A few years ago I wrote a post on voice. Looking back on it now there are many things I would edit in it; some things I would keep.

For example: All my life I’ve been trying out other people’s voices in an attempt to find my own. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing because you’ve got to have models. But there’s a point, I believe, where you’ve got to stop emulating and trust in your own voice. To believe that you’ve got something of value to say. And then, when your vision of what’s in your mind corresponds to the words you’ve written then I think that’s voice.

The artist and poet Naomi Beth Wakan (www.naomiwakan.com) says it so elegantly. “It’s not so much ‘finding your voice,’ for you never lost it, it is more like retrieving it from the layers of rubble, concepts, rules, and inhibitions under which it has been hidden.”

And so for this Christmas season I wish you Voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EbWx04pKtU

You can read my original post on voice here: https://carolbalawyder.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=13&action=edit