12/6: Finding Voice as a Creative
This past Monday, I somehow found myself in the same Zoom room as John August who’s one of my favorite writers. It was a larger event hosted by the Northwest Screenwriter’s Guild that I happened to stumble upon through an instagram post.
There was so much to process, “Is anyone in this meeting going to care that I’m eating right now because I just worked and worked out and I’m starving?” “Will John remember anyone in this room?” “What questions should I ask?” “Will mine even be answered??”
But one thing John kept talking about was . He kept talking about voice, and mostly because it’s one of the hardest things for a writer to understand and regularly implement.
I finally asked him, “what’s one thing you’re excited to see in Millenial and Gen Z writers? Is it their style? (ex: K-Pop Demon Hunters), Is it theme? Is it their voice?” My question was eventually addressed, and the answer I was expecting was Style. When you think about K-pop Demon hunters it has such a unique style in the story, the elements, and especially the animation.
But his answer focused much more on voice.
“What is the movie that you would want to see? What is the movie that you would pay money to see? That’s the one you should write.”
I think it’s an important way of thinking as a writer. Something I was told a lot in college especially as a film student was thinking of how to be realistic in order to actually make a film for a grade, and in some ways you do need to write scripts like these. Write the budget you have, with the people who have, with something that’s actually accomplishable to make a film and get it out there. But after 5 years of doing that, I started to find myself limiting myself in the draft—not during the revisions.
But after I graduated, I wanted to test myself. Could I write a feature? Could I write a few episodes of a show? What if I could even learn the business?
I’m in this weird new journey as a creative/ Between having two jobs, and starting a photography/videography business, AND trying to build an audience in the creative field it’s definitely been a lot, but! Voice—in my opinion—is one of the strongest tools you can have as a creative, and I think it’s like a muscle! You have to work it in order for it to develop. You must continually try new things, and harder things in order for your voice to grow and develop.
One of my favorite quotes from a professor I had was from my Creative Non-Fiction Professor. He used to call me, “C,” and I didn’t find out till halfway through the semester because I thought he was signing his own notes. For one assignment, I was using Hamilton lyrics to describe a particular life experience I had, and one of his notes was,
“C, Hamilton is a great musical, but Hamilton is Lin Manuel-Miranda’s voice based on his lived experiences. No one can say anything better about your experiences than your voice.”
And it got me thinking about my voice. What do I have to say about the things I write? What do I as the writer think about a character’s decision and how do I reflect that on a page? What about my experience is relatable to an audience?
Obviously, these are questions answered over time, and more importantly evolve as a writer gains experience, but I think for now, I’ll lean on my professor’s advice: