Finding My Voice

The best presents I received while in high school (long before personal computers and the Internet were around) were a set of encyclopedias and a typewriter with built in correction tape. With those two tools I spent hours researching and writing stories. At that time my genre was romantic fiction (Harlequin romance-type) and I relished in creating beautiful and capable heroines who were swept off their feet by manly, yet sensitive heroes, usually in cosmopolitan locations.

While my need to write has not diminished over the years, I now have difficulty focusing on one type of writing. I know I should pick one genre and hone my skills in that area, but that choice is not clear to me. I struggle with finding my voice (as you may have noticed from all the different types of posts on this blog).

I have many voices that I want to use, different types of stores I want to tell, but the problem is consistency. Which voice do I want to be representative of me?

Faith: sometimes I have the urge to write about Christian themes that have impacted my life and share what I have learned through study of God's word and other teachers. However, I often think that my words come across as "preachy" when I use this voice.

Parenting: other times I want to write about the struggles of parenting as a way to gain perspective and cope. Again, I don't think that this is my best voice because I only seem to explore these topics when my kids are in crises and I do not have a talent or desire for examining past issues.

Mid-Life Angst: I guess some of my writing could fall into this category as I struggle with friendships, eating right, exercise, jobs and other facets of daily life at 40+. I would love to be able to write about these topics in a funny, but profound and relatable way. Not sure that this is my strongest voice.

Travel: I love to marry my two passions of travel and writing. While I feel this voice is strong and confident (click here to see some examples), there are few problems with developing this voice. 1) I am not sure that many people want to read about my large and small travels and 2) due to budgetary constraints I cannot always be traveling and might not have material to write about.

That is my quandary. Do I continue writing in all of these voices and risk being discordant and never  developing sharper writing skills? Or do I just jump in and pick one of my "voices" and see where the journey takes me?