Finding your writer’s voice can be a daunting and doubtful task. You may think about writing and then wonder what to write about. Or, you find a topic on which to write then become self-doubting. You worry that you won’t write as well as the other guy or that you won’t give the subject its due respect. Oftentimes, it takes a life changing event like a death, or a birth, to bring the commitment to your writer’s voice to life. This is what has happened to me, when my father died; I had this insatiable desire to write.
I had tried writing before, was an English major in fact. Many times I would begin the first few pages of a novel or a child’s book, jotting down ideas only to lay them aside in light of other pursuits. I had a writer’s voice, but it was buried somewhere deep inside me. When my mother called me to come home to see my father who was dying of Parkinson’s disease, when I saw him and he could barely talk, this is when I felt my writer’s voice rising. I looked around at his funeral and felt the whole world should have been crying that day. Most were, but I wanted the whole world to know the grief I had felt that day. This is when my writer’s voice made its first peep.
I began with writing letters to the editor to my local newspaper. I wrote about my wonderful father, local pet issues, and a nice lady who happened to pay my groceries one day. This helped quiet the writer’s voice for a bit, but it wanted more, I wanted more. I wanted to write novels, children’s books, magazine articles, plays, newspaper columns. I read the internet daily and would read comments that people had posted. I realized everyone wanted to be heard and also, everyone had a right to be heard. Everyone has a writer’s voice; it just needs to be stimulated sometimes.
I began by reading the news, I always read the newspaper and internet gossip, but this time, I concentrated on the real stories. I looked for writing jobs and found this one. My first two stories were published as news stories. Before three weeks had passed, I had my first beat assignment. All of us have a writer’s voice, my father’s death made mine scream. Sometimes we have to take a look at our lives and see what inspires us and then begin to type. Words are amazing tools that help us express our feelings and bring that vocalization to life.
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