The name Voix de Michèle comes from my most potent concern at the beginning of my MFA program: I needed a writing voice, one that could speak the truth and not hide behind cliché. To get myself going, I started a blog and poured my heart out every day for several days. Those days turned to weeks. Then months. Four years later, I'm done with my MFA and writing professionally.

If you're remotely interested, flip through the archives of the blog.  For a quicker glance, the essay below "On Writing" demonstrates of one of my writing voices -- the one who doesn't forget that writing can sometimes be fun.
On writing

If you don't love it, writing is miserable. Even when you do love it, writing can sometimes be miserable. But when you love it, you write even when you are miserable and you think that every word you're putting down on the page is the crappiest, most horrible, and most embarrassing thing that has ever been written. That is how you know you're really a writer. When you write crap and you can't help yourself. But then you show it to a friend and your friend says, "Hey, this is pretty good!" and you say, "Really?"

Writing is like eating potato chips. Once you find out how good it feels to get a story down on paper -- either your story or an imagined story or even a poem (which we know is just a story with a whole bunch of words missing) -- you feel amazing for knowing that story is living on the page and that someone other than you knows it. You can't help but want to do it again. And so you do. And then you freak out and wonder if it's as good as the first one and you wonder if people will still like you if you write something bad and then you realize that the first one was actually worse than the one you just wrote. And you show it to your friend and your friend says, "Yeah. This is pretty good, too." Then you get all excited and can't wait to show someone who isn't your friend but who might be a real writer out there in the world somewhere and then you do and that person says, "Well, I can see what you meant to do here, so why don't you take these five gajillion changes to heart and fix this story and the other one and then go write seven trillion more and then they'll be a little better than pretty good."

Then you're a bit crestfallen because you thought you were pretty good but then you look at all the books in the world that are better than pretty good and you think, "I want to make one of those one day" and so you learn how to fix your work like the person who really knows how to write told you to and you start another story and then another one. And then it all starts to feel like work and writing makes you tired. Sometimes you take breaks that last a little bit too long, but then you remember that you like this, so you start another story.

Being a writer means that you have tried to write poetry (which is really a story with a whole bunch of words missing) and you've had a really hard time trying to figure out which words are supposed to be there and which ones you're supposed to cut.

Writing is when you have to practice every day because you just can't imagine a day without writing.

Being a writer means that when you can't practice your writing every day, you feel a little blocked up, like you did that one time you felt really sick and you didn't know why but then your grandma told you to go eat some roughage and drink a lot of water and you did and then you felt better.

Writing means always having a picture in your head comparing your current situation to something that has happened to you in the past and you can't help but want to share it with the world even if it's just plain disgusting and kinda makes you blush. You just go ahead and say it anyway. Writing means that you communicate better when you're using metaphors.

Writing means that the pictures in your head are all somehow connected and when they swirl around a lot it means you have a big story getting ready to be told and you better clear your calendar a little bit so you have some time to get this all down.
Being a writer means you've deliberately stayed home when your friends go out because you have to write. Being a writer means that often you don't mind staying home because it feels really good to get your work done. Even when you procrastinate the work because you're afraid that it won't be any good and you think that everyone will hate you or at least think you're some kind of mental case because you said such a thing, it feels good to write it all down. Being a writer means that you often wonder if anyone else in the world has ever thought like that or felt like that and you want to ask them all so you write your story and wait for someone to tell you, “Oh my God, I felt just like that this one time.” Being a writer means that other people want to tell you their stories, too.

Writing means opening up the door to your soul and learning to enjoy a little bit of draft.

Writing means having fun with dictionaries and thesauri and word games -- but not necessarily those logic word games. Not everyone is good at those. And Cryptograms. What is that? I've never been good at cryptograms. Or Scrabble for that matter.

Writing is like talking except by moving your hand instead of your tongue and not using quite as many words. Or maybe just eventually learning not to use quite as many words. Writing is learning which words to use when.

Writing means finally having a voice and finally finding a way that people will listen to you and then discovering that they only listen to you when you have something of value to say. Writing means asking yourself what you have of value to say and then discovering that yes, you do, you do have something to say and you do have a story to tell and it's a little weird and a little scary but you want to tell it because it feels so good to finally have a voice that someone will listen to. It feels so good to know that someone can finally hear me.

Being a writer means that you can't hide your neuroses any more, so you had better learn to decorate them and make them cute so people will like you better.

Being a writer means you often like to make people laugh.

Being a writer means that sometimes you will cry when you remember something that you've forgotten for a really long time and as soon as your fingers start moving, I mean really moving, you find parts of yourself that have been lost for a while and you cry. It is important to just keep writing when you cry. That is usually your best stuff. Just keep writing and every once and a while blow your nose, but just keep writing. Then after you've told your story, being a writer means that you get to go get ice cream. You should go to Izzy's for ice cream, because it is really good. If you can walk there, even better, because then you're burning some calories and you won't feel quite as guilty.

Being a writer means that you can do things that make you feel a little bit guilty and then you have another story to tell.

Being a writer means that you love to send letters and postcards to people because there is always something you want to tell someone. Being a writer might also mean that you like to get letters and postcards back from people because you hope they'll have something to tell you, too. It is important to not get too disappointed when people don't send you letters as much as you send them letters, though. People who are not writers don't understand how cool letters really are. They don't understand how words that I wrote just for you are special words. Sometimes, they just don't understand words at all.

Being a writer means that you have the habit of carrying around a notebook with you so you can, "Quick! Write that down!"

Being a writer means that you write. All the time. And that you can't stop, you can't imagine stopping, you wouldn't want to imagine stopping. Writing means that you gather stories from everywhere and share them. Writing means you collect pictures in your head the way some people collect butterflies and pin them to foam boards.

Writing means you line each story up, one at a time, and put it into the world for everyone to see. Isn't it beautiful, this truth? Isn't it beautiful?