How this one simple exercise helped me discover my writing voice for Medium
Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash
You aspire to publish an article for Medium. Not just any article, but something EPIC…a piece that will crawl into the hearts of your readers, tug on their innermost strings, compel them to action, and prompt them to share your work with the rest of the world. There’s just one problem — you don’t like your writing and you honestly ask yourself why someone else would either.
Until very recently this was me.
Every article consisted of the same predictable struggle — How do I say what I want to say?
Finding our topic is only half the battle. We often we have an idea of what we want to write about but grapple with the way in which it needs to be delivered more than anything.
Is there enough wit in this piece? Do I need to infuse more humor? Perhaps this point isn’t aggressive enough — I should probably be meaner about this one. Benjamin Sledge would have just come out and said it this way. Ryan Holiday or Ben Hardy would have brilliantly walked through it like this. Caroline Stefko doesn’t write like that Ryan, so why would you? Think about Tom Kuegler, would he have ever used such a phrase?
The obvious problem with this line of thinking is that despite the brilliance of each of these writers…none of them are me. And hopefully I’m not breaking any news here, but they are not you either.
You are the only person in this world who has lived your story.
You are the only person who can write from your perspective.
The question is — what’s our perspective?
Thanks to the guidance of Jeff Goins I recently came upon a breakthrough exercise to help finally answer this question. This is my own personal adaptation of course, but perhaps it’s the one tactic that could unlock a new world of potential in your writing adventures.
I sent the following email out to a handful of people close to me:
Hey friend
So I have an out of left field and somewhat sheepish request for you.
As you might know, I’ve gone through a kind of on and off history of writing about various things in the past.
It’s a goal of mine to ramp this up more in the future, but there are some preliminary steps I’m taking in the meantime to become a better and more consistent writer.
One of the exercises I’m undergoing currently revolves around the concept of “discovering your voice”. There’s a lot that goes into this, but think about the thing that is distinct, personal, and/or attractive about someone who influences you. Those descriptions could, in essence, encapsulate their “writing voice.” Hopefully you get the picture.
Anyway, one of my next step action items is to reach out to a handful of people and ask them for their simple descriptions of me. The request is actually just to describe me in 3 words or phrases.
I’m well outside my bounds of comfort in asking for this, but I’m trying to be obedient so this is me doing so.
Thanks for your help!
I’ll admit — hitting send on that email felt a bit like tossing a live grenade in the direction of my closest friends. I was scared of the negative feedback I could get. Or worse — what if I didn’t get any feedback at all?
Not everyone answered, and that was OK. Slowly but surely however…the responses began to trickle in. People were not only happy to help, but to my surprise they took the request seriously to heart.
There was a lot of life giving encouragement involved here, but as I compiled each of the unique descriptions onto sticky notes something especially interesting began to occur…an emergence of Themes.
I studied the adjectives that came in. I marinated on them, and before long it became clear that many of them could be grouped together and summarized with their own descriptions. Here are the 5 elements that make up my writing voice — according to those who know me best:
Warm
Purposeful
Outward focused
Instructive
Investigative Learner
That’s it. Every time I write anything from here on it I have to filter it through that 5 part grid. Always.
I may produce a weak article. I may pick a bad topic. But no matter what, at least I’ll know that the writing is mine — not someone else’s that I’m trying to emulate.
I could have published this 1000 different ways — attempting to be funnier, cooler, more compelling, or more professional — but then I wouldn’t be me. And if I don’t write from my own shoes…who will?
Try this exercise out and let me know how it goes.