On Trusting Your Voice
“Give a piece to one hundred people, you could possibly get one hundred different opinions—not absolutely different, but lots of variations. This is where the depth of your relationship with…
“Give
a piece to one hundred people, you could possibly get one hundred different
opinions—not absolutely different, but lots of variations. This is where the
depth of your relationship with yourself is so important. You should listen to
what people say. Take in what they say. (Don’t build a steel box around
yourself). Then make your own decisions. It’s your poem and your voice. There
are no clear cut rules; it is a relationship with yourself. What is it you
wanted to say? What do you want to expose about yourself? Being naked in a
piece is a loss of control. This is good. We’re not in control anyway. People
see you as you are. Sometimes we expose ourselves before we understand what we
have done. That’s hard, but even more painful is to freeze up and expose
nothing. Plus freezing up makes for terrible writing.”
Natalie
Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones

Jane Friedman is a full-time entrepreneur (since 2014) and has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. She is the co-founder of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and is the former publisher of Writer’s Digest. In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane maintains an award-winning blog for writers at JaneFriedman.com. Jane’s newest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press, 2018).