Finding your voice or finding your guts: Which way dear weary writer?
Finding your voice isn’t the assignment
The main writing advice you will hear a lot of people blunt out is dear writer please find your voice.
Finding your voice as a writer makes you unique. It gives your writing the authority it requires to pass the message just like the writer wants
But so many writers get stuck in that place of finding their voice. So many questions get asked in that land as dry as a desert.
In the desert of finding your voice, you will find vast spaces of land filled with sand and less or no water and if you are not careful you get lost in that desert and never know if you’ve found that voice.
It is like walking in the desert searching for water. 70 percent of the time you will find water but it will be muddy. You will find yourself wondering should I drink this and die or should I just die from the scorching sun and heat?
Many writers think it is about finding their voice. Walking around the desert searching for water, fresh water from an adequately treated stream. We desire to have this form of enjoyment in this barren land of writing.
People and writers in this situation fail to realize that some things in life and the creative process are out of our control. The only way we can begin to control the things we have no control over is to focus on doing the things we can control.
Finding your voice isn’t the assignment we have been asked to do. Though it brings maturity and authority into your writing it isn’t the thing you should be focused about.
Your mindset is why you wander about the desert searching for something that isn’t there in the first place. You don’t have a finding your voice problem you have a mindset and confidence problem
The thing about finding your voice is that it is the effect of something else. It is the by-product of consistent publishing of your work and sharpening of your skills. Nobody gets the fine refinement of their voice by just waiting on it and not putting something out there into the world
It eventually comes but not without the sacrifices of believing in your craft and putting them out into the world. The feedback, the experience, and the consistent writing are the hairy fathers of our dear pompous finding your voice.
So don’t sweat it. Don’t beat yourself too much about finding your voice. Learn to do the work of real writing and give sacrifices to the hairy fathers of finding your voice
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