Don’t take this literally. I haven’t lost my speaking voice. Much to my husband’s disappointment.
This is a post about writing. I haven’t yet found my writing voice.
Or re-found it. I first discovered my writing voice in high school.
Somewhat ironically for someone who became a wordy nerd, English was not my strongest subject. Not until midway through year 11. (Phew! Great timing, huh?) I had a fabulous English teacher in year 11 – someone I feel lucky to call a friend today – and managed to find my own writing style and voice. Something which I discovered came from confidence more than anything else. Confidence that I had something to write about. Confidence that my story was worth telling. Confidence that I could do the topic justice.
Cue top marks in the only compulsory subject throughout the rest of my high school days. I repeat, phew.
But then I went to university. A place with lecturers who mark you down if you don’t write in the style that speaks to them. The style that takes the romance out of learning (if you can find romance in balance sheets and sentence trees*). The style that will get you published in academic journals.
And then I worked in sales (for the longest 16 months of my working life). A career with clients who don’t award you work if you don’t write in the style that speaks to them. Usually plain English with a flair for dramatic overstatements and promises you know you can’t deliver on.
And then I worked in marketing and communications. Which I loved, and still do. But which means I’ve spent my entire career writing in the voices of different brands and organisations.
In some instances, I’ve had the chance to create those voices. But they’re still the voices of brands and organisations. They’re not mine.
So I started this blog. I started it as a hobby, really. Something to do in between nappy changes and Peekaboo, stories and playgroup, feedings and baths. Something to keep me writing when work was slow. Something to keep my brain ticking over.
And I’ve realised I need to find my voice.
I’ve glanced back over my blog, and I’m not sure there’s a single voice emerging. There are a few voices. Some are by-products of organisations I’ve worked for or with. Some are the voices of other bloggers that have seeped into my own writing (you can sometimes tell which blogs I’ve been reading by the tone of my posts). Some are hurried (and harried!). Some are just downright lazy.
I can’t tell which ones are my own voice. Perhaps all, and they’re just the voices of my different moods. Perhaps none.
My search continues. Where art thou, voice?
Do you have a writing style that you ‘own’? How did you develop it?
*I can actually find plenty of romance in sentence trees. Hence my wordy nerdiness. Don’t judge me.
I found this very interesting, this is my post on a similar vein (vane?)
http://joeh-crankyoldman.blogspot.com/2012/07/righting.html
I really don’t usually do that.
I feel a lot like you. And I write for a living too. Perhaps that’s the problem? I think it may just take a long time.
I think it takes time, practise and just living the experiences. My voice now is definitely different to what it was when I first started blogging almost 2 years ago. Just go with the flow. You’ll find it soon enough. In the meantime, we’ll still keep coming back here to visit 🙂
It’s a tricky one isn’t it? I can totally relate. I was always good at English yet one of the few comments I recall from a school report was that while I was a capable writer, I wasn’t a very descriptive one. This ‘clinical style of writing served me well through hundreds of psychological reports but I am now wanting to write with feeling and it’s an ongoing challenge! I agree with Grace though….we just have to persevere and practice, right?
when i wrote my thesis for my doctorate, i was told that it was very good, but that i had a too much of a chatty journalistic style, and not academic enough.
I can totally identify with this. I worked in the government for fifteen years and a huge part of my job was writing. Everyone told me how good I was it, but I hated it because it wasn’t my voice. Of course, the better I got and the more good writing I churned out, the more work I got.
When I started writing for myself, on my blog, I realised that I really do love writing and that I am good at it and that it is valuable. As long as I get to write as me, in my voice.
Thanks for your thoughts and comments, everyone. I really appreciate your sharing. It’s a toughie – but I’m starting to think there’s no ‘one’ voice. We’re always changing, our moods are always changing – why shouldn’t our voices change, too?
Finding your blogging voice is very difficult, I think even more so if you have written for other mediums. I think because blogging is so personal it challenges us to find our voice, frankly our personalities have many facets and it’s hard to condense that into one consistent style for a blog.
I haven’t found my voice yet. Like you, I’ve has plenty of voices. A few authentic voices, a few brand voices, a few sad stilted lonely voices.
I think that the search for the voice is a search for an end (a telos). Blogging doesn’t come with one.
“Something to keep my brain ticking over…” is not an end.
A good post to read in the wilderness.
I think there are days where my voice is strong, others not so. But as you say, I do agree it changes with our moods and over time. (visiting from weekend rewind) x
Blogging really helped me pinpoint my voice after years of writing for other people. But it grows and changes all the time. Thanks for Rewinding!
I still dream of writing as a living. Not necessarily as an author (though that would be nice) but just regularly writing, something, anything. I don’t think I really know what my voice is either. I haven’t really thought about it and when I do it makes my head hurt as I don’t really know what to look for. Sigh
Swinging by as part of the weekend rewind and leaving some fairy wishes and butterfly kisses
Thanks for visiting, fellow Rewinders! It was interesting to read this post back – not quite a year later, I feel I know my writing voice better.
Love this post. I honestly don’t think I’ve had enough time to find my blogging voice. You could say it’s evolving.
Speak from the heart and have a conversation xxx