Liars’ League
July 26th, 2008 by Jon Pinnock
A couple of weeks ago I spent a very enjoyable evening in an upstairs room at The Wheatsheaf in London’s Rathbone Place, listening to a group of talented actors from the Liars’ League reading half a dozen short stories, once of which was my own “The Patience of a Saint”. If you happen to live near London, I really can’t think of a better market for short fiction than this one. OK, they don’t pay (although they do waive the £3 entry fee for the evening’s authors), but there can’t be anything much cooler than hearing something you’ve written being read by a real, live, proper actor in front of a real, live, proper audience. You do not know how pleased I was to get accepted after two near misses.
Each month, they choose a theme, and this one was “Saints and Sinners”. My piece was read by Paul Clarke, and I think he got it just right. The audience seemed appreciative, laughing in all the right places, and none of the wrong ones. I also enjoyed the other stories, and I’ll certainly be going along there again, even if I don’t manage to get anything selected. I really would recommend it as a good evening out, and a great market for writers. My tips for getting selected are: 1) Give the reader something to work with (remember that they’re actors!), 2) Don’t be afraid to be a bit edgy (but avoid being too “literary”) and 3) Give your piece a good, punchy ending (so that the audience know when to applaud).
Here’s a link to my piece (possibly best not to listen at work, as there is some fruity language in there) - or even better, sign up to the free podcast via iTunes, and get a load of other ones (my particular favourites are Jeff Wood’s Personal Jesus and Martin Pengelly’s Incurable Romantic Seeks Dirty Filthy Whore – you just know that’s going to be a great story, don’t you?)