Fish and Chipps: Finding your voice

I was 17 and sitting in a movie theater in Gahanna, Ohio when I discovered my voice.

It was a Saturday night, and I was watching a mediocre movie with a friend when I thought to myself, “I should start a blog.”

I’m not sure why it hit me then, but it just did. I knew at that exact moment that this was it. This is my voice.

The goal was simple: Be me.

As I got to my room and started typing on my computer, the words just started spilling out of me. It was raw and uncontrollable, but it felt right and natural.

Over the next several years, I would learn just how hard it is to mold one’s voice through the written word, and I made countless mistakes along the way. I said dumb things and wrote with entitlement because I didn’t understand what power a voice could have. I had to learn how to be responsible with my voice and how to express my opinions in an appropriate tone. The process was grueling, but I wouldn’t be where I am today had I not had my troubles along the way. It made me a better and smarter writer. It taught me how to control my voice, and eventually it showed me how powerful a tool one’s voice can become.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I believe having a voice in writing is like having a super power. It’s a three-step process. First, you have to discover it. Then you have to learn how to control it. And only after that grinding process are you ready to use it for the betterment of others. You have to #TrustTheProcess.

That Saturday night was the beginning of a never-ending process to find my voice. The blog I started more than five years ago was the start of a journey that has taken me down a wild, entertaining, unusual and amazing path.

As I look at my writing now with my time as a journalism student coming to an end, I feel like it’s important to share with you all how I found my voice, how I learned to control it and how I continue to grow with it every single day.

1. Find your passion

Writers don’t write “just because.” They write because they have something to say about an issue or subject they’re passionate about. Over the past four years, much of my writing has been geared toward the NCAA and its unfair treatment of student-athletes. I don’t write about college athletics just because, I write about it because I’m genuinely passionate about the injustices and the need for a complete overhaul of the current system.

It doesn’t have to be sports or politics or fashion or technology or film, but find something you’re passionate about and put it on paper. Formulate an opinion and share it with the world. The more you write about it, the better you’ll get at expressing your passion. The better you get at expressing your passion, the more your voice will shine through in your writing.

2. Read the classics

Whenever I’m writing, I’m never farther then 50 feet away from my journalism bible, “The Life of Reilly.”

Rick Reilly, a longtime columnist for Sports Illustrated and an 11-time National Sportswriter of the Year winner, is one of my journalism heroes. During his Sports Illustrated days, he was one of the most preeminent sportswriter in the United States and wrote some of the best columns and feature stories on the planet.

His profile on former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott is one of the best profiles ever written, and his 1986 profile on Jim Murray is so beautiful that it’s truly a work of art.

His first book, “The Life of Reilly,” is one of my all-time favorites because it contains some of the best pieces of sportswriting you’ll ever read. Reilly was the master of voice and used it to separate himself from so many other writers around the country.

If you want to develop your own voice, you need to read the classics first to understand how they developed their own voices. “The Life of Reilly” has taught me so much about how to inject your voice without changing the meaning of a story.

Read the classics, and I promise your writing will be better for it.

3. What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger

People are going to hate. That’s just a fact. For any reason, whether it’s rational or irrational, people will criticize your writing and your voice.

Don’t let it stop you. Be better than the haters and use it as motivation to fuel your voice. React, but don’t let the hate get underneath you. Be smarter than your critics and prove them wrong. With social media, it’s too easy for a troll to be given a platform to hate, but don’t give them a voice by responding to it. Be bigger than all of it, and your writing will eventually silence the critics.

Whenever my writing faces criticism, I like to think about a Mac Miller line that says, “Haters tryin’ to hate, but they got nothin’ to say / It’s just the little things that get me through the day.”

That’s just how I roll.

4. Be yourself 

There’s no science to writing. There’s no exact answer or formula to find one’s voice, but the truth will always exist within your own personality.

My goal has never changed. I’ve always been trying to “be me,” and hopefully that’s surfaced in my columns this year.

I have a lot to say and hopefully something to offer, but I want to say it in my voice and tone. Let the personality shine.

The best compliment I ever received was when my roommate read one of my columns and said, “I could totally picture you saying this to me word for word.”

So when you’re sitting in front of your computer with blank screen asking yourself, “How do I write this story?” Here’s the major key: Tell it from the heart.

Finding your voice is like trying to paint your masterpiece. It takes time, practice, commitment, curiosity and a love for the game.

Be real, be honest, be sincere and be yourself. People can criticize me for a lot of things, but no one can argue that “Fish and Chipps” wasn’t 1,000 words of Isaac Chipps coming at you every single week. No matter where life takes me, I’ll proudly carry that on my sleeve.