Read to Speak

Among other reasons.

Photo by Anna Shvets

I’m publishing a collection of short stories called Fire and Stone. 14 authors. 14 tales of daring, danger, and magic. Perfect to read out loud to your kids. I’d appreciate your support. Back the campaign. Every little bit helps.

Now, your regularly scheduled article.

---

Being a father helped improve my public speaking. You don’t get this upgrade automatically. It takes discipline and diligence, just like anything else.

But being a father is like being given a full scholarship to your chosen university. You aren’t going to get handed a diploma just for existing, but the path has been cleared. No excuses. You only have yourself to blame.

So what am I talking about?

Reading to your kids.

Every day. Every night.

Reading a wide variety of genres and formats. Start when they can’t even hold their own head up yet. Read picture books and read poetry.

Especially poetry.

It’s the most natural practice in the world and it gets more useful the older they get. You get to practice your timbre and rhythm and elocution. You get to hone your sense of dramatic tension. You get more awareness of the power of pauses. If you really get into it, you can practice different voices for different characters.

All of this builds your repertoire.

1. You don’t worry about looking silly. Usually, you want to look silly to get a laugh. This is a good tonic for self-consciousness.

2. Your voice gets some much-needed training. You taste all sorts of different words on your tongue. Reading out loud is much different than reading silently.

Of course, nothing helped my public speaking more than getting in front of a room full of people and doing public speaking. I’m not suggesting this is a replacement. But being a good father will change you in ways you didn’t expect. Your rough edges will be chipped off and sanded down, and your best impulses polished and more likely to shine.

If you let it happen. If you lean into it.

Reading out loud to your kids every night is just another example of this phenomenon. You don’t do it for your own benefit, but the fruit ends up nourishing your soul anyway.