The Art of Storytelling
Writer’s Table Read
Writers and their stories are so significant that they can take our routine or mundane experiences and swirl them into classic, adventurous, and mystical tall tales with a pen stroke. Whisking us away into imaginary worlds, escaping, for a moment, the realities of this one.
But behind the scenes of these storytellers is the work, the long hours we don’t see or think about when we read their stories. The journey of a writer is epic in itself.
This past weekend, I was invited to enter the fictional world of writer Tameaka Taylor. An aspiring writer and member of ABAG Write Strong writers’ group. Under the direction of Ashley Pippen of the Genesis Theater, ABAG guild member. Hosted Write Strong’s first Table Read featuring the first draft of Tameaka’s novel.
Sitting in the company of other authors, actors, and beta readers. I witnessed her story as the sound of their voices breathed life into the characters, dialogue, and backstory of Tameaka’s writings.
At the end of this intriguing creative session, I was able to speak with Ashley about how important Table Reads are for writers as follows:
Table Reads are a key component in a writer’s realm.
Real voice and expressions can give the writer a different perspective of their work
Feedback from a community of literary artists is invaluable. It can motivate and support the writer to finish with a strong story.
Tameaka admitted to being nervous, hearing her work acted out. But it gave her the confidence to believe she is a writer. And what she desires to do is more than a hobby. The feedback was positive, helping her to see the edits she needed to make. And also, which characters and scenarios stood out the most, suggesting elaborating more on them.
The ABAG ‘Write Strong’ writers is a safe community of writers. They encourage one to be authentically themselves among a diverse group of writers. An online community of bloggers, novelists, poets, and screenwriters. Writers building a strong cultural community for the love of the written pen.
This was an eye-opening experience as it was for Tameaka. I got a chance to revel in all those ‘aha’ moments of her tales and was quickly turning pages to see what was next.
By Brooke Williams
