On Finding Your Voice, sort of
People keep asking my advice lately.
Lol wut.
Well, I guess it’s fine. But I’m just a pair of eyeballs posing as a human being. Keep your salt shaker handy to liberally season anything I say. I will not be held responsible for the stupid things you do with my advice.
On having a voice:
When I was in writing classes people kept asking the teacher about how to develop their voice. It confused the hell out of me. What is a “voice?” As long as you’re not trying to be anyone else, you’re yourself right?
Unfortunately, I was so confused by the question I never paid attention to the answer. Or maybe the teacher just bullshitted so I forgot what they said. Bullshit answers tend to lay pretty light in the brain. You can remember them talking but not the words they spoke…
I think, though, that I finally learned what they were asking. They were still kids. They were asking the teacher who they were. Poor kids! Poor teacher!
I don’t know much, and everybody is different. What works for me may not work for you. But lately I keep hearing people talking about their inability to be creative. Not having a voice is a similar complaint, in a way. At least, the solution is the same.
Here goes:
Empty your brain. Upend all that garbage and start fresh, empty. Nature abhors a vacuum, right? The second you empty your brain, a thought will rush in to fill it.
This is fine. Use this. Put your pen to paper and start writing.
Writing poetry, for me, is a conversation with my subconscious. I’m always a little bit curious to see what it will say next. What little monster will pop out of the deep Id? What strange conclusion will be drawn from this inauspicious little starter word?
I read once that creative people actually have a stronger link with their subconscious than non-creative people. It’s that little touch of madness… too strong a link makes you unfit to live in a society; too weak a link, you’re a robot I guess. But all you robots, do not despair. If you envy the wobbly reality on this side of things, you can work on breaking down that wall. Start by emptying your brain. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
Oh, you’re done emptying your brain already? Now write, or draw. The first random word or phrase that comes to mind, or the first line you draw. Kick it around. Follow where it leads. The Rationalist inside of you will tug on your sleeve and say, “hey… this is stupid, what is this shit?” Grab that rational person and upend them, over and over. You’ve ears only for your muse and her name is Crazy.
There is a thin, thin line between controlling your verbal rabbit chasing, and pure schizophrenic word salads. It’s like controlling a lucid dream. Very fine balancing act.
However, if you can master the art of tapping into your crazy, you will never be creatively blocked. Once I learned how to do this, I wrote my novel. Every time I found myself slowing down, not knowing where to go from here, I turned off my thinking brain and let the schizophrenic lead the leash for a few seconds. She never lets me down. Sometimes she takes me on a really strange, dumb, or unexpected journey, but if I just leave her to her own devices, she’ll sniff out the truffles. I think I mixed some metaphors there… schizophrenics aren’t good at finding truffles. Who knows, maybe they are.
How does this relate to finding your own voice? Well, I’ve always been an oddball, so I’ve always drawn or written odd things. A logical person will write logical things. And a normal person writes normal things. What if you’re ordinary? If you are, guess what? Ordinary people will love you. And there are a lot of ordinary people in the world. You’ll be a hit.
Help, I don’t have a voice! The anguished writer cried aloud, with her loud voice.
Yes, you do. It’s probably not the voice you wished you had. You can’t iron the uniqueness, or the normalness, out of yourself. That’ll only make you sad. Instead, embrace what you are. Accept the flaws. I must accept that I always write free verse with small words, frequently recurring words. Blah blah darkness blah blah time blah blah wild blah blah me I myself me. I get so bored of myself. I want to write like Edgar Allen Poe or Mark Twain, but that’s not happening. I’m too lazy to try, and if I did, it’d be stilted and wrong. It’d be more like an autotuned voice, or a helium voice.
You’ve got to be who you are. You’ve got to write what comes naturally. Don’t try to impress. Stay true. Don’t fake. Don’t act. Relax your mind and find that thin line between rabbit chasing and schizophrenia, and tread the edge. Don’t let the Rationalist hook you away. If you do this when you put pen to paper, then whatever you write or draw is pure untrammeled you. The hardest part is not about finding your voice; you already have it. It can’t leave you. The hardest part is shutting that inner critic up, and accepting the voice that you have.
Edit:: Conversations with these two are what inspired the above post. Read their stuff.
Lille Sparven speaks the raw truth:
www.lillesparven.com/2019/02/censuring-mirror.html?m=1
Paul Sunstone asks the good questions:
Fresh Hell 
i love this! neither me nor any of my little voices could have said it better! ❤
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Hehe, so many voices…
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I take it I had a supporting role in being among those who prompted this solid, truthful, useful blog piece? Especial thanks to you, and whether I did or did not help prompt it.
I’m going to direct a young friend to your piece. I’ve taken a benevolent interest in her ruin and corruption. That is, on her developing her literary talents. She’s pretty good at speaking in her own voice, but we could all get better, I think.
So many cool points. “Bullshit Answers”. Totally agree with you. They are so very forgettable.
“Creativity problem and voice problems have same solution.” Spot on again. Two for two. Go us!
After that you say so many things I think good and wise I’m not going to list them all. I’m lazy like that.
Two insufferable opinions of my own.
1) Ordinary people are precious. Without them, the world would come unglued and fall apart. Or does anyone think artists could glue a world together? Artists are like cats! Getting them to unite enough to hold a society together? Hah! Go for it! I’ll sit back here and enjoy the laugh.
2) Here’s my solution to the voice/creativity problem. Do everything you advised. That’s important. But do one more thing too. Drill, drill, drill down inside yourself, and inside every issue you examine, until you find that which you cannot personally doubt.
“Is Sarah wise?” To answer that question I would drill into it, ponder it, until I came up with an answer that I myself could not personally doubt. My best, my very best idea of the truth. Even if the only answer is “I don’t know ” that’s the truth to me. That’s my authentic voice. And often enough, the answer to a question will be rather creative.
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Paul, you are so – authentically Paul 🤣🤣 gotta love it . ooops – you.
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Those are such kind words! Thank you so very much.
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From the heart, Paul x
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Love this wonderful piece of writing. So liberally littered with words of wisdom. I think I too have one of those schizophrenic muses lurking in the corners of my mind just waiting to be let loose….
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Hee hee, organized society beware! I am on a mission to free everyone’s inner schizophrenic!
Thank you ♥️
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Great mission!
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I would not put it pass you, Sarah. Not for a moment. I believe I have seen in you a mischievous streak broad as a river — a river I suspect is muddy with a whole load of plots, schemes and miscreant ideas,
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More plots than anything, of course 😉
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Of course. 😀
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LOL! A Tao master will appear as a child, to wit, dumb as fuck. This is wisdom. Do not be fooled.
Of course, self exploration and knowledge of your own values are also key to finding your voice. Why didn’t I think of that before I posted?
Yes, ordinary people are very precious. To quote Doctor Who, when he was told the person he’d seen wasn’t important: “Nobody important? Blimey, that’s amazing. You know, nine hundred years of time and space and I’ve never met anybody who wasn’t important before.” I just said ordinary to appeal to people who don’t identify as oddballs. Are there any of those out there? Maybe I just naturally surround myself with oddballs so I never meet the ordinary people… They must exist.
Of course you had a major role. Why didn’t I shout out? I’m getting rusty. Edit forthcoming.
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I’m grateful to you for the post. Good point about values and such.. There is so much in the depths to drag up.
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Hey! I just posted on this very topic — inspired by your post, Sarah. Of course, you don’t deserve the suffering reading the poem will bring you, but lhat’s life. 😀
https://cafephilos.blog/2019/02/24/a-flock-of-sparrows-for-majel-most-poets-are-some-other-poet/#more-9518
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Oooh. I’m sure I’ll find some way to enjoy it 😉
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Sarah, this was a steak dinner complete with really good bread and butter that they bring to your table at the beginning, and Paul’s poem was that huge-ass piece of cheesecake they bring afterward and thunk down on the table and everyone starts laughing at you because there is no way you’re going to eat that after all that bread and steak and the loaded baked potato and the Caesar salad and three glasses of tea. But you do. You eat it. So much here, in both. I hope this restaurant is open 24/7 and they don’t need this table for a while.
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❤
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Sarah,
Oink, pink. ‘K, autocorrect wants the second oink to say pink — so why the hell not. Anyway, like all good piggies, I was out truffle hunting and I discovered gold! Loved this! Mona
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LOL!! That’s what pigs are good for! Oink pink back atcha ❤
How's your social media detox going? …Succeeding?
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