Step 1: Be Cool

This entails being cool in two definitions of the word, but not in the sense of being cold (though feeling overly hot is probably a significant handicap and not advised). Being hip and relevant and quirky is good, but never make it look like you're putting any effort into it. Owning a Frank Lloyd Wright house always helps.

Step 2: Pick the Right Story

This one's the most important, but it's also the one writers screw up the most. The story takes up the majority of the time, so if people get bored with the story and you lose them, the best you'll get is a “Well, he/she was cool and funny.” That's not what you want. So how do you pick the right story? You ever heard of the K.I.S.S. rule? Stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. Lots of writers want to impress, they want to pull out the big guns right off the bat, and show how good they are. But when people can't read what's on the page, can't slow things down, can't look at something more closely, so complex narrative techniques are not gonna work as well. They're not gonna have the punch that you want them to. They'll just fall flat. That's why you keep it simple and go back to the basics of stories, their hearts. Plot and character. Take my story, “The Lie.” Not hard to discern what the protagonist's major desire is, the one that drives all of his decisions and actions. Plot's pretty clear: linear, chain of cause and effect, the tension builds step by step as the protagonist gets himself deeper and deeper into trouble. Classic short story techniques, but they work.

Step 3: Perform the Story

You're not just reading a story out loud to yourself. There's a crowd there and they want an experience they couldn't have reading it on their own in their rooms, or that's where they'd be. Dim the lights, put yourself in a spotlight, and make the characters come to life.