wanting to be understood

january 22 | weekly warm-up

Choose another version of yourself or choose a character that you make up in your mind. Answer one of the following prompts from this character’s point-of-view and in their voice.

What are you dreaming of?

What are you afraid of?

What are you celebrating?

What are you hiding?

“This is what it means, for me, to be a writer. That does not mean it is what it has to mean for others. Each of us get our own unique voices, styles, expressions, dreams, and creativity. I also want to be understood- clearly, truly, and genuinely- as a human, and as a writer. And I want to foster my imagination, creativity, and passion; building a world that I love- knowing that other people may also enjoy it, and some may not." — Cheryl Bauer

On trusting the evolution of your voice…

When I started blogging, I was writing off-the-cuff, spontaneous posts that were mostly driven by my mood and were mostly directed at women. In 2019, I made the mental shift from blogger to content creator. (Some folks in the literary world don’t like to own the role of content creator, but there’s no denying that it’s part of the job.) 

Anyway, as I became more strategic about building a business, I wanted to be a resource for all creative-minded people. To build a writing platform that positioned me as a distinctive voice on creative self-discovery through writing. I thought I needed to master a writing voice that I could use with all my audiences: individuals of all genders, groups from different backgrounds, companies of all sizes and sectors, etc. 

I was often worried about things like sounding too abstract and whimsical for academic and corporate clients or sounding too complicated for folks who were looking for some quick inspiration and not a whole breakdown of how creativity works. 

So, what did I do? I kept writing and experimenting and learning from my projects. I let each journal entry, blog post, newsletter, proposal, client summary, or book that I wrote be a conversation that I was having with myself and the reader and I tried to speak naturally to them. This is how I continue to explore my voice to this day, playing with the balance of practical and unconventional and remembering that when I don’t water myself down, that’s when I make the most amazing connections and get to work on the most aligned projects.  

Your voice evolves over time. If you surrender to this process, your writing voice will reveal your layers, and some you may resist. The jealous one. The erotic one. The confused one. The naive one. You will discover yourself as you continue to follow your calling. In journaling, the goal is to speak wholeheartedly from whatever place you are occupying in the moment. In fiction, the goal is to channel the personality, worldview, and mannerisms of your characters. In memoir, your goal is to embody the version of you that you are writing from/about: your 10-year old self, your newly diagnosed self, your heartbroken self. The more you feel a resistance to certain aspects of yourself, the more you know those are parts of your voice that are begging to be explored. 

This week, remember that it’s not just your words that make your writing special, your voice also delivers meaning and offers the reader your point of view.