On Finding My Voice

I’ve been writing a few things this week that have me thinking about my voice. What do I want my reader to assume about me? What do I want them to know for sure? What does my voice say about who I am?

Yesterday I finished the outline for my book. The outline is a skeleton; the bones that will hold my story. It’s peppered with notes about the things I want to say without saying. I want to engage my audience and make sure that they know this book is about them as much as it’s about me. In my own words, I’m telling a story that is familiar in its heartbreak and loneliness.

Writing on a topic that society deems taboo is difficult because I want to do it justice and honor the pain that built the power behind my words. But presenting vulnerability isn’t easy. Staying honest in my own voice, rife with dark humor and the callouses that helped me survive for all those years, is a challenge I didn’t see coming. There’s a certain amount of reverence due here.

On a lighter note, I’ve also been working on some freelance projects and I’m really enjoying this work. In my mortgage career, it had been years since I’d done any real check-ins with myself about what I loved doing. I’m grateful to have given myself this freedom to figure that out now (and grateful to my partner for being relentlessly supportive).

In my mission to identify my voice, I’m taking on some short creative writing prompts so that I can compare pieces about different topics. So far, I’m finding that I have a flair for dramatics and a drop of mischief in almost everything I write. I’m itching to find out how it plays in my book.