Finding Our Voices

Finding an authentic voice is one of the writing fundamentals that I hear repeatedly -  so much so that I'd be foolish to ignore it. I am not sure what my authentic voice is, but I know what it isn't. When I ignore my heart, I am not in my real voice. When I moralize or write with expectations, I am likely to be off-putting. I am most likely to discover my voice by uncovering it. It's a top-down process of taking off layers, rather than by starting with bare bones and adding dressing. My final project is usually simpler and smaller than my first draft. Blaise Pascal wrote, "If I had more time, I'd have written a shorter letter." Sometimes I wonder how short I could make something if I had all the time in the world.