Finding My Voice

Struggling to find My Voice today, the one that resides comfortably in my head, the one that spins a story to support a serious fact with ease and a bit of humor.

Instead, the one that nags loudly is Academic Voice, the one that produces painful run-on sentences with convoluted subordinate clauses (all perfectly footnoted in APA style). And doesn’t trust anything she writes.

Every so often Snarky Girl pipes up too, wanting her say. Snarky Girl like to write with a lot (a lot!!!!!!!!) of exclamation points when she’s not being sarcastic. She also sounds like every other snarky girl out there.

Desperate 
Needless to say, this situation is a bit of a problem, with The Thesis deadline looming.

I have started several times. I have written clunky,
heartfelt,
pithy,
and (maybe one or two) witty lines.

Nothing is working. But don’t give me that “W.B.” title (no, I won’t write it out, that might be giving it too much power). Because I think the problem is that I haven’t been writing for YOU. I think I have misplaced My Voice because I am just not looking in the WRITE PLACE.

Yes, I did just pun on myself. Sorry. I need to just do this--you can shield your eyes if it’s upsetting to your sensibilities.

In The Last Place I Look
You do see what I am getting at, though, I know you do. I keep telling myself that my blog is an extra, to just stick to the writing, the Serious Writing, that I must do to finish my masters. I have been doing this for months, neglecting you all, neglecting my true inspiration. Yet, this is what feeds me: coming here and talking about whatever you need to know, whatever I need to share, whatever is new and juicy and so compelling that the posts damn near write themselves.

All the posts I have missed on this austerity plan could fill a book. Which is good, because I need to write a book right now.

So here is what I am going to do: write blog posts. Some I will share with you and some will go in the book, depending on the day. Maybe I can feed you all, myself AND The Beast at the same time. Because there is more than one way to skin this cat[1].  

And if nothing else, we can all have fun in the attempt.....
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[1] No actual animals were harmed in the production of this blog post.