An Invitation to Find Your Voice

When I travel and speak about the power of words to transform your life, I always start by asking two questions. It doesn’t matter who I’m speaking to, the size of the room, or who is in it. It could be the C-Suite of a massive organization looking to increase market share or grow its revenue. It could be a room of moms and dads in the thick of parenting. It could be an auditorium full of creatives looking to feel inspired. Either way, I start by asking, “How many of you in here would consider yourself a writer?”

I usually go on by saying, “What I mean by this is how many of you would be mingling at a cocktail party and when someone turns to you to say, ‘Tell me about yourself,’ you’d say, perhaps among other things, “I’m a writer.” No matter where I am, the response is nearly the same. Usually it’s a measly five or six hands that slowly and self-consciously make their way into the air.

Immediately, I ask the second question. “Okay then, how many of you write, compose, and send at least three emails or text messages every day?” There’s usually a murmur of laughter in the room as every single hand reluctantly but inevitably goes up. The point is clear. Like it or not, writing is not an optional activity in our modern lives. You are a writer because you write— all the time.

You write for all kinds of reasons. You write to communicate a message, to encourage a friend, to ask someone a favor, to ask a question, to deliver information, so that you don’t forget some- thing (like an item on the grocery list, for example). Maybe you write in a journal where you can fully process your thoughts or feelings about a subject, or maybe you write down your goals as a regular practice. Maybe you write down a few things you’re grateful for each morning. Or maybe you have to write a “report” for work. Either way, we’re all drawn to the process of writing for one reason or another.

There are a host of reasons you hesitate to act on these impulses. But if you’ve ever had the impulse at all, take a minute and acknowledge yourself. Writing is an incredibly human instinct—and a great one at that.

Intuitively, we know writing clarifies our thinking, gets us in touch with a higher wisdom, connects us to other people, calms our nerves, and helps us make something usable from even the most horrific situations. You won’t meet many people who don’t have the impulse to write. We reject the identity of “writer,” hide our urges to write, act like it’s no big deal or that it doesn’t matter. But we secretly dream of finding a way to be seen and heard and understood, even by ourselves—something which writing readily helps us do. The urge to write is almost completely universal.

I was at the service center of my car dealership the other day, and John, who’s been repairing BMWs for years, told me he’s been harboring a secret idea for a screenplay. Aaron, my Lyft driver, told me he used to keep journals hidden under the mattress of his bed until one day, when his mom found them and read what he had written, out loud, to his friends. Aaron hasn’t written since. Go figure.

Participants who come to our Find Your Voice one-day workshops or Prepare to Publish meetups say things like, “I’ve had this story burning inside me for years now. I have to get it out.” I recently spoke to a pastor who called because his publisher is breathing down his neck, demanding a book proposal. He’s the leader of a big church, and the publisher wants to help him package some of his sermon material. But what he said to me at the end of that call got to the heart of the matter: “I know the book they want me to write, but it’s not the book I need to write. I need your help.”

The need to write. Yes. That’s what I’m getting at here. Writing to publish is one thing, and it can be a great thing. But the urge to write can’t always be satisfied by the act of publishing. Because writing is not just writing. Writing is prayer, spirituality, self-discovery, communication, therapy, connection. The invitation and impulse to write is not just an invitation and impulse to put a few words down on the page. It’s an invitation to take ownership of our lives. Writing helps us gain confidence in ourselves, our ideas, and how we move through the world. The invitation to write is an invitation to find your voice.

Somewhere along the way, we were sold the idea that writing is only a commodity. But what if writing could also be a lifeline?

So are you going to write? The point is, you get to decide. What an amazing gift and an incredible responsibility.

Writers write. I know this sounds simple enough, but if you consider the amount of time you spend not writing—considering writing, dreaming about writing, avoiding writing, wishing you could write—you’ll realize how important this truth is.

This excerpt was taken from The Power of Writing It Down by Allison Fallon. ©2021 by Allison Fallon. Used by permission of Zondervan.

Allison Fallon is the author of The Power of Writing It Down, as well as of Packing Light and Indestructible. She is a speaker and the founder of Find Your Voice, a community that supports anyone who wants to write anything. She has helped leaders of multi-national corporations, stay-at-home moms, Olympic gold medalists, recovering addicts, political figures, CEOs and prison inmates use the Find Your Voice method as a powerful tool to generate positive change in their lives. She has lived all over the country in the past decade but now lives in Pasadena, California, with her husband and daughter. You can follow Allison at AllisonFallon.com.

Photograph © Gift Habeshawn, used with permission