In Search of a Voice
An addendum to yesterday’s post, Looking Back.
One of the questions I’ve asked myself lately is this: has my writing improved after six months of blogging? When I look back at some of my posts, I cringe. Improvement is necessary. Staleness is not acceptable.
So—has there been improvement? I think so, in some areas. For example, consistency with usage of typographical characters. Other areas, not so much. But I think I’m still struggling in a key area.
I haven’t yet found my voice.
In his interview with John Gruber, Shawn Blanc asks John about his approach to writing articles on DF, and whether it had changed over the years. John’s answer has stuck with me:
That’s hard to put into words. Early on, I had to think about my “voice”. I was conscious of my style. Now, not so much — I “just write”, and the style seems to come naturally. Part of that is that you get used to anything over time, but a bigger part is that the style changed slowly over time — I kept tweaking it until I found the perfect pitch, at which point it became something I didn’t have to think about to achieve.
Put another way: early on, I had to concentrate both on what I was saying and how was I saying it. Now I just concentrate on what I’m saying.
Some days you feel it—words just come out and the way they intertwine, forming a larger whole … it just feels right. But too often that feeling is nowhere to be found.
This is my challenge. This is where improvement is needed. I look forward to the days where I can focus solely on the content, and the delivery comes naturally.
