You can find your writer’s voice using tools you have since birth:
Your senses!
Train your mind to pay attention to what you see, hear, smell, and feel. Look at the details around you, and remember what you noticed. Use a notebook to jot down everything that stands out.
Train Your Mind to Find Your Author’s Voice
Wherever you find yourself, always look for the smallest details.
Take these examples:
- What kind of house are you in?
- What materials are on the walls?
- How does your interviewee walk?
- Are her glasses rimmed or rimless?
- Does she have a soft voice?
- Is his hair covering his ears?
- What does the room smell like?
- What kind of chairs are you sitting in?
- What’s on the table, or under the table?
Your Writer’s Voice Reflects Who You Are
If you and I walked into the same room and observed the same conversation — between the same people sitting in the same armchairs, flanked by the same bookshelves — and afterward, we compared notes on the details, we would find many differences.
And if we both wrote a story about that conversation, the details of our stories would be vastly different. Mine would be a Niels story; yours, a Niels’s reader story. 😉
It’s a cumulation of decisions only you can make, and it makes your work unique.
Use all your senses, and write what stood out to you. Your author’s voice will have a growth spurt.
