Last night, a couple of us took a walk through downtown Atlanta, GA to shoot some long exposure shots. We headed up to the Jackson Street bridge to get some typical landscapes, but towards the end of the night…we headed to Krog Street Tunnel.
Krog Street Tunnel is known as a photography hangout in Atlanta due to its mass amount of graffiti and structural consistency. There are not a lot of shot options, but the ones you do pick up look amazing.
As we were shooting in the area, a thought occurred to me. We are not any different than these graffiti artists. Each one of us is looking to leave our creative mark on the world. As you walk through the tunnel and the surrounding areas, you will see a multitude of styles and creativity. Not a single one of these works of art are the same, and each brings their own talent to the table.
With blogging…no two blogs are the same. I often hear people talk about starting their own blog and why they don’t do it. The most common excuse is “that has been done before”.
Just like with the art on these walls, everything has been done before until someone else brings their voice, their creativity and their style to the table.
With each blog post, you are given a challenge…”ADD NEW POST”. It is your chance to leave your stamp on the world. That new post is your voice and your creativity.
There are very few things in life that have not been already said. As you write, there are other writers who have already exposed something similar to what you are putting forward. The difference is your voice.
Don’t worry about if it has already been done before. How will you connect and be different?
How Do You Find Your Voice?
Early on in my blogging career, I really struggled with finding “my voice”. Coming from a strong math/science/economics background…I was not accustomed to a creative writing style. As a matter of fact, I hated English and writing through grade school. Through these struggles…I had to find a way to get my voice onto this screen. Here are some ways that I pushed forward and eventually made things flow.
- Writing, Writing and more Writing – Practice makes perfect and the more you do it…the better you will become. It also allows you to play with how you want your words to come across the page. The more I wrote…the more it started to flow. If you ask most bloggers that have been doing this for any length of time, they will look back at articles from a year ago or more and laugh. Writing is a progression just like any other creative exercise. The more you do it…the better you will be!
- Listen To Yourself Talk – This was my number one tip that helped me find my voice while writing. I found that I was able to speak much better than write. My difficulty came when I was trying to get my thoughts to the page…not trying to formulate the thoughts. Over time, I started really listening to myself and how I interact with other people. I took this information and really concentrated on transferring that into my writing.
- Interact More – Read over your emails, instant messages, tweets, etc. You tend to have more of your own creativity and voice when you are not worrying about it. Use the social media aspects of the web to converse with other like minded individuals in your niche. Use that same conversation in your blogging.
One of the greatest aspects about blogging is the lack of structure. Your voice can come out exactly how you want it to, and if someone doesn’t like it…we do not care! It is all about you and how you want to add your contribution.
We are all faced with the challenge to leave our mark on the world every day. Some people take that to heart and really push…others are just happy with being another number in the big adventure we call life. I like to think that every blog post is my adventure into being different and not one of the crowd. I want my art to stand out from the rest…not because I think it is better…but because it is different.