Peg Herring's Blog - Posts Tagged "speaking"
Speaking and Listening
Here's what I observed over thirty years of teaching communication. It's important for today's author to be a good speaker, because we must present well before agents, editors, and audiences of potential readers. While I would hate to think we compete with each other, we are compared to other writers as we sit on panels, in pitch sessions, and so on. Many times I've bought books based on the impression a speaker made on me at a convention. Nevada Barr springs to mind; she has such a presence on stage that I wanted to read what she'd written, and it worked. Other times it doesn't turn out quite so well, but the impression an author made during a presentation had an influence, even if I only bought one book.
Listening, too, is critical for authors, and we often neglect that skill. Missing the nuances of tone and expression, sometimes even missing the words themselves, is common, especially when the listener's situation is fraught with nervousness. What exactly did that agent say? Was I too busy thinking of how to appear clever that I missed the hint of truth behind the polite phrasing? It can even be more specific: Did the agent say to send three chapters and a five-page synopsis or five chapters and a three-page synopsis?
So as writers, we have to sigh and admit that improving the other communication segments is almost as critical to our success as becoming better writers. We have to speak well and appear confident as we do. We have to listen well and sift through the chaff of all we hear in a day, finding the kernels of truth that we seek.
The last word on speaking and listening? After thirty year of observation, that one's easy: PRACTICE.
Listening, too, is critical for authors, and we often neglect that skill. Missing the nuances of tone and expression, sometimes even missing the words themselves, is common, especially when the listener's situation is fraught with nervousness. What exactly did that agent say? Was I too busy thinking of how to appear clever that I missed the hint of truth behind the polite phrasing? It can even be more specific: Did the agent say to send three chapters and a five-page synopsis or five chapters and a three-page synopsis?
So as writers, we have to sigh and admit that improving the other communication segments is almost as critical to our success as becoming better writers. We have to speak well and appear confident as we do. We have to listen well and sift through the chaff of all we hear in a day, finding the kernels of truth that we seek.
The last word on speaking and listening? After thirty year of observation, that one's easy: PRACTICE.
As Frank Would Say, "That's Life"
The week has been bad on the front lines of Personal Life. But last night I spoke at a small library to a small crowd of the nicest, most involved readers I've met in a while. It was a mixed audience: some aspiring writers, some mystery lovers, a writing teacher, and a couple of ladies who spoke mostly Polish but smiled a lot and loved the fact that they each won a book to take home with them. The group was lively and the questions were intelligent. Suddenly I'm pretty sure I can make it through June.
People who love to read are fun to be around. They won't agree on who is the best writer or what is the best series, but they're always willing to talk about it. As one man said after my talk, "It was just an hour, but we could have gone on a lot longer."
It's gratifying to be praised as a speaker. It's important to create interest in the books I write. But honestly, the most fun for me is talking with readers (and writers) about mysteries, books, and authors.
If only I could make a living doing that!
People who love to read are fun to be around. They won't agree on who is the best writer or what is the best series, but they're always willing to talk about it. As one man said after my talk, "It was just an hour, but we could have gone on a lot longer."
It's gratifying to be praised as a speaker. It's important to create interest in the books I write. But honestly, the most fun for me is talking with readers (and writers) about mysteries, books, and authors.
If only I could make a living doing that!
Local News on the Eightball
I know I pick on them, but jeez! I used to be a speech teacher, and I wonder what happened to all those speech classes that one assumes newspeople must take.
A few hints:
Read/scan your copy ahead of time. If you don't know how to pronounce something, ask somebody and then write it phonetically. Giving the audience multiple choice versions is not cool.
Keep your lame attempts at humor to yourself. You're only revealing what we already suspected: that weathermen are nerds, that girl anchors are ditzes, and that sports guys are just a hair on the manic side.
Try to match your facial expression to the copy. Your big ol' smile as you tell us about that fire where three children died is disturbing.
And ladies, answer this: what did your eyebrows ever do to you to make you shave them off and draw them back on? Is it a rule somewhere that the morning show girl has to look like someone has a gun to her back?
A few hints:
Read/scan your copy ahead of time. If you don't know how to pronounce something, ask somebody and then write it phonetically. Giving the audience multiple choice versions is not cool.
Keep your lame attempts at humor to yourself. You're only revealing what we already suspected: that weathermen are nerds, that girl anchors are ditzes, and that sports guys are just a hair on the manic side.
Try to match your facial expression to the copy. Your big ol' smile as you tell us about that fire where three children died is disturbing.
And ladies, answer this: what did your eyebrows ever do to you to make you shave them off and draw them back on? Is it a rule somewhere that the morning show girl has to look like someone has a gun to her back?
It Will Be in the Last Place You Look
Well, of course it will, because then you'll stop looking for it.
We say stuff every day that makes no sense, and nobody even bats an eye. Okay, there's one right there. We use expressions that are archaic, but I wonder if they ever really made sense. Dead as a doornail, for example. Who decided that a doornail is deader than other types of nails?
We tell people to do things as if they can't figure it out for themselves. We scream at baseball players to run after they hit the ball. What else are they paid millions of dollars to do? Is it a choice? Are they thinking, "Should I run or go out for a latte?" Still, thousands of fans are shouting, "Run!" or "Go!" Should we add, "Travel to first base and then turn slightly to the left!"
We exaggerate regularly, but nobody calls us liars. I have a sort of mental scale that I apply to other people's memories. If they say, "We used to..." whatever, I figure it happened twice. When they add a word, "We used to always..." it might have happened three times.
I confess, I am prone to overblown adjectives. Everything is "wonderful" or "amazing". I know better, but then, a lot of other wonderful and amazing people do the same thing.
Conversation is just funny, even when it doesn't mean to be. We have proscribed roles to play, and we say what is expected of us, even when it doesn't make sense. I'm sure you could find the reasons for it in some psychology book, but I bet it will be in the last place you look.
We say stuff every day that makes no sense, and nobody even bats an eye. Okay, there's one right there. We use expressions that are archaic, but I wonder if they ever really made sense. Dead as a doornail, for example. Who decided that a doornail is deader than other types of nails?
We tell people to do things as if they can't figure it out for themselves. We scream at baseball players to run after they hit the ball. What else are they paid millions of dollars to do? Is it a choice? Are they thinking, "Should I run or go out for a latte?" Still, thousands of fans are shouting, "Run!" or "Go!" Should we add, "Travel to first base and then turn slightly to the left!"
We exaggerate regularly, but nobody calls us liars. I have a sort of mental scale that I apply to other people's memories. If they say, "We used to..." whatever, I figure it happened twice. When they add a word, "We used to always..." it might have happened three times.
I confess, I am prone to overblown adjectives. Everything is "wonderful" or "amazing". I know better, but then, a lot of other wonderful and amazing people do the same thing.
Conversation is just funny, even when it doesn't mean to be. We have proscribed roles to play, and we say what is expected of us, even when it doesn't make sense. I'm sure you could find the reasons for it in some psychology book, but I bet it will be in the last place you look.
If I Ruled the (Grammar) World
I'm not ambitious; I just want to tell people how to speak and force them to make sense. I don't always agree with Webster's, and I would like them to get a clue.
For example: our local weatherman uses the word "seasonable" to describe the temperature on a given day. I looked it up, and my big ol' honkin' dictionary agrees with him that "seasonable" means usual for a particular season. What's wrong with "seasonal"? As one long interested in etymology, I find it makes a lot more sense. The "al" ending makes it "like the season", which is a lot better than adding "able" which makes it "capable of being seasoned." (Think "reasonable")
Another rule I don't like is the "I am well" answer one is supposed to give when asked how she is. It seems to me that it is just as likely that I describe myself with a predicate adjective "I am good" as it is that I describe the verb "am" with an adverb. "I am well" sounds poncey, "I am good" sounds descriptive, at least to me.
I know. There's no sense arguing. Somebody decided these things were "correct", at least for this century. (Remember, double, triple, and quadruple negatives were permissable in Shakespeare's time, the thought being that piling them up added emphasis. Now we claim they cancel each other out, like numbers in a math equation.)
Language does not make sense, and English is as bad as, maybe worse than, any other. A mishmash of Latin, Celtic, and a dozen long-lost languages, it has been added to from other languages, twisted by centuries of use, and transformed by idioms and idiots. The rules, therefore, are arbitrary and often silly.
I can be arbitrary, and I'm often silly. So let me rule the grammar world, and I'll tell you all how to speak correctly--my way.
For example: our local weatherman uses the word "seasonable" to describe the temperature on a given day. I looked it up, and my big ol' honkin' dictionary agrees with him that "seasonable" means usual for a particular season. What's wrong with "seasonal"? As one long interested in etymology, I find it makes a lot more sense. The "al" ending makes it "like the season", which is a lot better than adding "able" which makes it "capable of being seasoned." (Think "reasonable")
Another rule I don't like is the "I am well" answer one is supposed to give when asked how she is. It seems to me that it is just as likely that I describe myself with a predicate adjective "I am good" as it is that I describe the verb "am" with an adverb. "I am well" sounds poncey, "I am good" sounds descriptive, at least to me.
I know. There's no sense arguing. Somebody decided these things were "correct", at least for this century. (Remember, double, triple, and quadruple negatives were permissable in Shakespeare's time, the thought being that piling them up added emphasis. Now we claim they cancel each other out, like numbers in a math equation.)
Language does not make sense, and English is as bad as, maybe worse than, any other. A mishmash of Latin, Celtic, and a dozen long-lost languages, it has been added to from other languages, twisted by centuries of use, and transformed by idioms and idiots. The rules, therefore, are arbitrary and often silly.
I can be arbitrary, and I'm often silly. So let me rule the grammar world, and I'll tell you all how to speak correctly--my way.
Peg's Blog Crawl
You've heard of a pub crawl. Well, this is the same except it's not.
Same: You "crawl" from one place to another with a lot of other people and read my guest posts.
Different: It's virtual: no taxis, no traffic, no crowded rooms.
Same: You "travel" with like-minded people who are out for a good time.
Different: You'll never see them face-to-face.
Same: You meet new people, visit new places, and enjoy the trip.
Different: No hangover at the end.
Peg's Blog Crawl begins tomorrow, January 31, at my regular blog: http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog.... My topic is the English language, its origins, its variety, its general craziness. I've named it "Do the Dead Speak Perfect English?" in honor of my February release, THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY.
Did I mention prizes? I'm giving away a book each week, either print or e-book, as the winning commenters choose. I also have some little surprises along the way, so join in and chime in (that's how you enter the prize drawings). You can indulge every weekday in February, learning a little about the eccentricities of English, and you won't have to crawl home!
Here's the Schedule:
Feb. 1 Peg Herring-Why Do We Say That? Part I-Find it at http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Feb. 2 Chris Verstraete-Slowing Readers—Bad Policy-Find it at http://candidcanine.blogspot.com
Feb. 3 Melissa Bradley-He Said, She Panted http://melissasimaginarium.blogspot.com
Feb. 4 Marilyn Meredith-The Dreaded Adverb http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com
Feb. 5 Weekend-Draw for Prizes from Week 1 http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Feb 6 Weekend—
Feb. 7 Rhonda Dossett-The Ones Spell Check Won’t Catch http://thestilettogang.blogspot.com
Feb 8 Nancy Cohen-Metaphors http://nancyjcohen.wordpress.com
Feb. 9 Kaye George-Names Into Words http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com
Feb 10 Lisa Haselton-Losing the Spice http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandintervi...
Feb 11. Chris Redding-Inventing Words http://chrisreddingauthor.blogspot.com
Feb 12. Weekend-Draw for Prizes from Week 2 http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Feb.13.BONUS POST Lelia Taylor Syntax and Sentence Structure http://www.cncbooks.com/blog
Feb.14 Jenny Milchman-Why Do We Say That? Part II suspenseyourdisbelief.com
Feb.15. Pat Brown-Dialogue and What It Reveals http://themysteryworldofpabrown.blogs... and http://pabrown.livejournal.com
Feb. 16 Debbi Mack-Portmanteau Words http://midlistlife.wordpress.com
Feb. 17 Peg Brantley-The Possessive Problem http://www.suspensenovelist.blogspot
Feb 18 Bo Parker-Read It Aloud http://www.cobbledstones.com
Feb 19 Weekend-Draw for Prizes from Week 3 http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Feb. 20 Weekend
Feb. 21 Jeff Marks-And What About Contractions? http://www.thelittleblogofmurder.com
Feb 22 Geraldine Evans-Idioms http://geralineevanscom.blogspot.com
Feb. 23 Maryann Miller-Eccentric Phrases http://its-not-all-gravy.blogspot.com
Feb. 24 Peg Herring Being Precise http://crimespace.ning.com/profiles/b...
Feb. 25 –Peg Herring Bad Words http://criminalmindsatwork.blogspot.com/
Feb. 26 Weekend-Draw for Prizes from Week 4 http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Feb. 27 Weekend
Feb. 29 Stacy Juba-Why Do We Say That? Part III http://stacyjuba.com/blog
March 1-Final Drawing for Prizes from All Entries http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Same: You "crawl" from one place to another with a lot of other people and read my guest posts.
Different: It's virtual: no taxis, no traffic, no crowded rooms.
Same: You "travel" with like-minded people who are out for a good time.
Different: You'll never see them face-to-face.
Same: You meet new people, visit new places, and enjoy the trip.
Different: No hangover at the end.
Peg's Blog Crawl begins tomorrow, January 31, at my regular blog: http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog.... My topic is the English language, its origins, its variety, its general craziness. I've named it "Do the Dead Speak Perfect English?" in honor of my February release, THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY.
Did I mention prizes? I'm giving away a book each week, either print or e-book, as the winning commenters choose. I also have some little surprises along the way, so join in and chime in (that's how you enter the prize drawings). You can indulge every weekday in February, learning a little about the eccentricities of English, and you won't have to crawl home!
Here's the Schedule:
Feb. 1 Peg Herring-Why Do We Say That? Part I-Find it at http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Feb. 2 Chris Verstraete-Slowing Readers—Bad Policy-Find it at http://candidcanine.blogspot.com
Feb. 3 Melissa Bradley-He Said, She Panted http://melissasimaginarium.blogspot.com
Feb. 4 Marilyn Meredith-The Dreaded Adverb http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com
Feb. 5 Weekend-Draw for Prizes from Week 1 http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Feb 6 Weekend—
Feb. 7 Rhonda Dossett-The Ones Spell Check Won’t Catch http://thestilettogang.blogspot.com
Feb 8 Nancy Cohen-Metaphors http://nancyjcohen.wordpress.com
Feb. 9 Kaye George-Names Into Words http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com
Feb 10 Lisa Haselton-Losing the Spice http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandintervi...
Feb 11. Chris Redding-Inventing Words http://chrisreddingauthor.blogspot.com
Feb 12. Weekend-Draw for Prizes from Week 2 http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Feb.13.BONUS POST Lelia Taylor Syntax and Sentence Structure http://www.cncbooks.com/blog
Feb.14 Jenny Milchman-Why Do We Say That? Part II suspenseyourdisbelief.com
Feb.15. Pat Brown-Dialogue and What It Reveals http://themysteryworldofpabrown.blogs... and http://pabrown.livejournal.com
Feb. 16 Debbi Mack-Portmanteau Words http://midlistlife.wordpress.com
Feb. 17 Peg Brantley-The Possessive Problem http://www.suspensenovelist.blogspot
Feb 18 Bo Parker-Read It Aloud http://www.cobbledstones.com
Feb 19 Weekend-Draw for Prizes from Week 3 http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Feb. 20 Weekend
Feb. 21 Jeff Marks-And What About Contractions? http://www.thelittleblogofmurder.com
Feb 22 Geraldine Evans-Idioms http://geralineevanscom.blogspot.com
Feb. 23 Maryann Miller-Eccentric Phrases http://its-not-all-gravy.blogspot.com
Feb. 24 Peg Herring Being Precise http://crimespace.ning.com/profiles/b...
Feb. 25 –Peg Herring Bad Words http://criminalmindsatwork.blogspot.com/
Feb. 26 Weekend-Draw for Prizes from Week 4 http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Feb. 27 Weekend
Feb. 29 Stacy Juba-Why Do We Say That? Part III http://stacyjuba.com/blog
March 1-Final Drawing for Prizes from All Entries http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blog...
Teethpaste and Other Essentials of Language
I have more than one tooth. I brush them all at once, so why don't stores sell teethpaste? Of course, we don't have to call it toothpaste if that doesn't make sense to us. We can call that stuff in the tube a "dentifrice," like the scientific community does. Dentifrice? Really?
It's no surprise that language does not, and probably cannot, make sense to all people all the time. We all have to use it, but we come from different places, mind-sets, and education levels. Purists raise their noses when others use "may" and "might" interchangeably, but is meaning really lost if I say, "I may go to the store or I might stay home"?
I see a clear difference between the words "farther" and "further," but the dictionary doesn't. And I have a friend who refers to her "hairs" behaving or not behaving from day to day. She's right; there are a whole bunch of them, and some behave better than others, at least on my head. So who decided "hair" is a collective noun?
When things that make sense to linguists don't resonate with everyone else, rules are ignored. My students used to argue the pronoun/number rule in sentences like, "No one brought his umbrella." I had to agree that the sense of the sentence indicates a lot of people did this thing, though the pronoun and the single umbrella indicate only one and therefore require a singular pronoun. That results in confusion about whether the "one" in the sentence brought "his" umbrella or "her" umbrella. To keep the peace, I usually suggested rewording the sentence to eliminate the problem: "No one brought an umbrella." Of course, to a purist, that's cheating.
It does no good to grouse about it. Language is imperfect and probably always will be. But it seems to me that the farther one wants to go as a writer, the more important it is to further her understanding of words and how they work together. This is true whether she uses toothpaste, teethpaste, or some other choice of dentifrice.
It's no surprise that language does not, and probably cannot, make sense to all people all the time. We all have to use it, but we come from different places, mind-sets, and education levels. Purists raise their noses when others use "may" and "might" interchangeably, but is meaning really lost if I say, "I may go to the store or I might stay home"?
I see a clear difference between the words "farther" and "further," but the dictionary doesn't. And I have a friend who refers to her "hairs" behaving or not behaving from day to day. She's right; there are a whole bunch of them, and some behave better than others, at least on my head. So who decided "hair" is a collective noun?
When things that make sense to linguists don't resonate with everyone else, rules are ignored. My students used to argue the pronoun/number rule in sentences like, "No one brought his umbrella." I had to agree that the sense of the sentence indicates a lot of people did this thing, though the pronoun and the single umbrella indicate only one and therefore require a singular pronoun. That results in confusion about whether the "one" in the sentence brought "his" umbrella or "her" umbrella. To keep the peace, I usually suggested rewording the sentence to eliminate the problem: "No one brought an umbrella." Of course, to a purist, that's cheating.
It does no good to grouse about it. Language is imperfect and probably always will be. But it seems to me that the farther one wants to go as a writer, the more important it is to further her understanding of words and how they work together. This is true whether she uses toothpaste, teethpaste, or some other choice of dentifrice.
