October 30, 2025 • 30 mins
Ever feel like your topic is taken, your niche is crowded, and your draft adds nothing new? Let’s flip that script. We walk through five clear reasons your words matter now—starting with a reframing that changes everything: writing is a conversation, not a competition. When you see books and essays as flavors, not trophies, the goal shifts from being the only voice to bringing your unique taste to the table. That shift opens the door to momentum, courage, and better work.
We dig into how individual experience and style shape meaning for different readers. Crowded genres signal demand, not futility. Some people will learn from you because of your cadence, stories, and lens—and not from the biggest names in the field. We also talk about the cultural role of writers as torchbearers who keep ideas alive by renewing them for the present. Retellings, reframings, and updates aren’t duplicates; they are bridges that carry wisdom forward.
Then we get tactical. You’ll hear a practical system for starting small and iterating with less fear: test chapters, micro-shares, talks, proposals, and structured feedback loops. We cover “fail early, fail often” as a learning engine, plus the mindset tools that sustain you—resilience for the tough comments and a growth mindset that treats every draft as a step toward a clearer voice. By the end, you’ll have both the why and the how to publish with purpose, find your readers, and keep going when the noise gets loud.
If this resonates, follow the show, leave a quick review to help other writers find it, and share this episode with a friend who needs a nudge to hit publish.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:22):
Welcome to the 12 Week Year for Writers Podcast.
I'm Trevor Thrall, author of the12 Week Year for Writers.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please submit a review wherever
you get your podcasts.
And for updates on the pod andall the resources you need to
get your writing done, check usout at 12weekearforwriters.com.
(00:42):
Are you feeling stuck becauseyou're not sure the world needs
to hear what you have to say?
I talk to writers all the timewho are feeling this way.
Young writers who've neverpublished something and are
worried that what they writewon't sell.
People writing memoirs who arejust not sure the world wants to
hear their life story.
(01:03):
Nonfiction and academic writersworried that other people know
more than they do, so why do Iget to write a book?
Today we're going to talk aboutwhy the world needs to hear your
voice.
(01:48):
But she was worried that she wasfeeling stuck.
She couldn't feel comfortablewriting a book on the subject
she had in mind because sheworried that there are just so
many other people who are moreexpert than she on the topic.
So why, you know, why is anyoneanyone gonna read what I have to
say?
Why does it matter what I say?
(02:10):
And that really sparked mythinking because you know, I was
my thought is geez, if she canfeel this way, man, think how
bad it is for the rest of us.
Um and and it's just it's aproblem that writers of all
genres face, right?
The need to find the confidencethat sharing your voice is a
(02:32):
worthy thing to do.
So, you know, it's just toooften that we're not sure the
world needs our writing.
You know, we're not, is it newenough?
Is it interesting enough?
Is it well written enough?
You know, what makes me sospecial?
The world has a lot of peopleclamoring for attention already.
It's hard to feel authorized toshare your voice with the world.
You know, I'm certainly notarrogant enough to imagine the
(02:54):
world really needs to hear me.
Um, lots of other people writingabout the things I talk about.
So if I'm not the smartest orthe most authoritative source
out there, why should I bother?
And I think this kind of fearand and anxiety uh affects so
many people that I wanted totalk about it today.
(03:16):
Because I think there are somany reasons why the world needs
to hear your voice right now,uh, that I want to share them.
And and I'm I'll try to throw insome stories here because
believe me, this is a journey,not something I was born with
myself.
But uh so let's let's dig in,right?
(03:38):
So I think I'm gonna give youfive reasons why it's important
for you to share your voice, anduh and I'm gonna try to throw in
a few sort of strategies uhalong the way.
So the first argument, and andI'm gonna apologize in advance,
um, I'm gonna use a veryextended, possibly lame ice
(04:00):
cream metaphor as we go, becauseI don't know why it just seemed
like a good idea.
So the first uh argument I havefor you is that writing should
be seen of all kinds, right?
Writing of all kinds is aconversation, not a competition.
Um there is no answer to thequestion, what is the best
flavor of ice cream?
(04:21):
Now, I'm sure you've had thisconversation, but it's also
obvious there's no correctanswer, right?
Just because chocolate is anincredible flavor doesn't mean
we don't benefit from havingother flavors, right?
Same thing for writing.
Just because people have writtenwonderful books in your field or
in your genre, your niche,doesn't mean we don't need more
books.
(04:42):
Typically, when people like acertain uh niche, they want to
read as much as possible.
And then if they want moreflavors, they don't want just
chocolate, they want chocolateand strawberry and vanilla and
all that sort of stuff, right?
Just like your favorite icecream parlor, conversations are
at their best when we have manyvoices, many flavors sharing
(05:03):
different perspectives andunique stories.
There's never going to be an endto our need for conversation.
There will never be a time atwhich you can say, This niche is
full, no more books ever need tobe written.
That will never happen.
We never have to stop havingconversations about how to be
good people, the meaning of theuniverse, how to run a
government, uh, how to fall inlove, right?
(05:24):
None of this stuff can ever beover.
So writing is a conversation,not a competition.
And so I think, you know, from asort of a policy implication for
us here, right?
If you're thinking about how tomove forward because you're
worried about the competitionpart, is to focus on your own
input.
Don't worry about what otherpeople are saying.
Don't read what other people aredoing right now.
(05:46):
If that freaks you out becauseit's so good or feels whatever,
all right, don't read it.
Focus on your own stuff.
Okay.
Second reason uh is that uh, andthese things build, these build
on each other.
Uh, the second reason is thatevery voice adds a unique flavor
to the conversation, right?
(06:06):
So, right, sticking with our icecream metaphor here, the only
person who can create yourunique flavor of ice cream is
you.
No matter how brilliant someother writer might be, they can
only write in their own style,from their own experiences, with
their own particular voice,right, and and way of thinking
about the world.
Uh, so if you don't share yourvoice, the conversation by
(06:29):
definition will be the lesserfor it, right?
And and and bring it back to icecream, right?
I I was a huge Baskin Robbinsfan as a kid.
I I'm old, so I grew up beforethere was tons of other uh major
ice cream brands.
Um, and I shudder to think whatit would have been like if
Baskin Robbins had thoughtchocolate was so good, they
didn't need to invent myfavorite flavor, Jamoko Almond
(06:52):
Fudge.
Don't don't rob the world ofyour flavor, right?
Bring your flavor to the party.
Right?
Um, and the strategy or theimplication of that piece of
advice to me is to focus onbeing yourself.
A lot of us, when we're newwriters, think that the way we
(07:16):
need to operate is to copypeople who we think are experts
or think are accomplished orwhatever.
And there is some uh validvalidity to copying some of the
things that people who are goodat what we want to do are doing,
right?
So if you think this writer is agreat person and it turns out
(07:36):
they write every morning, I'mnot saying don't write every
morning because you think it'spart of their way of you know
being successful.
Um, but trying to writesentences that sound like Ernest
Hemingway because you thinkErnest Hemingway is a great
writer, that may or may not befor you, right?
Uh, I think it's actually anexcellent um thing to do is to
try to write in other people'svoices, but the main reason to
(07:58):
do that is to figure out whatdoesn't fit about doing that so
you can find your voice, the wayit works for you.
So I my feeling is that what youwant to do is figure out what it
is about you that's unique thatyou're bringing.
That's what the world needs,right?
So every voice adds a uniqueflavor to the conversation.
You're the only one who canbring your flavor.
(08:21):
All right, third, third uhreason um is that the world
needs many teachers.
And um if we were using our icecream metaphor here, uh people
all have different favoritedifferent flavors, right?
Um so yes, there are somewriters out there with huge
(08:42):
audiences, no matter what genreyou look at, there are a few
people who dominateconversation, of course.
And it can be incrediblyintimidating to write in that
genre or niche when you seethat.
You know, why would anyonelisten to you?
Um the problem is this canreally have a chilling effect on
those of us who, you know, uhpay too much attention to how
(09:05):
famous those people are.
And I'll tell you a quick storyhere.
When I was in graduate school,and as a reminder, I I was got a
PhD in political science.
Um, and when I was in graduateschool, my fellow students and
I, as we were getting close topicking dissertation topics, um,
or you know, as we were just inthe early stages of working on
(09:26):
our dissertations, we wouldabsolutely panic if we saw that
someone had written a new bookor even a journal article about
that topic.
Um, because we assumed that assoon as someone wrote one thing
about our topic, it meant thatthe world would have no
interest, no need for our lowly,you know, scholastic efforts.
And so a lot of my friendsabandoned topics they liked
(09:49):
because they saw competition,which I warned you about
already, right?
Uh, but it turns out thatrunning from those things is is
backwards, right?
Um, for a couple of reasons.
First of all, the more popularthe field or genre is, um, the
(10:10):
more important it is for thereto be many teachers, right?
It and so it's it's funnybecause um your instinct says
that's crowded, it'scompetitive, I should stay away.
But the reality is what it meansis there's a huge demand for
information and teaching storiesin that area.
(10:31):
Looking at you, romance world,looking at you, productivity
world, looking at you health,you know.
There are just a lot of areaswhere there is a ton coming out.
And the reason is because peopleneed different flavors of
teaching.
They are there are a ton ofpeople interested, and no one
person can speak to all of thosepeople effectively, right?
(10:54):
So just but like people havedifferent ice cream flavors,
people also have differentfavorites when it comes to
entertainment and learning.
And you know, as a longtimeteacher myself, I can absolutely
tell you that you cannot helpeveryone.
As much as you would like to,you cannot.
Some people will learn well fromyou, some people will not.
Some people you will just rubthe wrong way for reasons you
(11:17):
cannot fathom.
You just can't reach them.
Someone else has to help them,right?
That someone else could be you,right?
No matter how many people loveStephen King, there are more
people who don't love him.
No matter how many people lovethe seven habits of highly
effective people, there are evenmore people who don't find it
useful at all, and so on and soon.
(11:38):
Just because Baskin Robbinsmakes a ton of great flavors
doesn't mean we don't needHagendas, doesn't mean we don't
need Ben and Jerry's, and so on.
Right?
And and I cannot, I just cannotemphasize enough how important
this is, because it can bediscouraging to see Tony Robbins
(11:59):
or Nora Roberts or whoever itis, and it looks like people
only read this person, but thatis absolutely not true, right?
Will your audience be smallerthan their audience?
Of course it will.
But is that a problem?
No, it's not a problem, right?
The the trick is to find yourpeople.
Find your students, find yourreaders, find the people who
(12:20):
like the way you talk.
And the only way you can findand gather those people together
is by putting your stuff outthere.
You're not giving your people achance to find each other if you
don't call them together.
You need to put the bait in thewater so that the people who
think and you know think likeyou or want to be entertained by
you or want to learn from you,they need to be able to find
(12:42):
each other and find you.
So if you don't share, they'renot going to be learning at
their best.
They're not gonna be entertainedat their best.
Um, and you know, that's that'sjust just huge.
And and it's funny because a lotof times in the writing
publishing sort of world, wefocus on how competitive it is,
and that's true at one level.
(13:04):
There's a lot of a lot of bookscoming out.
Um, and yet I also thinksimultaneously there aren't
enough books coming out becausethere are still tons of people
looking for answers, and there'sonly so many books, man.
Even if you want to take ascrowded a niche as you want to
find, the number of books isstill just not that many, right?
(13:25):
And there's still uh plenty ofways to write um new approaches
to any of those things, whetherit's stories, uh fiction, or
non-fiction.
There's still tons of differentways.
I am constantly amazed at thedifferent niche areas of
fiction.
I read a lot in my spare time,and um I'm a dark academic.
(13:47):
Like, what is that?
I never heard of this readbefore a couple weeks ago, and
I'm reading an article in theNew York Times about this niche
of fantasy that I never knewexisted before.
And it's amazing.
I mean, it it will never stop uhbeing true that we need um
different flavors for people.
Okay.
Fourth argument is that writingmust constantly be made new.
(14:11):
And to borrow the ice creammetaphor, you know, like a bowl
of ice cream, writing doesn'tlast forever.
It melts.
Um, you know, outside of a fewreligious texts, I guess, and a
few classics, um, very littlewriting survives more than a few
years past its publication.
Uh, and in fact, even the thingsthat do last, it's only because
(14:32):
people write other things,promoting them and explaining
them, right?
And that might sound depressing,but I look at it the other way
around, right?
I look at it as saying thatwriters have a sacred duty
because it's writers whotranslate and transmit and carry
the ancient stories and eternaltruths and wisdoms from the past
(14:56):
to the present.
Writers carry, it's like atorch, right?
The torch of truth, the torch ofcivilization.
If you think about civilization,it's it's nothing more than a
bunch of stories and beliefsabout understandings about who
we are, where we've been, wherewe're going, what's the point of
life, right?
Without writers to renew andrefresh our understanding of our
world, our civilization couldnot exist as we know it, right?
(15:19):
Like even the Bible, even theQuran, even the Torah, whatever
classics you want to point at,you need new teachers to explain
them to the modern public, orthey will never be able to pick
up that classic and make senseof it.
Right?
So, writers have one of the mostimportant jobs in the world.
And I don't care if you'retalking about fiction or
(15:40):
nonfiction, right?
The most ancient wisdoms arestories, and those stories
constantly need retelling.
And so, yes, brilliant writershave come before you, but their
work can't last forever.
We we need always to remake andrethink and re-address the old
(16:01):
issues and the old wisdoms tomeet new circumstances, to you
know, put it in new language andso on.
So think of yourself as atorchbearer, right?
You're part of the unbroken lineof torch bearers passing the
light from generation togeneration.
Don't let the ice cream melt.
And, you know, I think it's justfrom a sort of an apology
(16:23):
implication here, right?
I mean, if you think about maybethink about what you're writing
and try to place it in thiseternal sort of torch line,
right?
Where where does your story fit?
What was the earliest version ofthe story you're telling?
Is it, you know, Oedipus?
Is it a story in the Bible?
(16:44):
Is it like what where where'sthe first place someone told
this story that you can find?
And you know, where was the nextone?
And where are some of the otherones?
And what were some of the morerecent ones?
And then where do you fit inthis, right?
Where are you taking this newtruth?
What are you, what sort of lightare you shedding on this eternal
truth uh or or struggle uhtoday?
(17:05):
Um, you know, just from a realsimple standpoint, like if even
if you think about sort ofmodern classics almost, I guess
you'd say like one of myfavorite books in the last 15,
whatever how many years it'sbeen was Wicked.
Um, and I read the book wellbefore the um the incredible
(17:26):
musical uh was made, and sothere wasn't a lot of buzz about
it.
I don't know how I discoveredit, I think at the library, just
you know, wandering around.
Um, and I was just blown away byWicked, you know, a retelling of
the Wizard of Oz.
And I'm thinking to myself, whoeven thought we needed a
retelling of the Wizard of Oz?
(17:46):
But I guess we did.
We sure did.
I mean, think about how amazingWicked has been.
And it energized the classic, itretold some of the eternal
truths, it gave some new spins,of course.
That's what we do, right?
But the Wizard of Oz, as amazingas a classic as that was, it
(18:07):
still needed to be made new.
So if that's true, then let'sall bets are off.
All writing must be constantlymade new.
So think of yourself not ashaving to invent things whole
cloth, but you are remaking whatmust be remade.
Okay.
Fifth reason that you need towrite and share your voice is
(18:30):
that writing helps you find yourvoice.
Um, you get better the more icecream you make, right?
So if you're an aspiring writer,newer writer in your genre, for
whatever reason, the very act ofwriting things and sharing it
with the world is the best wayto figure out exactly what you
want to say and to get better atit, right?
(18:52):
Because the more you write, thestronger and clearer your voice
will be, the better able youwill be to pass the torch down
from past to present and future.
Um, the first things you write,not gonna be your best.
And that's okay.
That's not a problem, that's theprocess.
(19:12):
Just remember, you can't startgreat, but you have to start to
be great, right?
Um, if we all waited until wefelt confident, the shelves
would be empty, right?
There would be no delicious icecream for dessert.
If you had to be good at makingit before you made it the first
time, how would you do it?
Right?
You couldn't.
You just couldn't.
So I I think even if you don'tbuy any of my other arguments,
(19:34):
um, you should buy this one,which is that you have to write
to get good at writing and tofind the voice that you truly do
want to share.
And and when I was talkingbefore about, you know, if you
feel like it gives you somecomfort to copy or to try to
write in the voice of those yourespect, that's perfectly a good
(19:56):
way to get started.
My guarantee is that you'regonna find that some of those
ways work better than others,and that your voice is going to
be an evolution or some kind ofspin-off of all those different
voices.
None of them is gonna be quiteright.
Even if you love listening tothem, it's probably just not the
way you think and write.
(20:16):
So you you gotta, and the funnything is, is it takes some time
to write enough that you kind ofprocess all those ghosts and
cobwebs that are in your head orother examples, other voices
that are in your head.
If you've spent most of yourlife consuming, you've got a lot
of stuff and chaff in your brainthat needs to come out the
(20:36):
keyboard before your true voiceis what's left.
And so it takes some words, youneed some word count to get
there.
So those are my five, my fivebig reasons why I think you need
to share your voice with theworld now.
Um, but you still may you mayagree with me here, and then you
(21:01):
still may say, well, okay, I buyit, but it's still hard.
Like, I don't know how to getstarted doing that.
And excellent, that's fair.
So let me give you a few, a fewsort of real tactical
suggestions for getting going ifyou're feeling stuck and you're
(21:22):
feeling a little nervous aboutit, right?
The first big sort of I thinkstrategy is to, it's kind of a
an umbrella strategy for all thedifferent things I'm talking
about now, is to take babysteps, right?
To break things down and takesmall steps so that you're never
doing anything too scary andthat you get a chance to to
(21:44):
iterate, a chance to learnbefore you take another step.
So, for example, um, you want towrite a book.
That's a big thing to askyourself to do if you're nervous
about how the book's gonna bereceived, and and so on and so
forth.
So, what are some baby stepsalong the way to publishing an
entire book?
Well, share a chapter, give atalk about it, uh, have a
(22:09):
writing group where you workshopit, um, share three chapters,
right?
Uh you get the idea.
There are steps you can takealong the way to give yourself
comfort that sharing is notgoing to kill you, that people
are enjoying what you'resharing, uh, and you know, all
(22:31):
that sort of stuff, right?
Uh I'm a big believer in thephrase fail early and fail
often.
And I don't mean that in a scaryway, like I think we normally
think of the word failure assomething that is morally bad.
You shouldn't do it, you shouldtry not to do it.
My take is the other way around.
(22:52):
I think we should attempt tofail early and fail often,
because when we fail is when welearn how to do things better.
And so if you want to write agood book, uh, the best way to
do it is to write a bunch ofbooks, frankly, right?
Um, but in the case of writing abook, right, you want to write
(23:14):
the idea for the book.
You would like a proposal, writea proposal for the book five or
six times, right?
One of my PhD students who isnow a professor doing a having a
great career, uh, veryproductive writer himself, um,
he he followed the fail earlyand fail often to a T when he
(23:34):
was writing his dissertationproposal.
And this is typically for, youknow, one of my students would
write something five pages long,ten pages long maximum, just to
say, hey, here's what the studywould be, here's what the
research question would be, thisis what I think I would do for
my methods and and so on.
Um, and the idea is that youknow you have to have a proposal
(23:55):
get accepted by your committeebefore they they let you go
write the thing.
And so he wrote one and I gavehim feedback, and he wrote
another and I gave him somefeedback, and he wrote another
one.
He wrote nine proposals, and hedid it over a period of, I don't
know, maybe six or eight months.
Um, but they weren't all on thesame topic either.
He he would get a couple in andgo, okay, I'm not liking the
(24:17):
feedback I'm getting.
I'm not, I'm not in love withthat.
Try again, try again, try again.
When he got the approval on theninth one, I said, you know
what?
That one is the best one yet.
He was like, I am ready.
Now I'm ready to write thatbook.
Because he felt super confident.
Because all the failureproposals, right?
They're not failures, they'reiterations.
(24:38):
They're just betas.
We're just getting them outthere to test.
How's that feel?
How's that feel?
How's that feel?
And every time he got closer andcloser to something that really
was going to work for him.
The same can be true no matterwhat kind of writing you do.
Chapter one, the idea, whateverit might be, right?
The framing of a novel, whateverit is, right?
You can iterate, share, iterate,share, iterate, share, right?
(25:00):
And improve, improve, improveuntil you're feeling really
comfortable.
The more you do this, the moreconfident you can be in taking
the next step.
Okay, I'm really confident aboutmy proposal.
Now I can go do the datacollection.
I'm really feeling confidentabout this world I've built, or
this character I've built, orthis plot I've built.
Now I'm gonna write chapter one,right?
And then share chapter one.
How do people like it?
(25:20):
They don't like it, write itagain, right?
Um, you don't have to let thebook go until you're comfortable
with it.
So taking baby steps, using thefail early, fail often kind of
beta testing kind of mindset.
Um and I think um a couple ofmindset things are probably
(25:41):
important here, too, right?
One is um is, and these are bothkind of elements of the of the
overall writer's mindset that wetalk about in the 12-week year.
And the first piece isresilience, uh, because it is
certainly true that when youshare, you're gonna get
feedback, some of which youdon't like.
(26:01):
And it's gonna hurt sometimes.
Um, when I worked at a thinktank back while I was a
professor, I wrote commentarypieces a lot, a lot of them.
And um despite I'm a policyperson, I'm not a partisan
person, so I I was not writingpro-partisan things, uh, just
(26:23):
mostly criticizing U.S.
foreign policy.
Um, equal opportunity critic,criticize everyone.
Um, but uh I I would get I wouldget criticized so bad from right
and from left, and just oh, namecalling, terrible, terrible
stuff.
And for a while it was I could,you know, I was an academic
(26:44):
before that.
I had never no one who wasn't aperson with a PhD had ever
commented about my work before,and so it was usually couched in
academic ease, and it wasusually fairly mild, you know.
Oh, you could have more data onthat uh point, you know, like
whatever, okay, fine.
But you know, now you havepeople calling you a maxi zoom
cheese weenie or a traitor tothe country, or you know, all
(27:07):
sorts of frankly, just reallyhorrible things.
And and I was like, what theheck?
And I it scared me.
Like I was not sure I wanted tokeep doing it because I'm like,
well, you know, if that's gonnahappen.
But one of the things that willhelp, I think, with resilience
for you is if you remember this,that the the point I made about
(27:30):
sharing your voice is that theevery voice adds something
unique to the conversation, andthe world needs many teachers,
right?
That you cannot please all thepeople all the time, no matter
what kind of stuff you write.
And even the most famous,accomplished writers have their
haters.
And in fact, in many genres, ifyou don't have haters, you're
(27:55):
not doing your job, right?
You and and especially if you'rea nonfiction writer of some
sort, I include academics here,typically, in many fields.
If you don't have something thatyou're arguing against, it's
hard to it's hard to getattention.
And so, you know, like New YorkCity, New York City is both
people's favorite city on theplanet and least favorite city
(28:18):
on the planet.
This is just what's gonna happenwhen you write stuff that's
interesting.
It's gonna provoke, it's gonnapolarize.
If you write sexy fiction,people who like sexy fiction are
gonna dig it, and prudes aregonna say, ooh, that's gross and
nasty, and that person's bookshould be banned from the
library.
That's not a problem.
It's the reality of the world,but you do need to generate that
(28:40):
resilience, that muscle needs togrow so that you're okay that
your work is not loved byeveryone.
You're trying to find yourpeople and you're trying to
understand that it's not foreveryone.
And that can be hard to do.
That's a growth process for allof us, for sure.
So I encourage you to embracethat sense of uh resilience and
that understanding that you arenot everyone's favorite teacher
(29:04):
or storyteller.
Um, and then the the last pieceof advice I'll give is just a
quick plug for the growthmindset.
Because none of us starts as thewriter that we want eventually
to be.
And we start off our writingjourneys uncertain about our
voice, uncertain about our rolein the conversation, whatever
(29:28):
conversation we're joining.
Sometimes we're not even surewhat conversation we're joining,
right?
We're not sure about a lot ofthose things, and we're not sure
if we can contribute or how.
Those are all things that youhave to maintain confidence that
you will figure out as you go.
As you write, you will find yourvoice.
As you contribute, you willfigure out what part, what role
(29:51):
you play in the conversation.
You will figure out where youcan provide most value, you will
find your people, you will getbetter at speaking to them,
you'll get better at ignoringthe people that uh you don't
need to listen to.
But remember, none of the thingsthat you're feeling today are
(30:12):
things you're stuck with.
You can grow through practiceand strategic thinking and
support and all of those thingsand become the writer.
With a voice that you're proudof.
All right.
I hope this has been helpful.
I hope you are sharing yourvoice with the world.
Shoot me an email if you'rehaving questions or concerns
(30:36):
about sharing your voice withthe world that I haven't
addressed.
I'll be happy to talk with youabout it.
But until then, happy writing.
Welcome to the 12 Week Year for Writers Podcast.
I'm Trevor Thrall, author of the12 Week Year for Writers.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please submit a review wherever
you get your podcasts.
And for updates on the pod andall the resources you need to
get your writing done, check usout at 12weekearforwriters.com.
(00:42):
Are you feeling stuck becauseyou're not sure the world needs
to hear what you have to say?
I talk to writers all the timewho are feeling this way.
Young writers who've neverpublished something and are
worried that what they writewon't sell.
People writing memoirs who arejust not sure the world wants to
hear their life story.
(01:03):
Nonfiction and academic writersworried that other people know
more than they do, so why do Iget to write a book?
Today we're going to talk aboutwhy the world needs to hear your
voice.
(01:48):
But she was worried that she wasfeeling stuck.
She couldn't feel comfortablewriting a book on the subject
she had in mind because sheworried that there are just so
many other people who are moreexpert than she on the topic.
So why, you know, why is anyoneanyone gonna read what I have to
say?
Why does it matter what I say?
(02:10):
And that really sparked mythinking because you know, I was
my thought is geez, if she canfeel this way, man, think how
bad it is for the rest of us.
Um and and it's just it's aproblem that writers of all
genres face, right?
The need to find the confidencethat sharing your voice is a
(02:32):
worthy thing to do.
So, you know, it's just toooften that we're not sure the
world needs our writing.
You know, we're not, is it newenough?
Is it interesting enough?
Is it well written enough?
You know, what makes me sospecial?
The world has a lot of peopleclamoring for attention already.
It's hard to feel authorized toshare your voice with the world.
You know, I'm certainly notarrogant enough to imagine the
(02:54):
world really needs to hear me.
Um, lots of other people writingabout the things I talk about.
So if I'm not the smartest orthe most authoritative source
out there, why should I bother?
And I think this kind of fearand and anxiety uh affects so
many people that I wanted totalk about it today.
(03:16):
Because I think there are somany reasons why the world needs
to hear your voice right now,uh, that I want to share them.
And and I'm I'll try to throw insome stories here because
believe me, this is a journey,not something I was born with
myself.
But uh so let's let's dig in,right?
(03:38):
So I think I'm gonna give youfive reasons why it's important
for you to share your voice, anduh and I'm gonna try to throw in
a few sort of strategies uhalong the way.
So the first argument, and andI'm gonna apologize in advance,
um, I'm gonna use a veryextended, possibly lame ice
(04:00):
cream metaphor as we go, becauseI don't know why it just seemed
like a good idea.
So the first uh argument I havefor you is that writing should
be seen of all kinds, right?
Writing of all kinds is aconversation, not a competition.
Um there is no answer to thequestion, what is the best
flavor of ice cream?
(04:21):
Now, I'm sure you've had thisconversation, but it's also
obvious there's no correctanswer, right?
Just because chocolate is anincredible flavor doesn't mean
we don't benefit from havingother flavors, right?
Same thing for writing.
Just because people have writtenwonderful books in your field or
in your genre, your niche,doesn't mean we don't need more
books.
(04:42):
Typically, when people like acertain uh niche, they want to
read as much as possible.
And then if they want moreflavors, they don't want just
chocolate, they want chocolateand strawberry and vanilla and
all that sort of stuff, right?
Just like your favorite icecream parlor, conversations are
at their best when we have manyvoices, many flavors sharing
(05:03):
different perspectives andunique stories.
There's never going to be an endto our need for conversation.
There will never be a time atwhich you can say, This niche is
full, no more books ever need tobe written.
That will never happen.
We never have to stop havingconversations about how to be
good people, the meaning of theuniverse, how to run a
government, uh, how to fall inlove, right?
(05:24):
None of this stuff can ever beover.
So writing is a conversation,not a competition.
And so I think, you know, from asort of a policy implication for
us here, right?
If you're thinking about how tomove forward because you're
worried about the competitionpart, is to focus on your own
input.
Don't worry about what otherpeople are saying.
Don't read what other people aredoing right now.
(05:46):
If that freaks you out becauseit's so good or feels whatever,
all right, don't read it.
Focus on your own stuff.
Okay.
Second reason uh is that uh, andthese things build, these build
on each other.
Uh, the second reason is thatevery voice adds a unique flavor
to the conversation, right?
(06:06):
So, right, sticking with our icecream metaphor here, the only
person who can create yourunique flavor of ice cream is
you.
No matter how brilliant someother writer might be, they can
only write in their own style,from their own experiences, with
their own particular voice,right, and and way of thinking
about the world.
Uh, so if you don't share yourvoice, the conversation by
(06:29):
definition will be the lesserfor it, right?
And and and bring it back to icecream, right?
I I was a huge Baskin Robbinsfan as a kid.
I I'm old, so I grew up beforethere was tons of other uh major
ice cream brands.
Um, and I shudder to think whatit would have been like if
Baskin Robbins had thoughtchocolate was so good, they
didn't need to invent myfavorite flavor, Jamoko Almond
(06:52):
Fudge.
Don't don't rob the world ofyour flavor, right?
Bring your flavor to the party.
Right?
Um, and the strategy or theimplication of that piece of
advice to me is to focus onbeing yourself.
A lot of us, when we're newwriters, think that the way we
(07:16):
need to operate is to copypeople who we think are experts
or think are accomplished orwhatever.
And there is some uh validvalidity to copying some of the
things that people who are goodat what we want to do are doing,
right?
So if you think this writer is agreat person and it turns out
(07:36):
they write every morning, I'mnot saying don't write every
morning because you think it'spart of their way of you know
being successful.
Um, but trying to writesentences that sound like Ernest
Hemingway because you thinkErnest Hemingway is a great
writer, that may or may not befor you, right?
Uh, I think it's actually anexcellent um thing to do is to
try to write in other people'svoices, but the main reason to
(07:58):
do that is to figure out whatdoesn't fit about doing that so
you can find your voice, the wayit works for you.
So I my feeling is that what youwant to do is figure out what it
is about you that's unique thatyou're bringing.
That's what the world needs,right?
So every voice adds a uniqueflavor to the conversation.
You're the only one who canbring your flavor.
(08:21):
All right, third, third uhreason um is that the world
needs many teachers.
And um if we were using our icecream metaphor here, uh people
all have different favoritedifferent flavors, right?
Um so yes, there are somewriters out there with huge
(08:42):
audiences, no matter what genreyou look at, there are a few
people who dominateconversation, of course.
And it can be incrediblyintimidating to write in that
genre or niche when you seethat.
You know, why would anyonelisten to you?
Um the problem is this canreally have a chilling effect on
those of us who, you know, uhpay too much attention to how
(09:05):
famous those people are.
And I'll tell you a quick storyhere.
When I was in graduate school,and as a reminder, I I was got a
PhD in political science.
Um, and when I was in graduateschool, my fellow students and
I, as we were getting close topicking dissertation topics, um,
or you know, as we were just inthe early stages of working on
(09:26):
our dissertations, we wouldabsolutely panic if we saw that
someone had written a new bookor even a journal article about
that topic.
Um, because we assumed that assoon as someone wrote one thing
about our topic, it meant thatthe world would have no
interest, no need for our lowly,you know, scholastic efforts.
And so a lot of my friendsabandoned topics they liked
(09:49):
because they saw competition,which I warned you about
already, right?
Uh, but it turns out thatrunning from those things is is
backwards, right?
Um, for a couple of reasons.
First of all, the more popularthe field or genre is, um, the
(10:10):
more important it is for thereto be many teachers, right?
It and so it's it's funnybecause um your instinct says
that's crowded, it'scompetitive, I should stay away.
But the reality is what it meansis there's a huge demand for
information and teaching storiesin that area.
(10:31):
Looking at you, romance world,looking at you, productivity
world, looking at you health,you know.
There are just a lot of areaswhere there is a ton coming out.
And the reason is because peopleneed different flavors of
teaching.
They are there are a ton ofpeople interested, and no one
person can speak to all of thosepeople effectively, right?
(10:54):
So just but like people havedifferent ice cream flavors,
people also have differentfavorites when it comes to
entertainment and learning.
And you know, as a longtimeteacher myself, I can absolutely
tell you that you cannot helpeveryone.
As much as you would like to,you cannot.
Some people will learn well fromyou, some people will not.
Some people you will just rubthe wrong way for reasons you
(11:17):
cannot fathom.
You just can't reach them.
Someone else has to help them,right?
That someone else could be you,right?
No matter how many people loveStephen King, there are more
people who don't love him.
No matter how many people lovethe seven habits of highly
effective people, there are evenmore people who don't find it
useful at all, and so on and soon.
(11:38):
Just because Baskin Robbinsmakes a ton of great flavors
doesn't mean we don't needHagendas, doesn't mean we don't
need Ben and Jerry's, and so on.
Right?
And and I cannot, I just cannotemphasize enough how important
this is, because it can bediscouraging to see Tony Robbins
(11:59):
or Nora Roberts or whoever itis, and it looks like people
only read this person, but thatis absolutely not true, right?
Will your audience be smallerthan their audience?
Of course it will.
But is that a problem?
No, it's not a problem, right?
The the trick is to find yourpeople.
Find your students, find yourreaders, find the people who
(12:20):
like the way you talk.
And the only way you can findand gather those people together
is by putting your stuff outthere.
You're not giving your people achance to find each other if you
don't call them together.
You need to put the bait in thewater so that the people who
think and you know think likeyou or want to be entertained by
you or want to learn from you,they need to be able to find
(12:42):
each other and find you.
So if you don't share, they'renot going to be learning at
their best.
They're not gonna be entertainedat their best.
Um, and you know, that's that'sjust just huge.
And and it's funny because a lotof times in the writing
publishing sort of world, wefocus on how competitive it is,
and that's true at one level.
(13:04):
There's a lot of a lot of bookscoming out.
Um, and yet I also thinksimultaneously there aren't
enough books coming out becausethere are still tons of people
looking for answers, and there'sonly so many books, man.
Even if you want to take ascrowded a niche as you want to
find, the number of books isstill just not that many, right?
(13:25):
And there's still uh plenty ofways to write um new approaches
to any of those things, whetherit's stories, uh fiction, or
non-fiction.
There's still tons of differentways.
I am constantly amazed at thedifferent niche areas of
fiction.
I read a lot in my spare time,and um I'm a dark academic.
(13:47):
Like, what is that?
I never heard of this readbefore a couple weeks ago, and
I'm reading an article in theNew York Times about this niche
of fantasy that I never knewexisted before.
And it's amazing.
I mean, it it will never stop uhbeing true that we need um
different flavors for people.
Okay.
Fourth argument is that writingmust constantly be made new.
(14:11):
And to borrow the ice creammetaphor, you know, like a bowl
of ice cream, writing doesn'tlast forever.
It melts.
Um, you know, outside of a fewreligious texts, I guess, and a
few classics, um, very littlewriting survives more than a few
years past its publication.
Uh, and in fact, even the thingsthat do last, it's only because
(14:32):
people write other things,promoting them and explaining
them, right?
And that might sound depressing,but I look at it the other way
around, right?
I look at it as saying thatwriters have a sacred duty
because it's writers whotranslate and transmit and carry
the ancient stories and eternaltruths and wisdoms from the past
(14:56):
to the present.
Writers carry, it's like atorch, right?
The torch of truth, the torch ofcivilization.
If you think about civilization,it's it's nothing more than a
bunch of stories and beliefsabout understandings about who
we are, where we've been, wherewe're going, what's the point of
life, right?
Without writers to renew andrefresh our understanding of our
world, our civilization couldnot exist as we know it, right?
(15:19):
Like even the Bible, even theQuran, even the Torah, whatever
classics you want to point at,you need new teachers to explain
them to the modern public, orthey will never be able to pick
up that classic and make senseof it.
Right?
So, writers have one of the mostimportant jobs in the world.
And I don't care if you'retalking about fiction or
(15:40):
nonfiction, right?
The most ancient wisdoms arestories, and those stories
constantly need retelling.
And so, yes, brilliant writershave come before you, but their
work can't last forever.
We we need always to remake andrethink and re-address the old
(16:01):
issues and the old wisdoms tomeet new circumstances, to you
know, put it in new language andso on.
So think of yourself as atorchbearer, right?
You're part of the unbroken lineof torch bearers passing the
light from generation togeneration.
Don't let the ice cream melt.
And, you know, I think it's justfrom a sort of an apology
(16:23):
implication here, right?
I mean, if you think about maybethink about what you're writing
and try to place it in thiseternal sort of torch line,
right?
Where where does your story fit?
What was the earliest version ofthe story you're telling?
Is it, you know, Oedipus?
Is it a story in the Bible?
(16:44):
Is it like what where where'sthe first place someone told
this story that you can find?
And you know, where was the nextone?
And where are some of the otherones?
And what were some of the morerecent ones?
And then where do you fit inthis, right?
Where are you taking this newtruth?
What are you, what sort of lightare you shedding on this eternal
truth uh or or struggle uhtoday?
(17:05):
Um, you know, just from a realsimple standpoint, like if even
if you think about sort ofmodern classics almost, I guess
you'd say like one of myfavorite books in the last 15,
whatever how many years it'sbeen was Wicked.
Um, and I read the book wellbefore the um the incredible
(17:26):
musical uh was made, and sothere wasn't a lot of buzz about
it.
I don't know how I discoveredit, I think at the library, just
you know, wandering around.
Um, and I was just blown away byWicked, you know, a retelling of
the Wizard of Oz.
And I'm thinking to myself, whoeven thought we needed a
retelling of the Wizard of Oz?
(17:46):
But I guess we did.
We sure did.
I mean, think about how amazingWicked has been.
And it energized the classic, itretold some of the eternal
truths, it gave some new spins,of course.
That's what we do, right?
But the Wizard of Oz, as amazingas a classic as that was, it
(18:07):
still needed to be made new.
So if that's true, then let'sall bets are off.
All writing must be constantlymade new.
So think of yourself not ashaving to invent things whole
cloth, but you are remaking whatmust be remade.
Okay.
Fifth reason that you need towrite and share your voice is
(18:30):
that writing helps you find yourvoice.
Um, you get better the more icecream you make, right?
So if you're an aspiring writer,newer writer in your genre, for
whatever reason, the very act ofwriting things and sharing it
with the world is the best wayto figure out exactly what you
want to say and to get better atit, right?
(18:52):
Because the more you write, thestronger and clearer your voice
will be, the better able youwill be to pass the torch down
from past to present and future.
Um, the first things you write,not gonna be your best.
And that's okay.
That's not a problem, that's theprocess.
(19:12):
Just remember, you can't startgreat, but you have to start to
be great, right?
Um, if we all waited until wefelt confident, the shelves
would be empty, right?
There would be no delicious icecream for dessert.
If you had to be good at makingit before you made it the first
time, how would you do it?
Right?
You couldn't.
You just couldn't.
So I I think even if you don'tbuy any of my other arguments,
(19:34):
um, you should buy this one,which is that you have to write
to get good at writing and tofind the voice that you truly do
want to share.
And and when I was talkingbefore about, you know, if you
feel like it gives you somecomfort to copy or to try to
write in the voice of those yourespect, that's perfectly a good
(19:56):
way to get started.
My guarantee is that you'regonna find that some of those
ways work better than others,and that your voice is going to
be an evolution or some kind ofspin-off of all those different
voices.
None of them is gonna be quiteright.
Even if you love listening tothem, it's probably just not the
way you think and write.
(20:16):
So you you gotta, and the funnything is, is it takes some time
to write enough that you kind ofprocess all those ghosts and
cobwebs that are in your head orother examples, other voices
that are in your head.
If you've spent most of yourlife consuming, you've got a lot
of stuff and chaff in your brainthat needs to come out the
(20:36):
keyboard before your true voiceis what's left.
And so it takes some words, youneed some word count to get
there.
So those are my five, my fivebig reasons why I think you need
to share your voice with theworld now.
Um, but you still may you mayagree with me here, and then you
(21:01):
still may say, well, okay, I buyit, but it's still hard.
Like, I don't know how to getstarted doing that.
And excellent, that's fair.
So let me give you a few, a fewsort of real tactical
suggestions for getting going ifyou're feeling stuck and you're
(21:22):
feeling a little nervous aboutit, right?
The first big sort of I thinkstrategy is to, it's kind of a
an umbrella strategy for all thedifferent things I'm talking
about now, is to take babysteps, right?
To break things down and takesmall steps so that you're never
doing anything too scary andthat you get a chance to to
(21:44):
iterate, a chance to learnbefore you take another step.
So, for example, um, you want towrite a book.
That's a big thing to askyourself to do if you're nervous
about how the book's gonna bereceived, and and so on and so
forth.
So, what are some baby stepsalong the way to publishing an
entire book?
Well, share a chapter, give atalk about it, uh, have a
(22:09):
writing group where you workshopit, um, share three chapters,
right?
Uh you get the idea.
There are steps you can takealong the way to give yourself
comfort that sharing is notgoing to kill you, that people
are enjoying what you'resharing, uh, and you know, all
(22:31):
that sort of stuff, right?
Uh I'm a big believer in thephrase fail early and fail
often.
And I don't mean that in a scaryway, like I think we normally
think of the word failure assomething that is morally bad.
You shouldn't do it, you shouldtry not to do it.
My take is the other way around.
(22:52):
I think we should attempt tofail early and fail often,
because when we fail is when welearn how to do things better.
And so if you want to write agood book, uh, the best way to
do it is to write a bunch ofbooks, frankly, right?
Um, but in the case of writing abook, right, you want to write
(23:14):
the idea for the book.
You would like a proposal, writea proposal for the book five or
six times, right?
One of my PhD students who isnow a professor doing a having a
great career, uh, veryproductive writer himself, um,
he he followed the fail earlyand fail often to a T when he
(23:34):
was writing his dissertationproposal.
And this is typically for, youknow, one of my students would
write something five pages long,ten pages long maximum, just to
say, hey, here's what the studywould be, here's what the
research question would be, thisis what I think I would do for
my methods and and so on.
Um, and the idea is that youknow you have to have a proposal
(23:55):
get accepted by your committeebefore they they let you go
write the thing.
And so he wrote one and I gavehim feedback, and he wrote
another and I gave him somefeedback, and he wrote another
one.
He wrote nine proposals, and hedid it over a period of, I don't
know, maybe six or eight months.
Um, but they weren't all on thesame topic either.
He he would get a couple in andgo, okay, I'm not liking the
(24:17):
feedback I'm getting.
I'm not, I'm not in love withthat.
Try again, try again, try again.
When he got the approval on theninth one, I said, you know
what?
That one is the best one yet.
He was like, I am ready.
Now I'm ready to write thatbook.
Because he felt super confident.
Because all the failureproposals, right?
They're not failures, they'reiterations.
(24:38):
They're just betas.
We're just getting them outthere to test.
How's that feel?
How's that feel?
How's that feel?
And every time he got closer andcloser to something that really
was going to work for him.
The same can be true no matterwhat kind of writing you do.
Chapter one, the idea, whateverit might be, right?
The framing of a novel, whateverit is, right?
You can iterate, share, iterate,share, iterate, share, right?
(25:00):
And improve, improve, improveuntil you're feeling really
comfortable.
The more you do this, the moreconfident you can be in taking
the next step.
Okay, I'm really confident aboutmy proposal.
Now I can go do the datacollection.
I'm really feeling confidentabout this world I've built, or
this character I've built, orthis plot I've built.
Now I'm gonna write chapter one,right?
And then share chapter one.
How do people like it?
(25:20):
They don't like it, write itagain, right?
Um, you don't have to let thebook go until you're comfortable
with it.
So taking baby steps, using thefail early, fail often kind of
beta testing kind of mindset.
Um and I think um a couple ofmindset things are probably
(25:41):
important here, too, right?
One is um is, and these are bothkind of elements of the of the
overall writer's mindset that wetalk about in the 12-week year.
And the first piece isresilience, uh, because it is
certainly true that when youshare, you're gonna get
feedback, some of which youdon't like.
(26:01):
And it's gonna hurt sometimes.
Um, when I worked at a thinktank back while I was a
professor, I wrote commentarypieces a lot, a lot of them.
And um despite I'm a policyperson, I'm not a partisan
person, so I I was not writingpro-partisan things, uh, just
(26:23):
mostly criticizing U.S.
foreign policy.
Um, equal opportunity critic,criticize everyone.
Um, but uh I I would get I wouldget criticized so bad from right
and from left, and just oh, namecalling, terrible, terrible
stuff.
And for a while it was I could,you know, I was an academic
(26:44):
before that.
I had never no one who wasn't aperson with a PhD had ever
commented about my work before,and so it was usually couched in
academic ease, and it wasusually fairly mild, you know.
Oh, you could have more data onthat uh point, you know, like
whatever, okay, fine.
But you know, now you havepeople calling you a maxi zoom
cheese weenie or a traitor tothe country, or you know, all
(27:07):
sorts of frankly, just reallyhorrible things.
And and I was like, what theheck?
And I it scared me.
Like I was not sure I wanted tokeep doing it because I'm like,
well, you know, if that's gonnahappen.
But one of the things that willhelp, I think, with resilience
for you is if you remember this,that the the point I made about
(27:30):
sharing your voice is that theevery voice adds something
unique to the conversation, andthe world needs many teachers,
right?
That you cannot please all thepeople all the time, no matter
what kind of stuff you write.
And even the most famous,accomplished writers have their
haters.
And in fact, in many genres, ifyou don't have haters, you're
(27:55):
not doing your job, right?
You and and especially if you'rea nonfiction writer of some
sort, I include academics here,typically, in many fields.
If you don't have something thatyou're arguing against, it's
hard to it's hard to getattention.
And so, you know, like New YorkCity, New York City is both
people's favorite city on theplanet and least favorite city
(28:18):
on the planet.
This is just what's gonna happenwhen you write stuff that's
interesting.
It's gonna provoke, it's gonnapolarize.
If you write sexy fiction,people who like sexy fiction are
gonna dig it, and prudes aregonna say, ooh, that's gross and
nasty, and that person's bookshould be banned from the
library.
That's not a problem.
It's the reality of the world,but you do need to generate that
(28:40):
resilience, that muscle needs togrow so that you're okay that
your work is not loved byeveryone.
You're trying to find yourpeople and you're trying to
understand that it's not foreveryone.
And that can be hard to do.
That's a growth process for allof us, for sure.
So I encourage you to embracethat sense of uh resilience and
that understanding that you arenot everyone's favorite teacher
(29:04):
or storyteller.
Um, and then the the last pieceof advice I'll give is just a
quick plug for the growthmindset.
Because none of us starts as thewriter that we want eventually
to be.
And we start off our writingjourneys uncertain about our
voice, uncertain about our rolein the conversation, whatever
(29:28):
conversation we're joining.
Sometimes we're not even surewhat conversation we're joining,
right?
We're not sure about a lot ofthose things, and we're not sure
if we can contribute or how.
Those are all things that youhave to maintain confidence that
you will figure out as you go.
As you write, you will find yourvoice.
As you contribute, you willfigure out what part, what role
(29:51):
you play in the conversation.
You will figure out where youcan provide most value, you will
find your people, you will getbetter at speaking to them,
you'll get better at ignoringthe people that uh you don't
need to listen to.
But remember, none of the thingsthat you're feeling today are
(30:12):
things you're stuck with.
You can grow through practiceand strategic thinking and
support and all of those thingsand become the writer.
With a voice that you're proudof.
All right.
I hope this has been helpful.
I hope you are sharing yourvoice with the world.
Shoot me an email if you'rehaving questions or concerns
(30:36):
about sharing your voice withthe world that I haven't
addressed.
I'll be happy to talk with youabout it.
But until then, happy writing.
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