Guest Post: The Journey to Finding My Voice by Author Kate Seger
Ah, the captivating world of writing—a dimension where I’ve always felt both entranced and, for a long time, somewhat astray. As a young, aspiring author, I admired a pantheon of literary greats, trying to find my footing by echoing their voices. Each narrative I spun felt like an act of mimicry, a parrot’s squawk rather than a nightingale’s song. I remember poring over other authors’ works, dissecting their sentences, and adopting their styles. My drafts, while technically sound, lacked the genuine essence—the soul—I sought to capture. Everything was an emulation, a reflection seen through the mist of someone else’s lens.
Imagine a tempest: a churning whirlwind of ideas and stories, all demanding to be told. That’s how my writing journey began, like a chaotic maelstrom where concepts collided and clashed. I unleashed that storm by writing tales of many genres, searching for where my magic felt most potent.
And then, as if stumbling upon a hidden path in a forest, I discovered the dark corners of fantasy. It was like a homecoming, a realization that I didn’t need to force a voice that wasn’t mine. In this newfound realm, amidst the creeping vines and lurking shadows, my own voice emerged—more authentic, resonant, and compelling than any I had tried to imitate.
No longer did I need to consciously craft each phrase. Words flowed more naturally, and my stories began to weave themselves. The once-daunting task of filling blank pages became a journey of exploration into my own psyche and creativity. I learned to trust in the whispers of my imagination, allowing them to guide my narratives through a dance of light and shadow.
In dark fantasy, I found a genre that embraced not only the monsters lurking under the bed but also the darkness within the human heart. In this genre, my writing could explore themes of power, transformation, betrayal, and tenacity—every shadow held a story and every flickering candle flame revealed hidden truths. It was a genre that accepted the complexities and paradoxes of life and humanity. I found myself not just a storyteller but a sojourner traversing landscapes painted in shades of dusk and midnight. This genre, with its enigmatic sorcerers, hidden realms, and tales that tread the fine line between the seen and the unseen, wasn’t just a choice; it was a calling. It wasn’t solely about crafting tales but unearthing my deepest fascinations and fears.
There’s an undeniable allure in worlds where shadows are always hungry, the apocalypse is perpetually looming, andmonsters roam alongside men. Darkness in these narratives isn’t merely an absence of light or a symbol of terror; within it, I could explore the primal depths of human nature, the struggle between survival and morality, and the endless complexities of power and loss. Leaning into my darkness, writing always flowed more smoothly; it was like dipping my pen into a well of raw, unfiltered truth, tapping into a vein of creativity that understood the seductive call of the night.
In this realm, the shadows themselves became characters—alive, whispering, ever-present. They spoke a language of mystery, inviting me to look closer, to understand that darkness isn’t always about fear. Sometimes, it’s about the magic hidden in the unseen corners of the world and the heart. Reality blurs in these dark corners, and the fantastical becomes tangible. It’s a world where the monsters and the heroes who fight them reveal the depth of our own souls.
Writing in this landscape of eternal twilight, I found a resonance with the duality of my own being. Here, I could weave narratives that mirrored my fascination with the ethereal and the eerie. In these stories, every haunted castle, forbidden forest, and character with a heart shrouded in darkness wasn’t just an escape; they were expressions of my inner world. A world where the allure of the dark was not just about embracing fear, but about acknowledging the power and beauty that lies within it.
The literary realm is vast, filled with voices echoing advice, doctrines, and tales of every conceivable nature. But I found that my voice was not in the din but in the hush that follows sunset. The allure of dark fantasy wasn’t just a genre for me; it was an echo from the abyss beckoning me.
Thus, my dance with nightfall, my journey into dark fantasy, became more than just a writing style. It became a way to explore the uncharted territories of my imagination, where every starless sky held a story. It’s in this embrace of darkness, this understanding that it isn’t always something to be frightened of but often a path to profound introspection and beauty, where my truest and most compelling narratives were born.
My journey to finding my voice in writing wasn’t just about honing a skill; it was about self-discovery, about realizing that the most powerful stories come from a place of authenticity. The real magic of writing began when I stopped trying to recreate the voices of others and instead listened to the unique cadence of my own narrative song. Here, in the realm of dark fantasy, my voice found its home—a place where each word I write isimbued with the essence of my truest self.
