Hearing through the noise.

Writing for other people can often start with a process of ‘learning’ - about them and what they want to achieve. Unless they’re asking you to provide ‘guest content’, you generally want your words to ‘sound like’ theirs.

Whether you work from an agreed structure and guidelines or from a learned experience of what the company or brand represents and expects, the ‘personality’ of your writing should represent their business. It should align with their ethos, goals, spirit and tone, whilst also reflecting the voice of their customers.

I find real enjoyment in the process of learning about each business and I welcome each challenge to reflect them in what is put forward.

Tone switching between pieces of work isn’t a challenge for me either. I have a process. I specifically build it in to a work plan, because I know the importance of it.

This week, however, I was ‘blessed’ with the important reminder that when I click post, or press send, there also needs to be time to let my personal voice return.

I had let this practice slip and I shouldn’t have. Taking the time to reflect on this mistake prompted these musings, but also a small restructure of my week. The outcome? Here I am, back here. Putting these thought out there - as a prompt for you if you need it, but also to explain the revival of this section.

To mitigate the risk of losing my voice amongst all the others, I’m raising mine. Yes, I do see what I did there.

I don’t believe that this just applies to authors, content and report writers, project managers or social media managers - it clearly also applies to anyone who works for a large corporation or strong brand and who is expected to represent that image at all times.

Perhaps a little less clearly, but just as importantly, it likely applies to anyone and everyone who has a smart phone. Don’t we all lose ourselves down the rabbit hole of social media every now and then?

We can be too busy repeating what others have told us (says the writer on a blog...) that our own voices are drowned in all the ‘noise’.

This week was a reminder that in the same way I might consider what a clients values are when I’m speaking for them, I have to make sure I know what my own are when I’m speaking for me.

Take a moment. Deep breath. Close your eyes. Pick on a topic, any topic, that has been present in your head this week. How do YOU really FEEL about it? Not what you’ve been told you should feel or think. How do YOU feel? What do you think? If you’re not listening to yourself, if you can’t hear yourself amongst all the other opinions, then personal decision making and problem solving will always be so much harder. We don’t need that. Life is hard enough. There are no prizes for making it harder for ourselves.

There is value in listening to other people’s perspectives, learning from their knowledge and experiences, but there’s also power in listening to yourself as well.

Whether it’s something as simple as journaling, or taking time for chatting with a trusted friend that goes a little deeper than the usual topics, it’s never a bad idea to take time to touch base with your thoughts (and maybe in the process you’ll remember that ‘touch base’ isn’t a phrase that‘s really you...).

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@highcroftwriting

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