Our Real Writing Voice

I was reading Peter Elbow's Writing with Power last night and was impressed with how he talked about a writer's "real voice." He talked about writing with voice, meaning real voice, as being "… writing into which someone has breathed. It has that fluency, rhythm, and liveliness that exist naturally in the speech of most people when they are enjoying conversation." (p299)

That passage especially made me realize a major reason I encourage people (writers and want-to-be-writers) to simply write whatever comes into their mind. Namely, writing "whatever" is very much like just speaking. And when we're speaking without self consciousness, we are speaking from our real voice.

It doesn't matter what kind of writing we do, for it to be real, it needs to come from deep within us. So, writing "whatever," without thinking about it, and not worrying how good or bad it is, is truly essential.

For more techniques on writing see Overcome Writer's Block Easily.