3 Easy Steps for Listening to Your Writer’s Voice
Think for a moment about the last time you wrote something creative.
What was going on in your mind?
For some of us, there is a whirlwind of sound - characters, dialogue, perhaps sounds from the setting (we hear you, barking dogs and ringing phones!).
But sometimes we don’t hear anything. Utter silence punctuated by the occasional self-doubt or questioning of what the heck to write next.
Do you fall into one of these categories?
Unless we have a set routine, it can be hard to focus in either of these scenarios. When we can really focus, though, these sounds become more intelligible and useful.
I don’t know about you, but when I get writing (and I mean really in the groove, not just a stray paragraph here or there) the characters actually do all the talking. It ceases to become my language and becomes theirs.
I write fiction (mostly), and I can say without hesitation that my writing is better when I let the characters write their own stories. It’s not only better, but also easier. It’s kind of like getting out of my own way, really.
The question is how to get to the place where your characters have a life of their own.
I follow a pretty simple 3 step system when it comes to getting the madness of my mind into words on the page:
Step 1: Listen intently to all the sounds in your writer’s mind.
What we’re thinking when it comes to our writing is not always organized. In fact, it can be downright wild. It is for this reason that I’m not writing my book linearly - it’s in sections that have a rough timeline.
Sometimes our minds are so dang loud and busy that we feel we can’t get anything done. Here’s the problem: all of those competing ideas and sounds probably play a role in what we (or our characters) want to say. When this happens to me (on the regular), I actually have to stop myself from multi-tasking and listen.
Rather than getting frustrated when your thoughts are jumbled, go to a quiet place and let them be jumbled.
I’m listening for character voices, setting details, pieces of a scene - anything related to my book. Sometimes this is triggered by something I read. Most often, I hear an old song on the radio that triggers a memory that then makes me think “What would Callie say about this?” or “How would she react to the memory from my life?” (Callie is my main character.)
Rather than getting frustrated when your thoughts are jumbled, go to a quiet place and let them be jumbled. Sit and have a cup of tea and think about them. Why do they feel so confusing? Why are they so mixed up?
Step 2: Take notes & doodles about the noise.
Once I decipher what the noise is, I write it all down. Because I don’t think logically about writing in the idea generation phase, my notes can get pretty messy.
This is what my notes look like... what about yours?
I’m talking lists with arrows every which way and sketches of characters. Bits and pieces of the scenes I imagine. Thoughts and ideas that make my characters angry or sad. Literally everything I can get onto the paper comes out in these notes.
The important part for me is that they are on a physical piece of paper. While I love technology and use it for many things, nothing will ever replace a trusty pen and paper. Not only does the act of writing help me sort out the noise, but it helps me contextualize where things will potentially go in my book. Not to mention the sense of satisfaction I get when I realize that I’ve piled 3 pages of messy notes onto the page.
If you really want to use technology, I would recommend Microsoft OneNote - it does pretty much all the things a regular old notebook would do, but digitally.
Step 3: Start writing.
The final step once I have quieted my mind and gotten all that idea noise into notes is to take action and start writing. This is the hard part, right?
Sometimes.
Usually by the time I have sorted out my notes into something semi-logical or usable I have had a thought or two about what scene I should work on. I find that most times I am drawn to complete parts of my writing, even when it’s not in the next logical scenario. Somewhere in my notes is usually a phrase or a thought one of my characters have had. This is where my characters come out to play. I start with that and let them say what they want/need.
My writer’s voice is the one that tells me to get out of the way so my characters can do the hard work.
This is my writer’s voice in action. My writer’s voice is the one that tells me to get out of the way so my characters can do the hard work.
If this all sounds a little hokey and out there… it might be. I know a lot of writers and everyone is different. I’ve read a lot lately about how “The point of the first draft is to get it on the page” or “First drafts are always awful.” That’s kind of a bummer, though, right?
If I’m thinking those kinds of things, there’s no way I’m staying motivated to finish my book.
So, I ditch those ideas and listen to the writer’s voice in my head. Sometimes she’s unsure. Sometimes she hates what I just wrote. And sometimes she doesn’t grace me with her presence at all, which is highly inconvenient when I’m trying to listen!
What is a “writer’s voice”?
You might be wondering what I mean when I say writer’s voice. It’s not a real person or an alternate personality, but a guiding force in my writing. A part of my mind detached from reality and from my work that can keep a clear head when I’m writing instead of getting caught up in the character’s voices and lives. My instincts. Most, if not all, writers have some kind of a writer’s voice.
While feedback is definitely valuable, and I would always recommend it for writing, the reality is that we are the creators of what we write. The thoughts and characters came from our mind, and no one else has the exact vision we have for our work. It is important to listen to other ideas, but it’s critical to listen to ourselves so we can create our vision.
When we listen to the writer’s voice in our minds there are benefits!
Express Initial Thoughts So your ideas don’t quite make sense the way your writer’s voice thought? That’s fine! Guess what? You have initial words on the page. At least you know what you were trying to do and/or what you were thinking about. When you take some critical distance from your writing and come back, you might be able to clean it up and refine it to be a really strong scene.
Write Genuinely You are wonderfully and perfectly you, and when you listen to your instinctual writer’s voice, that comes out! We aren’t made to be human shaped cookies that look and function exactly alike. Our differences make the world a beautiful and diverse place, so to have your unique voice on the page sets you apart in the best way. No matter how much you like someone else’s writing, you probably don’t want to just copy that person’s writing, right? You want to write with your own voice.
Our differences make the world a beautiful and diverse place, so to have your unique voice on the page sets you apart in the best way.
See Our Good Ideas I can’t tell you how many times I hear people say “I just don’t have any ideas” or “None of my ideas are good enough.” Um, what? Look, when you brainstorm the heck out of something and work it out in writing, you have a good idea in there somewhere. It may not be what you thought it was, or what you would even necessarily want to read yourself. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be something awesome. It means that it’s an idea open to whatever you want/need/care to do with it.
While I write fiction, I can imagine a similar process for nonfiction writers, too. I deeply admire nonfiction writers who can make their subjects engaging and relatable.
The next time you try to write and get overwhelmed by the noise in your head, remember to stop and listen, write it down, and start somewhere - listen to what your characters are saying.
This is the process that I use, but I’d love to hear about yours!
What experiences have you had with your writer’s voice? Or what do you do when you have too many ideas at once? Drop a comment below or email me at rachel@capturingyourconfidence.com!