What's Your Voice?
Apparently, “voice” for bloggers is the Holy Grail. To get there as a newbie, you need:
1. Confidence you know what you want to say
2. Ignorance of others’ critiques when you’re having an off day
3. Knowledge about where you’d like to be one day (a few goals are good)
4. Patience and perseverance about design and techy back-end crapola
5. Strength of spirit to plug away as frequently or infrequently as you like
I had a stressful summer as is typical around my life as a working professional and mom. I struggled to manage time with travel, family and a reduced work day. The blog suffered.
Not only wasn’t I posting as regularly, I wasn’t feeling it either; yet, I pushed to post. A few remarks (see number two above), and my confidence shattered to the point of almost throwing in the towel.
Rather than quit, I wrote (what some called by best post) “Blogging Takes Confidence,” a heartfelt rendition to share I was not on top of my game. Buoyed by support from that post, I am again compelled to tackle the world.
What’s changed?
- My child is back in school.
- I’ve regained four to five hours in my work day.
- My desk is (relatively) clean again.
- My brain is de-cluttered, and my countenance is calm.
So what is this “voice” thing?
Merely, voice is the confidence to believe what you’ve got to say has merit; to know the criticism of others is not intended to derail you but to help you get over a natural hump or two; it’s the ability to find a diamond in the rough and share it with the world from your own perspective and, well, I think that’s right?
I like your post because it’s true: finding your voice is not easy.
Sally
Sally! So great to see you here; thanks for popping in! BTW, are you blogging? Share your link, and I’ll reciprocate.
Jayme, Another thing about the voice.. that confidence to keep writing, posting however infrequently when you don’t feel it. Holds true when you’re writing, but no one’s listening i.e. retweeting, commenting, per the #sbt10 chat last night.
One thing to do when you’ve lost your voice, lend it to someone else: read blogs and comment. When I do that, I sometimes get inspiration that I can take to the house, turn into something of my own. FWIW.
I like that advice, Davina…”lend it to someone else — read blogs and comment.” Now that summer is over, I can say that stressful period really had me stuck with the blog. It’s simply overload, and as I read more from the successful folks with tons of comments, followers, etc. and they hit burn out, everyone has to take a break. This engagement thing is awesome, but it is also high pressure. No one can post perfectly each time; all the factors contribute to the mash up, and it takes some insightfulness to know not to force it.
Thank you so much for stopping in here! Can’t tell you how much I appreciate that!
I just blogged about giving up perfection. It’s nice to strive for it, but if you wait on the Perfect Pitch, the ideal blog post… it’ll be “a long wait for a train that won’t come,” to quote Mal Reynolds (Serenity).
I saw that when I hit your site to see “whatchugot!” And, of course, I love your purple!
Good evening to you and more on the flip.
LSU Tiger.. bleed purple and gold!