WRITING GUIDE

Finding Your Writer’s Voice

Experience, commitment, and repetition.

“A writer’s voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more. A writer’s voice line the stroke of an artist’s brush- is the thumbprint of her whole person- her idea, wit, humor, passions, rhythms.”
Patricia Lee Gauch

The art of writing is an interesting study. Those who do it professionally are often along the same track as those who do it as a hobby or for self-expression. Unlike in other mediums (no pun intended), writers expose themselves in ways that are direct — the best writing often has a clear and cut interpretation. Writing can, of course, be interpretive and abstract, especially in poetry.

Writers grow through practice. We grow through trial and error — mostly error. We craft our work knowing well that there is an incredibly high chance of rejection.

We do what nearly any literate individual can do. We do not need to learn an instrument, nor do we have to learn color theory. And yet, the limits of skill in our craft knows no bounds.

What separates us from the crowd is our voice. Everyone has their own voice. And yet, unlike other artistic outlets, our voice takes patience and practice to develop.

Over the years, I’ve found the following three traits to be the most beneficial to growing my own voice.

Experience

Your voice is naturally developed through experience. The more you write, the more you develop your voice. Just like anything, practice makes perfect. Experience is uniquely beneficial to writers because as we go through life, we learn more about ourselves and our world around us. Through these life experiences, we are able to grow personally and artistically.

Commitment

Much of writing is about commitment. It’s very similar to maintaining a workout schedule. Writers don’t always have time to write. We have jobs, families, hobbies. But if we are to develop as writers, then we must find a time of day and write. We must put our pens to paper and craft our art.

Writers are creators. We bring imaginary works of art to life through the power of the written word.

Repetition

Repetition works very similarly to that of experience. As stated above, the more you write, the more you develop your voice. Repetition is uniquely beneficial for writers as it allows us to become more familiar with our own voices.

A common requirement for writers is to write a minimum of 500 words per day. This is to build up a personal habit of writing. When we force ourselves to sit down and pen 500 words, we are training our minds to think like a writer’s mind.