Finding Your Own Voice

Last week, I went to the Alt Summit in Salt Lake City. It was such a Silver Lining when I finally made it after my detour to Idaho. Phew! The event was fantabulous. I felt like I was able to put my pinky finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the blog world and boy oh boy is it ever exciting.  I was truly amazed and visually, emotionally and intellectually stimulated. As you all know by now, I love nothing more than a good helping of Mind Candy!

One of my most favorite presentations was by one of my new favorite writers, Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks. The name of her talk was “Finding Your Voice.” I happened to pop in and was fully engaged instantaneously. Wowsy. Karen is so so so great. She generously allowed me to share her blog post based on her talk (which is a lovely Silver Lining).

1. Stop comparing. It’s natural to be curious about what others who are in your field are doing, but one of the biggest wastes of time is comparing your work with theirs, particularly since it is patently impossible to create effectively in someone else’s voice — the inevitable result is disappointment.  Accept that you will do what you do differently from everyone else — believing in this will be incredibly freeing. Given this, I want to be sure to make the distinction between comparison and inspiration (because I do think that inspiration is critical in being a creator), and it is this: Comparison will make you feel bad about yourself, or stir ugly feelings of resentment or jealousy.  It is completely destructive, and should be avoided at all costs. Inspiration will spur you to try harder and do better work.  Inspiration encourages experimentation of your own techniques.  Inspiration is a good thing, and should be strongly encouraged (but always giving credit where possible). I won’t touch on flat-out copying someone’s work, because I think we can all agree that plagiarism of any type is wrong.  Copying should obviously be soundly discouraged.
2. Practice seeing.  I’m a huge fan of photography, of course, but I love it for more than just the self-expression it affords me.  The main reason that I love photography is because it forces me to stop and see.  When I shoot, I have to be mindful of the light and the composition, and as I’m taking the shot, I’m forced to evaluate what it is I love about the image in the first place.  My camera is another tool to amplify my voice. As such, I encourage all creators to keep their cameras close at hand — your camera phone will do nicely — and take time each day to photograph something beautiful, or inspiring, or thought-provoking. You don’t have to share the images if you don’t want to, but it’s yet another way to objectively gather a body of work that gives you evidence of what it is that you love or are passionate about.
3. Journal, read, collect awesome things.  Off-line, old-school journaling provides something that blogging doesn’t:  the freedom to express and experiment without fear of judgment.  Journaling can be our test lab for what we want to say or discovering our own passions.  I strongly recommend creating a practice of journaling, as one of the tools we use to collect a body of self-inspiration; further, I encourage devouring everything you can and collecting everything you can to help fuel your own inspiration and voice. (How I journal can be found here.)
4. Name what lights you up. It is impossible to continue to create content on a consistent and long-lasting basis if you’re not doing it in furtherance of your passions — but it is interesting to me how few people get into blogging based on what they’re passionate about, or what lights them up (but rather, “what they think people need to know about and will pay me to write about”).  The truth is that you should want to create the kind of content you would even if no one paid you a dime. So spend some time figuring out what you’re passionate about, to the most minute detail possible.  You might love design, for example, but what kind of design?  Web design? Fashion design?  Sustainable design?  Do you love the art or the history of design? Or maybe the functionality of design?  Do you want to teach people how to design, or do you just want people to be inspired by design? Do you want them to be inspired by the design you create, or the design of others? Go through this sort of exercise with every subject you enjoy, and really be able to name your passion as precisely as possible.  Knowing the answers to these question will help make your online (and offline) voice crisp and clear.
5. Travel.  I’m obviously passionate about travel, but I also believe it to be a necessity of life:  I think travel opens our minds, broadens our horizons, and helps us look at what we perceive as “normal” and “everyday” in a whole new light.  I strongly recommend spending time each year traveling, even if it just means getting in a car or a bus and visiting the next town over for a day.  When you do, be sure to take those cameras and journals with you, putting yourself in the “inspiration” rather than “comparison” mindset — you’ll be amazed at how much you learn.
6. Make life happen.  It’s so easy to let life just wash over us, and deal with it as it comes, but it’s so much more fulfilling to go out there and meet life halfway:  make a point of having an adventure, however you define it to be.  Learn something new, even if it’s something mundane, or experience something, just to say you did.  Create a life list — a list of fun things to try — and keep it handy, for the next time you’re bored.  The more experience you have, the more honed your voice becomes.
7. Create your own story.  Finally, in the words of a dear friend, create your own story — don’t let others create it for you.  Once you’ve pulled together the results of all the tasks shown above, put it all together, and tell your tale. Say your peace.  Express yourself.  But when you do, a bit of advice: Know the difference between “intimacy” and “privacy.”  In my experience, intimacy  is often what makes a blog successful — the ability of the author to connect with the reader, and make the reader feel similarly connected.   That said, no one suggests that this means you should divulge everything about your life and thoughts — it is perfectly okay for certain aspects of your life to remain private, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.  If you need to express something that is private, that’s where journals come in very handy.

Karen has a book called, The Beauty of Different that I’m sooooo excited to read.

THANK YOU, Karen for generously allowing me to share your inspired brilliance with The Silver Pen!