Finding Your Voice and Revealing What’s Inside

A hot topic in the world of writing is finding your voice. While it is important to find your voice, it's less about finding it than it is letting it reveal itself.

While that may not be a clear distinction the impact is pretty important.

When he sculpted David out of stone, it's said that Michelangelo remarked that he didn't carve the statue but David revealed himself from with inside of the stone.

When Stephen King was asked why he decided to write the types of books he writes, horror novels and other pretty scary stuff, he said,

My stories are like the chewy stuff in the center of a Tootsie Pop, the story is wrapped inside. There's an assumption that the writer controls the material instead of the other way around.

King also says the writer who is serious and committed isn't capable of sizing up story material the way an investor might size up various stock offerings. It's just not possible.

And, as these two legendary artists point out, it's not about finding your voice. That will come with time. It's not about sculpting or writing what you know, it's about revealing the art that's already inside.