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Margaret I. Carr

That Dreaded Intro

For all but a lucky few, the words "Introduce yourself," or "Give a brief bio," or variations on those two phrases, bring on sweaty palms, dry mouth and throat, and turn normally stable knees to quivering cartilage. It doesn't matter whether it is at a PTA meeting, a writers' conference or a workshop or being asked to write a bio for your first book. It's awful!

"Come on," you tell yourself. "You're a writer. This is just writing, right?"

Yourself answers, "Not about me! I can't write about me! I'm so un-interesting!"

Well, no, but convincing yourself is difficult. You are just too close to the subject. If you've lived in the same small town all your life, you think of the well-traveled authors and sigh in envy. If you've practically lived out of suitcases, you yearn for stability and someplace to call your own. Either way, you can't see how anyone would be interested in you.

But, you have to do it. You have to write it. Now! Stress. Stress. Stress.

There are ways to reduce the stress.

Displacement, preparation and practice are tools you can use.

Displacement? How can you do that?

One way is to find a partner, preferably someone who doesn't know you well, and agree to swap. You'll write the partner's bio and he or she will write yours.

"But how can someone who doesn't know me well write about me?"

Easy. Ask questions. Do a mini-interview.

A while back I represented a small non-profit in a series of workshops. The group was supposed to come up with a county-wide action plan and they wanted people of all types involved. As a substitute teacher and a board member of a non-profit oriented towards education, I expected to be put in the education group. I was rather apprehensive, after all I was 'just a sub', but figured at least I knew what to expect.

Instead, I was assigned to the social services group. Ouch. Let's just say that both as a 'sub' and through my non-profit, my contacts with social service people had not been positive. Okay, downright adversarial.

I chose a seat in back and hoped nobody would notice me. Didn't work. The facilitator had us move our chairs into a circle and gave a brief talk about our objectives. Then came the dreaded intro word.

Panic time! I almost missed what she said next. We weren't going to introduce ourselves; we were going to introduce each other. Huh? How could I introduce a stranger?

Easy. She gave us our instructions. We were paired off and were to spend the first few minutes with the person with the odd number asking questions of the person with the even number and then were to reverse the process. She gave us time signals and it all worked out pretty well.

There were some hitches. Thinking up questions on demand wasn't easy. Answers were sometimes rather surprising. But, it worked. I also, over the six months we met, made some friends and gained a much better understanding of social services.

In writing a bio, you have the advantage of being able to think about what questions you would like to ask or be asked in advance. You can imagine yourself sitting next to an unknown writer and think about what you would like to know about that person. You can test out questions with a partner. Even without a partner you can play odd and even by yourself. Isn't that similar to what you do developing a character?

Try it. I bet you'll be surprised at how interesting you actually are.