Every writer I admire has a story about the moment their writing found itself. Became distinctly theirs.
Sometimes it is a line they wrote. Sometimes it is a sentence they read that showed them what was possible.
For me it was reading this in a Chimamanda Adichie essay: "We do not tell the stories we cannot afford to tell."
Something cracked open. I realised I had been writing carefully, safely, with one eye always on the audience. I had been managing perception instead of telling the truth.
After that sentence, I wrote differently.
What was yours?
Or โ if you are still searching for your voice โ what is stopping you from telling the story you cannot afford to tell?
Sometimes it is a line they wrote. Sometimes it is a sentence they read that showed them what was possible.
For me it was reading this in a Chimamanda Adichie essay: "We do not tell the stories we cannot afford to tell."
Something cracked open. I realised I had been writing carefully, safely, with one eye always on the audience. I had been managing perception instead of telling the truth.
After that sentence, I wrote differently.
What was yours?
Or โ if you are still searching for your voice โ what is stopping you from telling the story you cannot afford to tell?