On the Night of Your Story
Firstly, if you are telling a story, thanks! Seriously, thank you for lending us your story for the upcoming Tenx9 evening. Here are 9 tips for telling your story on the night.
1. On the night, make sure to check whether people can hear the sound of your lovely voice reading. Your 10 minutes starts from the moment you get behind the microphone.
2. Your ten minutes starts from the moment you get behind the microphone, so just dive into the story. Don’t give us a long introduction about why you decided to tell this story. Sometimes people can spend up to five minutes giving a pastiche or background or just talking about the theme without telling a story. Sad to say, but if you’ve spent that long introducing, folks are likely to be counting the minutes to the end rather than listening for the story.
3. If you are reading, take your time. Don’t rush. Remember – you are always speaking more quickly than it seems to your own ears. So, enjoy yourself and take it easy. If you stumble over a sentence, breathe and read it again. Tenx9 audiences are gracious and encouraging and will be glad for you to feel as relaxed as you’re able.
4. If you’re ad-libbing, congratulations, oh brave one! Just make sure you stick to telling story. It’s a good idea to have 10 points made out and speak for less than a minute on each point. That’ll help you.
5. If you’re mentioning somebody by name – and it’s a sensitive story – check with them first or use a pseudonym.
6. If there is any content that you might deem ‘mature’ check in with us first. We’re not prudes, but not too crude either. We have a wide variety of people there and while we love juicy stories, we can’t have stories whose main point is overly sexual.
7. We will stop the story if the content is offensive, hateful, overly crude or objectifying. So, keep this in mind while you’re preparing it. If the story couldn’t be told on public radio then it’s probably unlikely to be suitable for Tenx9.
8. Lots of us love a drink, but if the host thinks you’ve had too much, it’ll be in everybody’s best interest that you don’t tell, so we won’t let you tell or will stop you.
9. Keep to the ten minutes. We will ring a bell once you’ve come to that point, and if you go longer, we’ll probably come join you on stage to help you to stop!
