Top 7 Tips For Finding Your Voice
By Alt SLC speaker Karen Walrond.
1) Stop comparing - It's natural to be curious about what others 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):
- 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 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, inspiring, or thought-provoking. You don't have to share the images if you don't want to, but it's a great way to gather a body of work, that gives you evidence of what it is that you 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 just discovering our own passions. I strongly recommend creating a practice of journaling, as it is one of the tools we use to collect a body of self-inspiration. Furthermore, 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. 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 and will pay them to write about). The truth is, you should want to create the kind of content you would create even if no one paid you a dime.
With this in mind, spend some time figuring out what you're passionate about, to the most minute detail possible. You might love design, 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 others how to design, or do you just want them 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 try to define your passion as precisely as possible. Knowing the answers to these questions will help make your 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. Put 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 come to us, and deal with it as it comes. It's so much more fulfilling, however, 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. 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; don't let anyone tell you otherwise. If you need to express something that is private, a journal is very handy.
And with that, happy creating my friends. I can't wait to hear your voice.
Jan 25, 2013
Reader Comments (5)
This is such an inspiring post (and it's making me even more sad about not being in SLC this week!). This is just the kind of advice I need right now.
Thank you for this post! This made me realize that I spend 60% of my time wondering why I'm not The Blogess and the other 40% of the time trying to be her. Thanks to this wisdom and the beauty of this newfound self-awareness, I'm going to concentrate on being more ME and less of the funnny bloggers I admire, but don't want to mimic.
I'm very excited to see that the Alt blog is offering blogger tips!! One thing I look forward to every year is recaps on the Alt Design Summit. I sooo wish I could be there too! Thank you for the encouraging reminders to use our voice and talent!
Karen - I love this post! So inspiring. I especially love your advice to take photos of something beautiful each day. I'm going to start doing that TODAY! There's so much to be inspired by in the world that you will never see if you don't look up from the computer!
Thank you for such an insightful and inspiring post. I'll be pinning it to refer back to whenever I start to do the destructive comparison thing.