2005 – That’s the year I began writing, well, professionally at least. Really, my love of writing dates back to the late ’90s where my greatest achievement was a poem published in a series that no one ever purchased and a rather crude fan fiction vampire novel – but we won’t get into that. (It was bad… really bad)
Even with over 12 years of professional writing experience, I still stumble when it comes to finding my voice. When I first began writing professionally, I found comfort in writing How To articles and articles from a strictly educational standpoint. And that worked – most of the clients I’d picked up were happy with the more educational perspective. It even helped out later when I scored an interview for quality assurance/software tester, but my experience writing for a chicken store and a wedding blog helped me land a gig as a technical writer – conveniently the writing was ALL informational.
However when I began on a personal level, I struggled.
I rarely tied in my personal touch – my feelings, memories, emotions – things that make us approachable and relatable. It was intimating, too personal, I was resistant to the idea of inviting strangers into my metaphorical home. And while many connect just fine to informational only articles, I found that the audience I wanted to connect the most with wanted that human touch. Without it, they found difficulties connecting with me – connecting to what I was writing.
To this day I sometimes find myself falling back into the old habit of writing from an impersonal perspective, with the intention to just provide actionable items – and while there is a time and place for that (you may even find some of those on this blog), it’s not the voice I want to portray.
So I will continue to tweak and modify my voice, locate inspiration in unusual ways, and find the sources that inspire me to write. All that to say – welcome to a new adventure. It’s wonderful to meet you, you are an inspiration, a total badass. YOU are SUPREME. Supremely you.
Signed Supremely Me,
Aly
