“I write only because there is a voice within me that will not be still.” Sylvia Plath
Finding your voice is not a quick process! For me, it was only after years of blogging and several books that I started to find mine, and it's something that continues to evolve over time.
What is your ‘voice' anyway?
It's essentially a way of communicating the authentic you and happens when you embrace what you love without being embarrassed or self-censoring, knowing that there are others out there like you who will resonate with it.
It emerges when you stop writing things just because you think other people will like them and when you stop apologizing for what you write.
- When you stop trying to be like the writers you admire and begin to emerge as yourself.
- When you stop writing the same thing that others are writing.
- When you share what you love with pride.
- When you accept that you will turn people off as well as attracting people who love what you do.
- It's the real you, with no protective screen in front.
And that's hard to get to.
This is an excerpt from The Successful Author Mindset. Available now in ebook, print and audiobook formats.
You should be able to hear my voice in this article and if you listen to my podcast, you shouldn't notice any difference, because my non-fiction is written with my authentic, real-life voice.
If you read a number of my novels, you'll hear my fiction voice, my shadow side, which is different but still distinctive.
We all have different facets that we share with the world. I behave differently at home with my husband than I do when speaking to an audience at an event. I'm different with my Mum than I am with a close friend.
I'm different when I'm in introvert writing silent mode, to when I'm having a few drinks with my author mates at a convention.
But my inner voice and my essential self remain the same, it's a core within me that you will either resonate with or not.
And you have to find what that is for you, too.
Finding your voice is about knowing yourself, and letting yourself be the writer you really are. Here are some questions that might help:
- What fascinates you?
- What are the themes that you keep returning to in your work? What obsesses you?
- What images, colors and photos are you drawn to?
- What do you like to read or watch or listen to? What are your favorite books or films or songs? What do they have in common?
- What makes you angry or sad, happy or aroused? What stirs your emotions?
- What do you stand for? What do you defend?
Answer these truthfully, without judgment, without considering what the answer ‘should' be.
Writers find their voice through writing, and for me and many others, it takes a number of books before you really get into your stride.
Writing Desecration was the turning point for me as someone fascinated by demons and the supernatural, as someone who ponders the deeper side of life and writes death in every story. Despite trying to write ‘straight' thrillers, everything I wrote had a supernatural edge. So now I lean into my crazy and embrace what my true self wants to write about.
I've covered dealing with the inner critic here, and the fear of rejection and criticism here.
Here are a few more tips for finding your voice:
Use journaling or free writing
Not every word you write has to be shared with the public! Writing your own truth takes practice and sometimes it's best NOT to be sharing that stuff!
Write freely and experiment, write terrible poetry or rant about whatever you like. Read your words back with acceptance or just put them in a drawer. Check out Orna Ross's books on free writing for more on this.
Use blogging or Wattpad
Blogging changed my life. Before 2008, my writing consisted of over a decade of academic and business writing, stilted, concise corporate speak which curbed any personality. Blogging released my inhibited style and allowed my personality to come through.
I've written over 1,000 blog posts on TheCreativePenn.com in the last eight years. That's a lotta words, and the practice of writing in public and feedback through social media and comments has released my inhibitions about sharing what's in my mind.
If you'd rather not blog, you could try Wattpad.com, an online writing and reading platform where people post their stories in progress, while they are still in creation mode. The style is relaxed and there's a lot of fan fiction. It can certainly be a way to build an audience for your work, but because of its relaxed format, it can also be a way to lean into your voice.
Essentially, however you look at it, you find your voice through writing. Of course, it will develop and change over time. Like the layers of your personality, you'll find new depths to your voice and your expression.
“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” Virginia Woolf
This is an excerpt from The Successful Author Mindset. Available now in ebook, print and audiobook formats.
