My Voice

I seem to be cursed with a soft voice. Yes, I’m softly spoken, but that’s not what I mean. In my writing, I’m told, I have the voice of a writer for young adults, rather than a writer for adults. Comments on my illustrations posted on Amateur Illustrator include words like ‘kind’, ‘friendly’,

‘warm’ and ‘soft’. It’s not a bad thing of course. I’d hate to be the opposite of any of those things, but there are times when I wish I could get beyond being called a ‘sweetie’. I’m getting way too close to my half-century to appreciate it now. It conjures up images of sweet little old ladies at my age.

I’m reading a book about dreams at the moment. It’s a very old book, but it discusses the meaning of dreams with reference to the theories of Jung, so it’s incredibly interesting. The chapter I just read talked about our ‘shadow’ personality, a side that everyone has that they don’t tend to let out. It often comes out in dreams though and the more aware of it we are, the happier we are. I’m beginning to think maybe I need to make keener acquaintance with my shadow (get in touch with my dark side, muahahaha!) so that my writing and my art have more edge. The stereotypical writer or artist is full of angst and anger. Maybe that’s what I need.

There again, maybe I just need to carry on enjoying what I’m doing - writing what I like writing and painting what I like painting. But it’s an interesting thought.