"Reading and writing are Siamese twins; they are conjoined,” I stress when speaking before young people who dream to be a writer. “If you want to be a writer, be a reader.”
"How about writing and speaking?" they ask, processing my words.
That makes me pause. Then . . . "They are also twins, but of a different kind. They grow inside the same womb but they are separate, different in what the eyes see and what the ears hear."
Writers cannot hide forever in the inbox and say, “I’d rather write than speak.” We cannot refuse to speak before an audience, because we get invited or are assigned (by publishers) to be in the outbox, speaking about our books, why and how we wrote them. That’s why I label writing and speaking as fraternal twins.
For one, a writer is equipped with a backspace key. And before long, the backspaced manuscript is ready for reading without typos. Live speeches, on he other hand, are like an oral rough draft that craves for a delete key but the craving remains a craving.
I spend six months, or more, perfecting a 600-word picture book, so speaking for 30 minutes out loud feels like writing an encyclopedia.
But that’s how it is. A writer needs to be a talker as well. It's fact I have accepted—but when I do speak before an audience, I pray for an extra serving of grace.
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