How do you find your writing voice? What does it take to unleash the voice inside your head to spew its literary magic upon the world?
I read somewhere that we have three sets of vocabulary -- one for speaking, one for writing, and one for reading. I can certainly agree with that, and it makes sense that the level of vocabulary we use for writing would undoubtedly affect voice.
I have a great vocabulary -- for reading, but if you were to sit down and talk to me, you would not likely be dazzled by my eloquence. I'm plain-spoken, and I have a potty mouth, and in my head, I'm pretty sure my voice has a slight British accent. Why? I haven't a clue. I live in Canada.
When I write, there is a disconnect between what is going on in my head and what is going down on paper, and to bridge the gap I use the thesaurus. A lot. I know, I know, writers are not supposed to do this, as it supposedly makes the writing forced or there is danger of using a word incorrectly, but I don't search for new and unique words so much as the right word that I cannot seem to find when I write.
I Googled today on how to find your voice and discovered this helpful blog post by Jeff Goins.
If nothing else, I promised myself to dig deep and be honest in my writing, and I continue to try to do that. I hope that will be the key to finding my voice. It's probably all just practice :)
I would be interested in your insights.
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