For most writing can be challenging. Whether you are a good writer but may be restricted to a certain style of writing or whether you are new at writing and want to get into blogging but aren’t sure how to put the words on paper. Writing can be tricky and finding your voice can be trickier. In a webinar by Lane DeGregory she discusses tips for how one can find his or her voice in their writing.
As a writer you need to understand your audience. For example, if you are writing for news you must stick to the facts and if you are writing for a story you need to draw the reader’s attention. The most important thing in writing is confidence. Like the majority of things in life the way to success is through confidence of knowing you can. Learning what works for you and doing it to your full potential. Also you want to establish a voice that readers would be able to recognize in different styles of writing. A good example of that is the Beatles. They were able to find a good balance between their styles of songs that even though “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I am the Walrus” are very different, listeners were able to realize they were both by the Beatles. So it is important to establish your voice and make sure its recognizable on all platforms.
DeGregory also talked about how your voice can be lost by stating, “you were born with your own individual voice but sometimes it gets squashed by your parents, teachers, friends bashing you and your voice will start changing depending on your environment and influences.” You can’t let your environment and influences block your speech. DeGregory then went on to discuss tips to help you conquer some of the issues you may have with writing. Some common obstacles she discussed were not knowing how to write your words down on paper. One thing that could help you is having a friend type out or write down things as you are talking to them.
Be able to have a conversation and talk about what you want to write about comes natural when you don’t have to stop and think to write it.
Another big thing she discussed was how to free up your voice. Some things to keep in consideration is find pieces of writing that you like or that inspire you and use those pieces to motivate you. Find places where you are at ease and your thoughts flow naturally, for example the shower. As weird as it may sound these place can help you get your thoughts flowing and be able to help you get out of your block. Also before you start writing try and think what is the big question, where is the turning point, consider the chronology, start listing characters and scenes, and know what your opening and ending are going to be. Knowing all these things before you start writing will help you out tremendously and maybe cut back on the writer’s block. I think the biggest thing that I took away from DeGregory is to just put anything down on paper. It doesn’t even have to make sense at first. Just get your ideas down and go from there. Don’t be afraid to fail you just need to trust yourself.
Julia Uncensored 