Your Voice: A Quest for an Identity

We are writers, musician, programmers, builders and creators of anything and everything. But we are not truly expressing ourselves, and speaking the truth, until we’ve found our voice: the tone, tenor, pitch, style, personality we use to express ourselves.

Our voice is the very essence we display to the world. Find our voice and ultimately ourselves is difficult. Others have asked how I found my voice, however, there is no easy answer to that – I’m not even sure I can say I’ve found I’ve found my voice yet. It’s a never-ending quest – not a Grail quest.

But I feel I’ve found something that has the texture of truth, even if only a tactile approximation. I’ll share some of my thoughts, but keep in mind I don’t hold the answers firmly at all.

I’m learning, and I hope my learning benefits yours. This is written for writers, but should not be limited to creators.

Write a lot. This is almost all I need to say, as nothing else matters without the practice of writing a lot. Write blog posts, letters, booklets, diatribes (my personal favorites), letters to the editor, book reviews, love poems, short stories, novellas, and manifestos. The sheer mass of your writing becomes the raw matter from which your voice will emerge.

Experiment with the bizarre. Rip off the greats, and the goods as well. This does not mean plagiarize, rather, take your favorite creators and emulate their voice. Eventually, your voice will echo your idol’s essence.

Start Talking to Yourself. My writing voice is really the voice in my head. It’s not how I talk aloud, but how I talk to myself. In the noisy cavern of my skull, I listen to myself talk and that’s the voice I try to write down.

Getting that voice from your head to paper – that’s the trick. It’s by far the most difficult impediment, but again, do it often enough, and you’ll get proficient at it. It’s a rewiring of the synapses, so that your thoughts shoot down from fingertips and arise as typing motions, as bits and pixels. Most people don’t do hear themselves clearly enough to be accomplished at transferring their thoughts to paper, and thus, there is low fidelity.

Truth is Beauty and Beauty is Truth. I write a lot, and most of it is (and will be) bullshit. You need this bullshit if you want to find the truth. Sort though this shit until you recognize the truth you want to express. This truth should be a personal revelation. Many writers judge their writing from logical and predetermined standards.

Find Clarity. Good writing, as I understand it, is clear thinking. If your thoughts are muddled, your writing will reflect this. I would recommend a self-taught course on logic. However, I’ve found from writing a ton of papers, it’s a matter of simplifying your thoughts. Practice removing extraneous ideas and words. Consequently, this will leave you with a simple thought.

Remove the Noise. It’s a process of subtraction more than addition. Most people end up with too many words, because they never subtract. The noise gets in the way of your voice, so pare it down, trimming the noise from the bush until you’re left with the truth. To this day, I still need to write down everything in my head and then later remove the fat. My composition professor, Mrs. Hayes, once told me, “A well written paper is never finished, its continuously being edited,” after you write, edit, and remove the noise.

Most people also have too much noise in their lives to hear their own thinking. Too much is going on around them, online, and they have no time for solitude. You can’t hear your thoughts, your voice, without solitude. Removing the noise in your life is an integral key to finding your voice.

The Voice is Strong with You. You don’t embark on a quest for your voice for the sake of beauty – a noble pursuit. Its not enough to say “Hey I found my voice, I think I’ll take up knitting,” you must use your voice. Use it to express yourself, help others, and to change the world.

Reasons why I write:

Simplicity, in a world that needlessly complicated situations

Minimalism, to stem the tide of consumerism

Anarchism, in a world increasingly totalitarian, especially in the growing private sector

Deprogramming, to challenge accepted wisdom

How will you use your voice?

Best,

Char

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