I recently watched a video of a tiny tot getting special glasses to correct significant eye problems and the wide-eyed surprise when the world is seen with clarity. Or another youngster finally hearing sounds only after surgery brings the miracle.
Imagine the release from a limitation.
I’ve learned more about myself during my years of writing than I ever thought possible. When available, I want to read the words more than listen to a thought or watch the action on screen. Listening and Watching are my limitations. It’s hard to pause and think it through, but when you read? Well! Give me time to research along with the need to know, and I’ll be better prepared to face the world!
How, then, do you choose to present your newfound knowledge?
Who’s your audience? What do they need the most? Learning styles are so unique. If you want to reach the most, you must create a variety of ways for the word to get out.
Another thing I’ve learned? Not every “voice” transitions between all the mediums successfully. You must learn the medium, and write for it because the user is affected by how they are prone to receive the message.
Value Voice
This is why I value “voice.” It’s not just the sounds you make but what you do with those sounds to create understanding. It may be audio, video, or a written document, but learning to spellbound the audience so they receive the message is the “voice” you create to share your message.
Writers have a voice, and some have the slickest way to get the reader to flow through their subject matter with ease. Right away, I can name my favorite author who writes in a certain timbre of voice that attracts me to their books. I can also name a few that I could never read past Page 1.
I can be a skimmer when it comes to the written word – my mind absorbs the data, and suddenly it pauses. What’s this? My, what a cool way to share! What does that word mean? Let’s look it up! That’s a strange phrase, I wonder if it’s historically true? Research.
There was a time we felt we could value a news anchor, but this is not so much the normal view today. We no longer have a newscaster with a voice like Walter Cronkite: He was the main voice we listened to in the ’60s to tell us the Good, the Bad, and the downright UGLY. You could hear the anguish in his voice when JFK was assassinated and the marvel at the moment Armstrong stepped on the moon’s surface.
I’ve also learned that some voices must be taken in small chunks. They have so much data to share, and I pause often to research and think.
One writer’s voice from the past (C.S. Lewis) would tell the story between two parties in a weekly newspaper-style column. You could only read so far, and then you had to wait for the next release. You could only go back as far as you have saved the previous week’s columns. Regardless, the depth of the current article is given to make you think!
What’s Your Style?
How do you like to get new data? I’m a reader, and that’s primary. Then, I like to watch, but the sound should be unnecessary – it’s distracting. My audio skills are no longer the best, so I must pick the audio style that works for me.
Since I’m a Bible-based foundational kind of researcher, I find most of my study style is the written word. Someone bragged about a series of videos about a person and encouraged me to watch them. I made it halfway through – I could not connect. The video did a disservice because we have a hard time telling the ancient past with accuracy. Too many liberties are taken, and it reminds me of Jurassic Park, where they inserted missing DNA into the scheme and trusted the results would be like the original. Wrong!
We are learning more from shortened segments of entertainment-style videos called “shorts” or “reels.” They are magical. I’m hooked on one account that documents Elephants and another that shares the power of the Osprey. Then, anything Alaska, Airplanes, DIY, Art, Science, How Things Work, and that list grows longer all the time.
Social media is changing the way we communicate. And not always in a good way. It’s harder to tell what’s truth, fiction, and make-believe. Trust me, AI (Artificial Intelligence) will challenge us more before 2023 is over.
I cannot be far from the Words of Jesus, and if I had been there to “hear” him speak, I’m not so sure how I would have taken the moment. Since I can’t be there to test this premise, I can only enjoy the written Word about His spoken Word. Read. Think. Pause. Consider. Prayerfully dig it out. His Words are Spirit and Life.
It is the spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life.
(John 6:63 KJV)