Last week, I wrote about finding your voice as a writer. Marthe made a good point in the comments section to that piece:

I feel like I have a strong voice, what I lack is a message, a cause. Sometimes it feels like I’m writing just for the sake of putting pretty words and phrases out into the world.

I know what that’s like, Marthe! Before I started to write professionally, I felt like everything I wrote was a series of confessions, diary entries and false starts. I wanted my writing to have a meaning, to be charged and inspired. I wrote tons of assignments for university. I studied English so I was interested in most of the subjects I was writing about, but I still hadn’t found my pet topics – those issues and subjects which I can write about for ages and ages.

I only really started to discover what I wanted to write about when I began contributing to Platinum Love. There I began to discover what I was really passionate about: body image, gay rights, feminist issues as well as things like fashion, technology and food. The more I wrote, the more I learnt and the more I wanted to write.

The best advice I can give you is to just write, but I know that’s easier said than done, so let me try and break down the process a little.

A wandering mind
Where does your mind go when it starts to wander? If you find yourself thinking about football or dance or makeup, then that’s what you need to pursue. When you’re online, what blogs are you drawn to? Are they politically charged, filled with product reviews or focused on travel? Start to make a list of things you read on the news which you find interesting. The next time you have a passionate discussion or a heated argument with a friend over a political or philosophical concept, make a note of it.

Read, read, read
When you’ve picked three or four topics you feel you’re fairly interested in, start reading. Browse bookshops for essays and books on your chosen subjects. Look through magazines and crawl the web for articles on your topic. Make notes as you read of things that strike you. Educate yourself beyond Wikipedia. If you’re passionate about going Green, read anything and everything you can find about it. Look at statistics, watch interviews with experts in the area and find people who are interested in that subject whom you can chat with and bounce ideas off.

Just write
Here’s where that comes in. The best thing you can do for yourself as a writer is start a blog. That way you begin to establish an audience, network with like-minded individuals and set yourself deadlines. Write as much as you can – overviews and opinions. The more you research, the more topics you’ll discover which you want to write about. Don’t worry about writing a perfect article; just write. Nobody writes a masterpiece the first time they put pen to paper. As with everything else, practice is key.

Have you figured out what you wanted to write about? Was your process similar to mine or completely different?

Here’s the problem with writers: we are our own worst critics. We work ourselves up into a state where we genuinely start to believe everything we write is bad and unworthy, and then the anxiety of influence starts to run its cold fingers down our spines and we get so upset about it all that we just stop writing.

We start to blame writer’s block, which is a complete fallacy (have you ever heard of plumber’s block or teacher’s block?), as a means of justifying our lack of material.

What we need, really, is to discover our own voice.

For me, this started to happen while I was writing my university assignments, then got more and more noticeable as I started to write and write for magazines and for this very blog. And now it’s taken a life of its own – it is nuanced and has its own rhythm and personality and, well, if you want people to read your work then it needs tons of that.

So how do you find your voice as a writer? The easy answer? You don’t need to – it’s there already. Let me explain:

Interests
If you’re on a mission to find your voice, the last thing you want to do is write about things which don’t interest you. For me it’s sports and war. Even just thinking about them my mind starts to shut down and desperately try to divert my attention to something a little more interesting, like String Theory. You can’t write an engaging article about something you are tremendously bored by – your readers will KNOW you were bored when you wrote it, and time is too precious for people to spend it on things which don’t stir any sort of excitement in them. Instead, write about things you love. Write about things you could talk about for hours. Write about things which make you FEEL things and that enthusiasm will shine through your words.

Just write
Once you’ve got the ball rolling, don’t get hung up on sounding perfect – there is no just thing. Forget that backspace key and just write. Write and write anything and everything you want to write. Later, you can go back and edit bits and bobs but for now all that matters is that clickety clack of the keys (or the scribbly sound of pen and paper, if you are so inclined).

Say it
If you start to feel stuck or confused when you’re writing, stop for a second and say what you have to say out loud. Write down what you just said. That’s your voice, right there. Saying things out loud help you establish your rhythm and through it you will notice a certain type of vocabulary particular to you. Use it.

Know your topic
Basically, if you are writing non-fiction, don’t make stuff up. Do your research before you start writing. You’ll find that gaining knowledge about your subject will inspire you and spark off even more ideas in your brain. What’s that sound? It’s your neurons getting all hot and bothered!

Know your audience
Unless you are writing in your own personal diary, always keep your audience in mind. Every piece you write will have a target audience – whether it is a blog post, a short story, advert copy or a novel. For example, don’t use academic jargon if you are writing a piece about the Large Hadron Collider for your local magazine. Keeping your audience in mind will help you stick to appropriate tone and vocabulary.

Ask a friend
If, after you’re done writing something, you’re still not too sure of it, why not ask a friend to read it and tell you what s/he thinks in exchange for a cup of coffee? Your friends know what you sound like and will be able to tell you straight away whether or not a piece of writing reminds them of you.

Got any techniques for catching that voice of yours and pinning it down? Care to share? Leave a comment!