Most beginning writers are led to believe they’re embarking on a great journey.

First stop: Learn your craft.

Second stop: Experiment.

Third stop: Workshop.

Fourth stop: Revise.

Final Destination: Your very own voice.

Luckily, there are many tools to help you along the way! Craft lectures, craft books, MFA programs, conferences– many of which push this belief that after much struggle and failure,  you’ll reach a place in your writing where you’ll feel comfortable. You will have found “Your Voice.” And once you’ve found something, there’s no need to search for it anymore.

Many of us like to read a variety of literature. Sometimes we feel like minimalism in the morning, and maximalism in the afternoon; satires at the playground, formalist experiments over coffee,  gothic fiction at the beach, fabulism in the bathtub, lyricism with midnight ice-cream. Variety is stimulating; it’s exciting. So why are so many of us, as writers, journeying toward stasis?

Because we paid our dues at the second stop. We experimented, and we failed, or we weren’t very good at anything, until we discovered the scrap beginnings of Our Voice. Workshopped and revised, Our Voice worked. Our Voice became recognizable. Our Voice got published. Now, we can wake up in the morning and sit down and Our Voice comes easily. Besides, there are variations of Our Voice. Our Voice collaged. Our Voice spoken from the dead. Our Voice turned political.

Finding a voice can certainly be useful, but it can also be, well, dull. Why would we want to settle for a final destination? Instead, once we arrive at a destination, could we set off for another one? When we begin to feel comfortable with our writing should we find a way to make ourselves uncomfortable again?