Finding and Keeping Your Creative Voice

"I wish I could write like that," Said every writer ever about their favorite author.
"I wish I could play like that," Said every musician about their favorite composer.
"I just want to draw/paint like that," Said every drawer/painter about their favorite artist.

My darling. You as yourself are amazing. You have a voice, you have talent, you have a chance to shine so bright that even the "blind" will  be able to see you. God gives everyone a unique and special talent. He gives everyone their own goals, dreams, hopes and creativity. Stop striving to be like others. Stop striving to accomplish something that is impossible because it's not you.



A voice isn't what you talk with, though it very well could be what you use to express your creativity. Your "voice", in this context, is how you express who you are through your creativity. Through your photography, writing, music, and art. How you show who you are through what you do on a daily basis. That... that is your voice.

Have you ever met someone and they just seem to have it all together? Like, they are able to express who they are and be unique and people just seem to be drawn to that? Authenticity is beautiful. Uniqueness and diversity is beautiful. Why are you trying to fit into the crowd, when you can be finding and keeping your own voice? Why are you so desperately trying to get attention, when you can be expressing your own kind of beautiful, and shinning a light that ultimately points back to the Creator?

"Lord, your creations baffles me. I can't believe I get to love and be loved by such a crazy, creative God! Honestly, how mad amazing is that?!" ~Michaela Kitri

I absolutely love that. We get to live in this AMAZINGLY beautiful world. So much art is around us, so much creativity and, yet, here we are, wishing we were like someone else. Don't you think that hurts your Creator when you tell him that you don't like how he made you? What if the characters in your stories could talk to you in real life and they told you they absolutely hate the way you created them? What if they told you they wish they were never made? Or if somehow your painting/drawing could come to life and the images you depicted tell you they hate the way you made them. It would hurt, would it not?

God created each of special with a voice inside our souls, ready to roar out and scream of the creativity inside each of us. The creativity that God has all around us in the mountains and music and the ombre skies during sunset.

"Honestly, how mad amazing is that?!"

"The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live only as you can." -Unknown

Finding Your Voice

Get out of the flippin' crowd and step aside. Dude, don't be sucked into the life of wannabes and people that want you to be JUST LIKE THEM. Don't. You have to find your own style and swag. Each one of us has a style when it comes to what we do artistically and creatively. The way you take a photo, draw a picture or write a poem. Each one of us has our own way of doing it. That is your voice. When you accept the fact that you write free verse poetry better than rhyming poetry. When you accept the fact that you take better pictures of landscapes than portraits. Or when you realize that you write better fantasy than science-fiction, that is when you find your voice.

We live in an age where we are told what to do. The society around us is suffocating any individuality out of us. We are told day after day that we aren't supposed to do certain things because it's not culturally accepted. Who gives a rip? So you write abstract poetry and its not really accepted in your peer group. Child, don't let it bother you. So you take better mountain pictures than senior portraits. Don't let them tell you that that isn't okay. That is who you are. That is what makes you so special.

It's not about what you do, it's about how you do it. Don't hide the voice you were given because of social norms.

Keeping Your Voice

Perhaps high school or college is just around the corner for you. Perhaps you are starting a new job or going into grad-school. Maybe you graduated a long time ago and you are looking for something new to do with your life. Wherever you're at right now, you have to learn to keep your voice. New lifestyles, new schedules and new people. The pressure of peers and society will squeeze the very life out of you if you're not careful. That is when you learn to keep your voice, no matter what. 

Another thing, though, is that you grow and you mature and maybe your voice changes. When I was younger, I could barely write science-fiction. It wasn't for me at that time. I wrote fantasy a lot and that was my comfort zone. As I got older, I tried my hand at science-fiction and fell completely in love with it. It was so much fun to create science fiction worlds. But now, I combine them. I haven't grown out of fantasy; I still completely love fantasy. I can combine them now, though. I have a steampunk world that has magic. Both of my creative voices combined to create something that I love. 

That... that is what keeping your voice is all about. That's what learning to adapt is and not to fall under the pressures of life. Maybe right now you can't take portraits very well, but don't give up. As you mature and keep developing your creative voice, things will be added to that. 

What about you, darling? What is your style and your voice? How do you express that to its fullest?

Photo creds: Vintage Rose Photography