How can I understand my own creative voice and what I actually want to make?
Your creative voice isn't something you discover once and then own forever—it's something you get to know gradually, the way you know a person. And like knowing a person, it requires patient observation. Start by noticing what you're naturally drawn to: not what you think is impressive or marketable, but what actually captures your attention. What subjects make you want to write about them? What images stay with you? What problems do you keep solving in different ways? Murasaki Shikibu's genius was her ability to observe the small, true details of human behavior—not to impose a grand vision, but to notice what was actually there. Your voice develops the same way. Keep a record of what delights you, what troubles you, what you return to. Don't judge it yet. The patterns will emerge. Then the real work begins: learning to articulate what those patterns mean, what they're asking you to explore. Your voice isn't hidden inside you waiting to be unleashed. It's being created through the act of paying attention to what matters to you. Write about that. Make about that. Observe yourself doing it. That *is* your voice developing.