Raymond, this was a great interview. I love that you encourage people to find their own voice and not abandon it. Far too often new writers try to follow someone's successful or recognized style ...more so thinking, "Oh, they write correctly" and then find out it's not only impossible, but an incredibly empty feat emotionally. If it doesn't resonate from someplace deep inside of you, there's no way to fake it and ultimately the writing will be bad.

  I learned this with the first piece I ever had published -- began after a long and devastating day in the ER I worked as a thank you to my co-workers for helping each other (and me) survive it. At some point it turned more so into an essay and the hospital wanted to print it in their newsletter instead of me just pinning it up in the ER. I got busy writing to put it on a floppy disc (remember those, lol ), and mind you, I never thought I could actually take my writing anywhere professionally because I lacked the formal education.

 I had my best friend come that evening to proof read it for any errors (I was a nervous wreck) and she literally red-lined almost all of it. I was devastated. "This is too deep ...nope, too sad ...nope, don't think the doc will want you to mention him." She gutted every emotional aspect, every picture created of the atmosphere and actions, telling me ...again, "Remember, I've got college English. I know these things and you simply don't." She finally left me to rewrite the piece minus anything actually 'me' found in it.

 As tears just flooded my face onto the keyboard I finally said,                " F*** it. This is NOT how I write and anyone who doesn't like how I write can just not read it. This isn't me and is nothing close to what I had to say." I rewrote the entire piece as it was and turned it in.

Several days later it was not only published at my large hospital, but regionally for 7 hospitals. It was read that day at the President's monthly meeting that just happened to be at our hospital that month. Suddenly all the nurses I worked with had copies and thanked me profusely for capturing the emotion of that day. The ER doc showed me his briefcase, filled with about 2 doz copies and also thanked me for being the first to ever recognize how it feels to be the physician in such circumstances. He was very touched by the whole thing. And lastly, that day and for the next week, CEO's of all the hospitals, not just mine, came to my ER, along with top nuns in Catholic Healthcare West and of course, many of the physician department heads that knew me, all to thank me and praise the piece.

 Everyone had their favorite bits and of course, they were all the parts that my best friend -- the college English grad -- had told me to remove. Every CEO, physician and other admin heads, as well as all my co-workers asked me the same thing, "What are you doing here? You're a writer!"  

Then the head of Chaplin Services came by one day. She told me that her husband, now passed, was the head of the English Dept at Sacramento State University (same school my friend attended) and that in fact, the English Wing bears his name. Each year she, along with other board members, read submitted essays and choose 3 for the English Masters Degree program. She told me my essay rivaled any she had ever read for that program. It was on this day that I decided:  1) I AM a writer, and 2) nobody would ever dictate my style or voice again. Never.  

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