How to Lose your Voice

Oh, you want to know how to find your voice, or how not to lose it.

One way to do that, is to turn off others. Spend lots of time with yourself and do morning pages. Write and write and write.

Don’t read other books and especially don’t watch a series, show after show after show.

I became addicted to Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Right away the characters sucked me in. I could see what many of them yearned for and why they did the things they did. I rooted for even those at cross purposes with the protagonist, because of how hard they worked for the fullfillment of their yearnings.

But, my writing became stilted. The rhythm of each line and the words I chose and where each type of word went in a sentence mimicked this show. I didn’t just watch the two episodes that came up every week, but ended up getting the season and watching the shows back to back. When I was doing other things, I was thinking about them, feeling bad for them.

Even my voice in my emails sounded like I was a Roman who spoke strange English (not Italian) from the past. But once my character started talking like the characters in the show, I knew I had LOST MY VOICE.

I am not watching anymore, at least not until I’m between writing books again. And I’m filling out journals, writing conversations with my characters, listening to various rhythms of music.

Would it be that I had not found my voice wanting, mayhap, I would not have found my voice. Ugh. Well, I’m getting closer to being me again.

Best to you in this New Year!

Laurie Cosbey

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