Finding Your Voice

One aspect I keep hearing about being an author (or any artist really) is finding your voice. For authors, some say it takes three to four books to find. Maybe that’s true. For others, they may find it right away, either way I think it’s a natural part of the process that can’t be forced or dwelled on. I think you need to just keep writing and it’ll come about as you mature as a writer. Now, of course there are many aspects that play a part in finding one’s voice from structure, to genre, to author point of view, and everything other tool a writer has. Knowing the basics of storytelling, genre expectations, POV usage, grammar, sentence structure, pacing, help refine and discover an author’s voice, but most importantly, I think, is being authentic or genuine with your writing. What drives you to write? What’s your view on the world, on people, or a topic you’re writing about? And sharing that in an honest way, from your point of view, is the heart of finding your voice. I’ve only written one book so far, I don’t think I’ve completely found my voice yet, but I can feel it coming through already. Maybe it starts to shine when you start to feel comfortable with the basics that you can explore that authenticity that sits at your core and begins to seep into your writing. Maybe that’s when you’ve found your voice. All I know is that it can’t be forced and it’ll show on the pages, and readers will sense it. In that case, shit, I hope I’ve found my authentic voice. Tim and I chat about all this and more in our latest Writer Syndrome episode about finding your voice as we still discover our own.