Finding Your Voice

My favorite writing professor once told a class of poets that we shouldn’t worry about being original, because we already are. As a young writer, I was a bit taken aback by the idea that being uniquely myself could somehow be enough. Each of our voices, he said, is distinct and different and important. No one else can write a poem or story or report that you’ve written. Nobody else can create the art you’ve created, and that is the wonderful, beautiful, frustrating thing about creating something new.

Creating unique, original art requires the artist to have a strong voice. You must have a clear idea of what you want to say and a bold understanding that whatever you say matters. Artists must necessarily be confident. Speaking with confidence breeds believability, and believability breeds rapport. There is a world of difference in saying “thank you,” or “I’m sorry” and meaning it, or not. So it is with creating art. The artist can inspire no one if they themselves are not inspired.

Years after my writing professor assured my class that our voices do, in fact, matter, I still write and perform poetry, as often as I can. When I perform, I don’t like to have paper or my phone in front of me, so I memorize my work. The quickest way to memorize a new piece is to record myself reading it and listen to it back, speaking with myself until I know my own words by heart. Performing those words in…