Find Your Voice?
Yesterday’s post about my desire to blog more often generated only 1 comment but several ‘offline’ discussions (if you count Twitter and Facebook as offline). The main term that kept repeating itself is ‘find your voice’. I’ve heard this term many times in relation to blogging and even to writing in general (before the blog era). But what does it really mean?
I’ve always enjoyed writing despite an education that didn’t emphasized it. I remember having a conversation with my brother while I was in high school complaining that I hated reading the books my English teachers would assign. “If only I could write the reports and essays without having to read the book,” I said. My brother, four years older and wiser than I, replied “I like the reading. It’s the writing I could do without.”
As mentioned yesterday my problem was always coming up with ideas of what to write about. Even when I did read the books I still struggled with this issue. But when I knew what I was going to write about the words flowed quite easily. I’m still like that today.
When I first started to blog in 2004 (predating this blog) I picked a subject I was passionate about and blogged exclusively about that. I started this blog about 7 months later as a place where I could blog about anything I felt like writing about. Through the years I’ve ranted on politicians (while trying to avoid politics), instructed on technical issues and reviewed music. This blog has been a place to vent, ply my coding skills and build my own personal knowledge base.
I still don’t know what ‘find your voice’ really means but these are the types of things you can expect to see here when you visit. And if you have any ideas for what I should write about feel free to let me know through the contact form.
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Hello again…
My view of “find your voice”… It’s part style and part content. Some people prefer to remain technical if they have a technology blog, stating facts and commentary as if they were an analytical machine. That’s their style, their voice… they’re comfortable with it, and it works for them. Others may get very ethereal and introspective, or write with a dark angry edge. Again, it’s who they are, it comes out in their writing, and they don’t fight it.
I’m more conversational in style, not afraid to reveal weaknesses, and I’ll quickly try to turn to humor (even self-deprecating) without thinking about it. That’s me, and that’s what you’ll get on my blog. If that type of writing doesn’t appeal to a reader, they’ll have to move on. If I tried writing with a dark edge, it wouldn’t work, as I don’t have that (most of the time). My writing usually won’t be formal or follow all the correct conventions. Often I’m writing the conversation that’s going on in my head (often between two or more of the voices that reside there…)
So for me, that’s what I mean when I say “find your voice.” If you’re writing in a style that comes easy, you’ve found it. Hope that helps…