The Struggles of Novice Creators−Discovering One's Voice

I gently shut the laptop and stared at the ceiling fan which was spinning with a clacket-clack noise. On some days it irritated me. It was getting to my nerves now.

I had been mulling over it for some days . I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. It was time to hang up my blogging boots.

It was 2009 and I had been blogging for only two months.

As a new blogger, I was perplexed by the many roadblocks a novice creator would encounter in their journey to the work of creation.

For one, I always wanted to know what my ‘voice’ should sound like. I had my favorite authors. I loved the humour of some, and I loved the research acumen and citation habits of others. The more I read various blogs, the more I wanted to sound like a mash of all my favorite authors.

I loved how each of them sounded unique and had the right approach and content. How did they do that? Did they have it naturally?

More importantly, what kind of a writer was I? Was it in me already? Or was it something I had to develop?

Was I a funny one? Did I want to be funny? But if I wrote funny posts, how would anyone take me seriously? Or should I take the scholarly approach? But that might just be drab and end up with no readership.

I somehow figured that this ‘voice’ business must be also tied to the topics I wanted to write on. So what topics did I want to write on? My interests were far ranging and diverse, from neuroscience to network theory to business management to social change to self-help to culture theory to philosophy.

I was getting frustrated. How was I going to discover my voice? I was desperate to figure it out so that I could start writing with confidence.

I soon realised that I could not sit on my bum and wait. So I randomly decided on a certain niche and wrote for two months.

Then I got bored.

If I was already getting bored, maybe this was not meant to be my niche, I figured.

Meanwhile, most of the blogging gurus, then, advised that we triangulate our niche early on. I was following their recommendation. I could not blame them. Many actually know what they want to do. They know exactly what their interests are. I was the dimwit who was confused.

Perhaps, people like me were never meant to blog, I concluded, and wound down my act.

Over the years, I have had many opportunities to think about this subject. I do not claim mastery over it but I have formed certain opinions. So how does one discover who they are and what their purpose in creation is?

Is it a journey to be taken or is it ‘already there’? Does one learn it, like a computer language, and then code? Or is it like learning a mother tongue − one word at a time, rooted in its context, defined by life and relationships?

If first learned (traditional style of reading, classes etc.) and then produced, production is dependent upon the act of learning and its (learning) perfection. But if the other way, they first create with what little they know, and learn and grow by working with their craft.

To address it from another vantage point, was Gandhi born as Gandhi or did he become Gandhi? Did he always possess what he believed, thus acting and writing as ‘Gandhi’? Or did his activism and dialogues cause him to continually learn and evolve into ‘Gandhi’?

To complicate it further, was Gandhi's thoughts in the 1910's the same as what he espoused in the 1940's? Is it possible that even Gandhi was evolving with time?

Could it be that 'who one is' is not a hermetically sealed concept? Our identities and philosophies are dynamic, directional, malleable, and responsive to the forces of life.

We are ever forming.

My un-original thesis is - it's in the act of making things and doing the work that we figure out who we are. And as people progress in the continual act of creation, they continually emerge to be who they are.

In his book Steal like an artist, the author, Austin Kleon, claims that one cannot find their voice unless it is used. The truth is that you cannot figure it out unless you are making and doing things. Discovering yourselves in inertia is not possible.

Kleon writes , "If I'd waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started 'being creative', well, I'd still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things."

It's in the act of leading that we learn leadership. It cannot be achieved by osmosis via intention. The action facilitates it. We learn to drive only by driving. The more we drive, we get to know our driving style.

If you are a novice creator, quit the lazy route of fussing over identifying your voice or narrowing your peculiar area of offing. Rush in. Do the work. Explore. Let it be scattered. Forget branding your niche at the outset.

As one keeps at it, over hundreds of artefacts later, your 'unique slice of the pie' emerges. As it emerges, your niche gets clarified to you and others.

It is a process which springs from doing the work, from the growing inspiration by work of your heroes, from the feedback from peers and consumers, emerging circumstances and opportunities, past experiences, and a ton of self-reflection.

But doing is the sugar that sweetens your cake and holds it together. It is the key ingredient that makes all the other ingredients lick worthy.

In the doing, one becomes. From the becoming, one then continues doing. From that continued doing, the creator moves into an ever evolving and continued becoming. And the cycle continues. As we do, we are always becoming.

The critical task is in doing the work irrespective of identifying the magic sauce. It is, I dare say, the only thing that matters. As you dish it out, over the years, you and everyone will figure out your dish.