Life Authored
I’m deeply passionate about helping people find and build trust in their voice. Whether it is writing something for an assignment, drafting words to share something you care about deeply, creating stories to broaden your connection with others, or wishing for something a little different in your own life, I’m here to support you.
Whether you are looking for someone to help you with your own writing, get clarity on what’s next for your life, or explore my writing, I’m glad you’re here.
Voice is Important
I have a long history of losing my voice.
Sometime during my teenage years, I started losing my voice every year around Thanksgiving. There were often other symptoms like sore throats and fevers, but long after those cleared away, I’d still fluctuate between sounding like Marge Simpson and someone who answered 1-900 numbers in the 90s.
This continued every year until I got my tonsils removed when I was almost 45 years old.
For 18 years, I taught in the public sector – first as a high school English teacher and then as an English professor at a regional university. Without fail, I would lose my voice after that first week of school. I think if you talk to teachers, you’ll find this is a common experience.
So often, we don’t realize how much we aren’t speaking up until we try to do it again.
Tutoring
The kind of voice to share research, present arguments, and explore topics at varying depths tends to be quite a bit different than the way we speak. For some people, early experiences in academic writing can feel inauthentic because we aren’t used to reading and writing our thoughts in this way. Just like we get weirded out when we hear a recording of our own voice, it’s new and different. But that doesn’t mean we are bad writers.
Editing
Most readers know the feeling of opening a new book, reading the first sentence, and being hooked. Whether it is a new-to-us author or a familiar favorite, there is something about how the words in front of us sound that makes us want to keep reading, that sparks a desire to get to know these imaginary people better. If the dream of publication is one you have, becoming familiar with an authorial voice is important.
Coaching
Sometimes, when we spend so much time trying to “keep the peace,” we don’t say what we want, what we feel, what we know to be true. This can include delaying schooling plans to support a spouse, saying we don’t like a band because someone isn’t a fan, or staying in a relationship where we aren’t happy because we couldn’t find enough things wrong to leave. Uncertainty and nervousness don’t mean something is wrong or bad; in fact, it often means we are on the cusp of something new and potentially wonderful.
