The Cambridge introduction to creative writing

Performing writing
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of audience for literary writers it is something to which you might aspire. These kinds of literary guerrilla tactics – memorisation, oral storytelling, audience participation, variations, improvisations, cold opens – bring many non-readers to creative writing.
A silent rule
Remember: going to such events is not like going to the movies. Some audiences find literary readings heavy going. If the language of your work is allusive and compacted, then your commentaries act as breathing spaces between pieces,
allowing the listeners to absorb what they have heard and prepare themselves for the next onslaught. Here is a silent rule of such events. The audience, having paid in time, money or both, to play the role of audience to your role as literary artist, is at least entitled to try to believe they have made a good decision. They are often determined to enjoy the event even if the work and delivery leave much to be desired. Your task is to assist with this illusion, to make the moment live.
A writer who is determined to play the role of audience to their work by themselves, commenting on work after it has been read or making a show of personality, sometimes breaks that silent rule. They remove the audience’s role as reader, and reduce the momentum of the event. Consider other art forms in performance, and occasions when you have witnessed acts of self-regard in dance or drama. Not often, I expect. Study the manner in which a soloist,
a string quartet or whole orchestra proceeds in its delivery, and mimic that determination and professionalism. Applause, if granted, should be left to the end of any event, unless it arrives impromptu. Silence around your readings creates spellbound attention. Be wary – this silence could also signal boredom.
Blending music
It is a truth universally acknowledged among arts programmers that poets tend to be better performers of their work than novelists. This is because poets cannot earn a living by their work alone, and must practise singing for their supper more regularly then novelists. Readings also go with a poet’s territory because poetry is primarily an oral art. However, more poets crossover into writing novels than ever before, taking with them the skills of the impoverished troubadour. Writers, novelists included, are also growing more interested in the use of music as part of literary performance. The memorised story or poem maybe interwoven with original music written for the occasion by collaborators, or sampled from existing musical artists. Again, you may wish to try something of this type with your own work.

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Creative writing
Slam poets blend spoken word stories and poems, sometimes with live music,
in high-impact, competitive performances. Their experiments have developed large appreciative audiences. If you play a musical instrument, or if you possess a good singing voice, consider breaking up your set with your own music or songs. You might even compose music (played onstage by somebody else)
which adds extra layers of mood or meaning to a spoken performance.
Mushairas
The previous sections presented a modern Western description of literary performance. On a different note, a Mushairas is a highly public event in Pakistan and India, and is defined by being distinctively literary and cerebral. For the past years, poets of the Indian subcontinent have vied with each other in public readings. The impact of a Mushairas arises from a combination of vibrancies:
the audience’s knowledge of literary design and poetic form the respect by the audience for poets, often expressing itself in calls for the encore of especially effective work and the fact that these readings are social occasions for entire communities. Mushairas used to be polite affairs, but they are evolving fast,
with poets introducing comedy, song and movie-style rhythmic poetry (filmi
shairee), which combines singing and clowning. New writers should consider putting on such an event, or a Western version that sets poets in competition on forms such as the villanelle, sonnet or ballad.
At their conclusion, a Mushairas audience does not divide and disappear into the night – they often dine and celebrate the successes of the evening.
There are different types for example, a Gujarati or an Urdu Mushairas may focus on particular poetic forms such as the ghazal, geet or qawwali. The event is a test of the poet’s facility within a form, similar to the Welsh eisteddfods test of facility with cynghanedd, the metrical system of multiple alliteration and rhyme within Welsh strict metres. Speak, that I may see thee, Ben Jonson wrote. Should a Mushairas poet deliver a stunning ghazal line or one with political sting, the audience rises to its feet and acclaims it, calling it back at the poet, who then repeats it before proceeding modestly, knowing they have been seen, and seen by the ear alone.

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