I started this essay as a freewriting exercise. As a matter of fact I am freewriting now, it is the best way to get the ideas flowing, unleashed memories, find a beginning. White Sands, my best friend Joey in cowboy outfit, toy jets light the garage, real jets. Wait a minute, how do I remember Joey? That was fifty years ago. I am starting to see what makes me me. My essence. That simple little exercise has given me a voice, my own unique voice. A way to open the window to my thoughts, my opinions, my experiences. My voice is the essence of me, my gift to world and I must write to find and preserve it.

   Mary Pipher in “Writing to Change the World” describes voice as “The Library of self. Voice is everything we are, all we have observed, the emotional chords that are uniquely ours”. She mentions that without her own voice, her writing was ‘constipated’ and the effort to ‘imitate other writers, produced inferior work’. In the transcript of Chimamana Ngozi Adichie’s speech, “The Danger of a Single Story”, she mentioned the importance of voice. Voice gave her an identity. It shifted her perception of literature from ‘white, blue-eyed, snow loving, Apple eating’ characters to stories about characters more like her, ‘Brown and kinky haired’. Finding her Voice gave her an identity, which she could use to ‘Complete the Story’.

.  Mary Pipher encourage refugees to write poems beginning with the words, “I am From”. From these three words, memories of  values, people and experiences begin to resonate. To paraphrase Pipher, ‘Self knowledge allows you to write your own grand themes, own passions, even your own flaws, at your service.’. In other words the better you know yourself the richer your writing.

.  There are many ways to find your authentic voice, but they all have one thing in common, writing. I personally employed Peter Elbow method of freewriting. Freewriting requires you sit down and write nonstop for ten minutes. Whatever pops into your write it down. The process helps expose ideas, feelings and topics important too you. This list can eventually lead to stories that are important to you. Stories that can propel you and others to act.

   Another way to assist you in finding a voice is to keep a notebook. Joan Didion in her essay “On Keeping a Notebook”, describes benefits of keeping track of your observations, no matter how inconsequential, in a notebook.. These observations can trigger memories of places, experiences and feelings about important events. These memories can evoke tactile sensations to your writing. Joan Dillard employs memories of her observations to bring the reader into her world. You can actually hear the rustle of a ‘distant rattlesnake’ or was that hat just a ‘nearby swallow kicking in dry flood debris’. You can feel the chill in the air as ‘The enormous black body arced over the lake’. Dillard touches upon all your senses to give life to her stories. Her observations becomes yours.

.  Anne Lamott writes a ‘Shitty First Draft’. She employs a method similar to Peter Elbows, freewriting . She writes whatever pops into head. From this tangled web, a idea, a topic even a course might arise. Lamott also shows How to handle your demons. The  ‘The vinegar-lipped Reader’ who claims your writing uninteresting and the ‘emaciated German’ who accuses you of a thought crimes. She suggests closing your eyes and turn your critics into mice. Place them in a mason jar and turn down the volume. In other words, minimize your doubts and get on with it.

.  An authentic voice encompasses your thoughts, feelings, experiences, changes and values. To touch your inner voice gives rise to stories only you can tell. Don’t diminish the importance of your stories, they are needed to complete the whole story. Use whatever method, freewriting or notebook to find your voice. Be forewarned, baring your soul can not only be therapeutic but could lead to good story.