Andrea Mann

Andrea Mann is a British screenwriter

Finding your ‘voice’ in writing (and music, and life)

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Did you know that Hold Me Now by The Thompson Twins has a middle bridge section that’s very like Wichita Lineman? Nor did I until this week, when I sat down at my piano keyboard on a whim to see how possible-slash-satisfying one of my absolute favourite songs from the 80s would be to sing and play. (Turns out: very possible, and very satisfying.)

The reason I’ve been sitting down at my keyboard on a whim quite a lot lately – normally prompted by a favourite song from the 70s or 80s popping up on shuffle (I can testify that How Long by Ace is also incredibly satisfying) – is because, for the very first time in my life, in my 50s, I am busking. And in fact this month I took it one stage further – literally, it was at the Man Cave Stage – and sang and played at Ilkley Live, a brilliant free music festival that happens in my new hometown every year:

That’s me in the corner (that’s me in the sunshine, finding my religion)

I’ve sung with jazz musicians – ie vocals only – for many years now, although until recently I hadn’t actually done it for many years, if you see what I mean. But singing while also playing piano in public has been something I’ve only done occasionally – again, many years ago, and vitally: only ever as background music in a busy bar or restaurant. To sing and play while people are actually, erm, paying attention is a new, rather scary, step for me. And it’s got me thinking about the idea of being heard – about being public, and audible. About one’s voice.

The idea of your ‘voice’ is talked about a lot in the writing world. But how do you find it? And what even is it?

The latter question is, for me, the route into the former. One’s ‘voice’ is one’s personality on the page: your take on life and the world, your POV, your values and beliefs and tastes, all showing through how you write and what you write about. It’s your ‘brand’. All there, on a plate (or at least on a page). It’s you the writer being you the writer.

So how do you unearth it, develop it? For me, that process has been inextricably linked to finding my voice full stop. It’s been linked to me learning that a key route to happiness and fulfilment in all areas of life – in work, relationships, family – is trying, learning, to be the most YOU you can be. Learning to embrace who you are, how you feel, what you think – rather than denying it or hiding it. Learning to shed the layers that grow around all of us.

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I Set Up A Write-In In My Hometown. Here Are 5 Things It’s Taught Me

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If you build it, they will come (on the first and third Wednesdays of each month)

For just over a year now, twice a month, every month, I plonk myself down at a big table in a cafe in my hometown at 10am and stay there for two hours. The reason I always bagsy a big table – and why I always stay there for two hours – is that I go to this café with the specific purpose not just to write, but to write alongside others. I called it the Ilkley Write-In, and as well as being one of the biggest sources of caffeine in my life, it’s also proved to be one of the biggest sources of joy. Here are five reasons why that’s the case – or to put it another way: five things I’ve learned setting up and running it for a year.

1. If you create something inspired by a need or want in you, you will probably be fulfilling it in others too

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On Imposter Syndrome, And Getting Out Of Our Own Way

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I put myself forward for a writing gig this month that I almost didn’t put myself forward for.

I’d seen the call out – asking for CV submissons – and immediately dismissed it as not something I would be good or experienced enough for. It required a writing muscle that I’ve not exercised in years and I feared would now be too out of shape.

But then my agent asked me if I was going to put myself forward for it. I said no, and gave my excuses reasons. And then – being both a good person and a good agent – she told me that I should.

Old me would have continued to resist. New me a) realised I was resisting, b) knew my agent was right, and c) submitted my CV.

And while I knew that it was an extremely long shot, I also knew that the point, really, wasn’t whether I would get the gig or not. The point was that I had just got out of my own way.

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