Fear And Finding Your Writing Voice

If you’re like me, you may have found yourself starting a piece of writing in first person, then halfway through naturally gravitating into a third person view for no particular reason. I’ve learnt that this is perfectly okay and extremely common in writing especially earlier on. You’re finding that writing style and it’s the process of writing and getting quality work out there. Not all content is going to be as great as your previous, or as good as your next one. Every reader is different, and different readers connects with different writing styles.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of content unpublished that I don’t think are good enough, or I’m waiting for the right time (and yes, there can be a right time) to publish. I look at it in comparison to a music artists. Musicians who have a collection of songs in their vault, but haven’t released any because; well, there’s a few reasons:

1) They’re not happy with the track

2) Fear of releasing and public perception

3) They’re waiting to release it when the time is right

4) It’s a sample track, where they can use it with another one of their songs. 

All these four reasons are comparable to a writer, but fear is the most important one. Fear can cloud your judgement on the other three reasons, so by practicing and sharing your writing, you then start to lose that fear and understand more about what’s holding you back from releasing any work 

I’m at a point now where I don’t fear how I sound. Although I’m still finding my voice, I’m content with what comes out in each post and welcome feedback and criticism from others. My first couple of writing pieces, I would always seek validation from. Then I realised through reading a lot of books, that this is caused by fear and my perception. I've learnt not to seek validation for every writing piece I do. Seeking validation can deter you from finding your real writing voice. It’s only once you’ve laid out a story, an article or post that you start to find yourself and find your ‘writing feet’. 

I recommend ‘The Art of Writing a Non-Fiction Book’, by Bryan Collins’ for an easy read and an on-point look into writing, especially in the Non-Fiction genre. Nowadays, I’m much more comfortable in my writing, which has helped significantly, giving me a much wider scope in idea creation and clarity for my writing success. So if you are questioning your writing pieces, just remember that being fearless when it comes to pressing the ‘publish’ button, can take the fear away and help you find your writing voice.