By Sammi Davis
Edited by Fernando Aguilar
Whenever I hear someone give advice that sounds a little too zen, I get frustrated. I just want to keep asking ‘how?’ How do you make yourself unique from others with similar skills? Well, ‘find your voice’ and express that. Okay, but how?
Here are three tips I found on how to find your voice. Some of them are from specific disciplines, but I found value in each of them.
- Try lots of different things. Experiment. Explore. Eventually one of the ‘things’ will stick. You’ll think it’s interesting/ rewarding/ fun, and other people will see some value in it too. What you’ve discovered is something that resonates with you and other people, and that will lead you to your voice. In this article from Mentorless.com, filmmaker Mark Duplass tweeted, “make a ton of shorts [films], under 10 minutes, cheaply. If u r like me, your first ones will suck. Then, one of them won’t. That’s your voice.”
- Don’t get distracted. Clear out the excess. Get rid of one thing that slows you down during the day. If you don’t miss it after a week, then it was probably just distracting you from pursuing what you really want to do. This writing blogger mentioned how he has 638 unread articles in his feed in ONE day. He was never going to get through all of them, and the ones he did read he just skimmed. So, he unsubscribed. By streamlining one thing that dominated a lot of his time, he managed to be less distracted and had more time to be creative and write.
- Learn from mistakes. Be patient with yourself, you’re just learning and you’re human like everyone else. If what you’re trying isn’t up to par with your own standards, that’s okay. Let a project sit a few days, a week, a month. It will still be flawed, but you will have fresh eyes and can look at it objectively. Recognize the flaws and the parts that are good. Be proud, and know that you’re only going to get better with practice. This article said had a quote by Ira Glass:
Sammi,
Great advice! I love the Ira Glass quote. It is so important to stay dedicated to your vision regardless of whether others are taking notice. I remember when I first saw the video version (http://vimeo.com/24715531)of this quote I was determined to write every day… I never did. But maybe your post was the reminder I needed to get started! Thanks!
I love these tips. The first is my favorite and I can absolutely relate to it. Make ten movies and the one that doesn’t suck is your niche. I feel like I’ve tried dozens of things and didn’t suck at a few of them and then I just end up narrowing them down. I like how you chose to go about this post!