I’ve been reading an excellent blog series by Erin Buterbaugh found in the archives of Chip MacGregor’s blog. It’s about voice—something that seems to elude writers, beginning writers especially.
To quote Erin, voice is
“the personality of the author as revealed through the writing.”
When I first started writing with the intention of earning money for it, I read Finding Your Voice by Les Edgerton (btw Ane Mulligan recommends this book on a guest post she did for MacGregor’s blog).
I learned a great deal from Edgerton’s book, but it wasn’t until I read MacGregor’s most recent post on voice that I realized my need to prove myself had sabotage my voice.
I felt I needed to sound …
- Professional
- Like the expert
- Like I had it all together
Because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t …
- Be credible
- Attract readers
- Gain followers
But in not allowing my voice to come through, I failed in all those endeavors. My writing took on the personality of Charlie Brown’s teacher.
Years of Rejection
I’ve battled rejection all my life. As a small child, I got it into my head that people didn’t like the real me. So I stopped being me and tried to be what I thought others wanted. Otherwise, no one would like me and if no one liked me, then no one would love me either.
That might sound stupid, but I bet if you spent some time thinking about your own insecurities you’d begin to see how one builds on the other. As children we do not have the maturity to rationally think through our hurts.
I tried to bury the wounds thinking that would make them go away. HUGE mistake. All they did was fester and grow. I thought if I let it go, if I forgot about all that rejection, then I’d lose the wall of protection I’d built. Nothing healed the pain, and I kept most people at arm’s length, afraid to open up for fear of rejection.
Last year I gave all those wounds of rejection to Jesus. I envisioned myself coming to the cross and Jesus standing there beside that cross. I imagined holding my hurt in my hands and then I said a prayer.
“Jesus, here’s my hurt. I don’t want it anymore. I’m giving it to you and asking you to heal me.” Then I placed those wounds on the ground at Jesus’s feet and felt an immediate release. The pain disappeared and so did the weight of it.
You may say “that’s crazy.” Someone else may say “Amen, sister. You’re so right.” Those are individual opinions, and we’re all entitled to our opinion.
A habit of a lifetime isn’t changed in a day. (Tweet this) Thoughts like “You’d better not write that, it may offend someone” still assault me. When they do, I remind myself that Jesus loves me and He will never leave me nor forsake me (see Hebrews 13:5).
Jesus is the one I want to please. In Revelation 3:15, He says to be hot or cold, not lukewarm (bland). No more being bland!
All this to say, as writers we must come to grips with the fact that not everyone is going to love—or even like—what we write. Be true to yourself. Your voice will attract an audience within your niche that will love what you write. And they will clamor for more.
Let your personality shine through in your writing! (tweet this)
To read the posts on voice offered at MacGregorLiterary.com, go here. If you struggle even the tiniest with voice, I highly recommend reading through several—if not all—of the posts. They are certain to improve your writing.