“When people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.”
― Neil Gaiman
How to find your own voice
I’m not a famous writer guy. But I can share the thing I did that made me like my voice now as much as I’ve ever liked it.
Ready?
Write.
Write A LOT.
Write even when you don’t like the voice of what you’re writing.
By writing a LOT, you’ll start to pick up what there is about your writing that you don’t like. Cut those things out. What’s left is better.
Michelangelo took a block of marble and crested the statue of David by removing everything that didn’t look like David. You can do the same thing with your writing. If you write enough, you’ll see glimmers of your own writing that you like. You’ll see words and phrases you never want to write again. You’ll get better at recognizing these patterns, and your voice will be stronger.
At least, that was my experience.
You may have heard of morning pages. My writing improved when I started doing those. I’ve modified the practice since then. These days, I only do one page, and not necessarily in the morning – but I still do something like them. It helped me start picking out the words and phrases I overused. My first drafts of ANYTHING are cleaner and better now as a result.
Why It’s Worth Making Time for This Lengthy Morning Ritual – Jessica Stillman