Be Authentic

Besides reading and writing, I LOVE movies! The other day while researching a project, I flipped on the TV and “The Legend of Bagger Vance” starring Will Smith was on HBO. I love the part when he’s talking to Matt Damon’s character “Junuh” about finding his perfect golf swing. His “authentic” swing. This got me thinking, not just about golfing, but writing. Of course.

We all have authors we admire, whose work and writing style pulls us right into their stories and takes us on an adventure. Just as Junuh had to find his authentic swing, we have to find our authentic writing style. The style that is uniquely ours. Not someone else’s. It is important that we be authentic to ourselves, listening to the real voice within us so that what we write about and do in our lives is truly us. Not someone else. Not someone we admire. Our real self. Our authentic self. If we try to write like someone else, we are not writing at our best. It’s essentially a lie to our self. It’s their style, not ours.

We find our unique and authentic self through practice. An older movie that comes to mind is The Glenn Miller Story starring Jimmy Stewart and June Allison. Glenn Miller was a Big Band musician who formed his own band. However, there were a lot of big bands playing during that time, but he needed to establish his own sound in order to distinguish himself as different from other bands and musicians. Through perseverance, he finally found the “sound” that was uniquely his own. This is what we need to do through our writing. Keep at it until we find that unique writing style that is completely our own and distinguishes us from other writers.

Just like good musicians, singers, athletes or other people who are committed, they have each found their niche through hard work and being true to themselves. It’s just like the need to breathe. You just HAVE to. We write because WE have to. Show your true self in your writing. You will write tighter, sharper, better, more authentic work.