Finding my voice

In recent weeks I've begun to think of a writer's voice in a broader context.  We know that voice is the way a writer tells his or her tale, the unique choice of words they make, and the way they order and shape their narrative to produce something unique.

But I'm beginning to think that there's a broader meaning to voice too.  I think our personality shapes  our work in subliminal ways as much as our conscious mind shapes the choice of words and sentences.

As beginner writers, we often try to emulate the styles of our favourite authors.  I did it myself.  I have a thirty thousand word story based on the characters of The Belgariad that uses the voice of those books perfectly.  It's a journeyman piece, and completely unpublishable.

I think that to find our true voice we have to rid ourselves of shackles like that.  We have to stop wanting to write like our favourite author and want to write like ourselves.  We have to claim our own individual way of putting words on the page.  We have to capture our own truest thoughts - and have the courage to believe that those thoughts are worth writing about.

If we have an off-centre imagination, a nervous and edgy way of seeing the world, definite views on the things we write about, we need to let these out.  We have to claim our world view as legitimate, be proud of it, and use it in our writing.

It's taken me a long time to put myself onto the page, but now I have. Strong female heroines doing  things that matter, conservation issues, the beauty of the natural world, these are now at the heart of everything I do.  I've claimed my voice.