Are You Using Your Authentic Voice? — I Hope Not
Writers are honest-to-goodness dull as a dollop of dung
You’ve probably heard it a twenty hundred thousand million times, “Just be yourself.” Advice that is as stale as the crumbs in your belly button. It’s not solid gold advice, it’s as loose and as watery as a dose of salmonella.
We writers are advised to use our authentic voice, to share more of our experiences and personal observations. God forbid.
How would that look?
- My supermarket was selling sausages at three for a pound today.
- My neighbour told me she was constipated for four days.
- I watched TV for five hours last night.
I am a big fan of American journalist and author Bill Bryson. So much so that I followed many of his footsteps when I visited Australia. I even sat in the same chair in a hotel in Canberra that Bill Bryson had once sat in.
I got chatting with the bellhop who remembered Bryson.
The hotel was honoured to have him stay. One morning, the receptionist asked the bellhop about their distinguished guest, “Is he awake?”
“Yes,” he replied.
