This is just for me. I am putting it here so I can refer to it later.
All these fine words are from Justine Musk. There is more to the article but I have just cut and pasted the bits that resonate with me and added my own emphasis.
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So lesson number one: write a great book. Different people have different versions of what ‘greatness’ involves. The important thing is that enough people agree that your stuff is freaking awesome.
But how do you market a book that doesn’t even exist yet? That maybe hasn’t even been started yet? Especially if the book is supposed to be marketing itself because of its baked-in awesomeness?
Especially if you’re writing fiction?
It might help to reframe what it is you’re selling (and baby, I know it’s not romantic, but in the end we’re all selling something). You are not just selling a book. You are selling your ability to enlighten and entertain the reader through the content you provide. You are selling them an interactive experience. (If your stuff can make someone feel something, or alters their worldview in some way, it is interactive.)
Danielle LaPorte and Marie Forleo would say that you are selling your soul (and this is a GOOD thing).
Which means that you are marketing your unique and distinctive ability to make people feel and think.
And you do that by…providing unique and distinctive online content that makes people feel and think.
This is where ‘voice’ comes in.
It is what you say…and how you say it. Form and content converge so that you can’t separate one from the other. It’s not just a message but an overall feeling, worldview, sensibility, personality. Your voice conveys a deep, instinctive sense, a vivid mental imprint, of who you are.
The blog is not enough: you want a free report, a video, a podcast. Those are not enough: you want to buy a book. The book is not enough: you want a seminar, a retreat, you want to experience the person in person. Even if you don’t know where you’re going, you know that you are on some kind of journey – that this person is taking you somewhere – and you find it compelling.
What this means for writers, I think – especially fiction writers – is that you have to open up your sense of your work, your content, and release your voice so that readers can experience it online. And be compelled by it. And then follow it to Amazon or Barnes & Noble so they can buy your book and get more of it.
I know, I know. Easier said than done.
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How do you develop an online voice that is the most compelling version of you?
I would say: through constant practice, trial and experimentation. It’s not just a matter of development but (self) discovery. It’s about knowing who you are and how to best tell that story, consistently, to the world.
As Dolly Parton put it, “Know who you are and be yourself on purpose.”
But you also need to figure out that spot where who you are intersects with what the world wants.
Copyblogger’s Brian Clark talks about “meaning” and “fascination”. A compelling voice has to have both. It brings value and meaning to someone’s life. It is relevant. The ‘fascination’ part has to do with how the meaning filters through (and is shaped by) the personality, the sense of a specific mind at work.
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It’s important to expose yourself to as many influences as possible. You are the sum of your influences – so choose them wisely.
Read a lot. Read good stuff. The more you read, the more your brain absorbs the flow of language, the notes and variations. The more ideas you take in, the more material you have to take apart and re-arrange into your own ideas.
Write a lot. Julia Cameron suggests the use of “morning pages”. Every morning you move your hand across the page until you’ve filled three of them with whatever comes out of your mind. You don’t censor or judge. If you feel like writing, “Holy crap I would really like to be eating pancakes right now” over and over again, that is exactly what you do.
This is a powerful exercise because it acquaints you with your own mind. Nature abhors a vacuum – so when you empty your mind of the thoughts that usually occupy it, new thoughts arise in their place.
Also when you write, you activate a different part of your brain. Your thinking deepens as a result, flashes on new insight, dives in unexpected places.
(Try it. Ask yourself: “What is my message to the world?” or “What are the things that I passionately want to communicate?” or “What are the themes that I need to explore?” and free-write for twenty minutes with no censorship or judgment whatsoever. See what your mind presents you with. You might be surprised.)
And finally, you learn to let go. Your natural writing voice will emerge when you’re relaxed and in the flow. Like anything else: the more you practice, the easier this gets. It’s like learning to drive. What feels so alien and uncomfortable eventually becomes second nature.
The thing is – you can’t invent your ‘voice’ anymore than you can ‘invent’ your DNA. You are what you already are. The trick is to clear away the excess, burn off those internalized voices that pretend to belong to you but belong to your parents or teachers or an old abusive lover or even the culture at large. It’s not about what you should care about, or what you ought to say or how you ought to say it.
It’s about who you are at the core.
It’s about baking your soul into your content in a way that feeds the world.
If it was easy – if it didn’t take courage and effort – then everybody would do it.
Are you?