5 Reasons to Develop Your Authentic Writing Voice
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Through the monthly Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival, the weekly blog share in the Blogging Organizers group, and my own interests, I read a lot of blog posts by organizing and productivity consultants. In some cases, I’d be able to identify the bloggers without even seeing the website banner, because they’ve developed their own writing voice.
According to Jami Gold, a non-fiction voice, such as you’d use in blog posts, grows out of the following elements:
- formality of word choice, punctuation, and sentence structure
- depth of sharing personal information
- topics addressed
- opinions, insights, and thoughts about what we share
- overall style
- how you express yourself as a brand
- use of attention-grabbing formatting
- use of em-dashes, parentheses, asides, crossed-out words, etc.
- use of emojis or other emotion cues
If you have a dry voice, readers may consider your writing to be dull, factual, and monotone. On the other hand, if you have a humorous, first-person voice, they’re more likely to find it entertaining.
Developing an authentic voice will help you grow a loyal audience in many different ways.
1. You’ll share more of your experiences and personal observations.
When you find your voice, you’ll start expressing your unique thoughts, experiences, and observations.
The more distinct your voice becomes, the more you open yourself up to further sharing. Consequently, people will connect with you and your writing even more.
2. An authentic voice will make your writing more personal.
When you write in your own voice, your choice of words will strike your readers at an emotional level and you’ll show them you understand their struggles and issues.
3. You’ll stop using clichés.
A cliché is a word, phrase, or expression that’s overused. Clichés are boring, but when you develop an authentic voice in your writing, you’ll have more interesting conversations with your readers and a better reputation.
4. You’ll become more aware of your observations.
As you observe people, pay attention to their dialogue, including their silences, interruptions, and cues. This deeper understanding will make it much easier to see the world through your readers’ eyes and connect with them through your writing.
5. You’ll write more often and create better content.
Once you’ve discovered your authentic voice, you’ll probably realize how much you love to write. You may even start to make time to write every day!
More importantly, you’ll create content your audience will love, and it won’t feel like work because your writing will reflect your own thoughts and personality.
But you’ll only find your writing voice by actually writing, so stop making excuses and get to work!
An authentic writing voice is an exciting and rare thing. Many writers think they don’t have one, but if you know your audience and what they need to hear, you’ll be able to convey your feelings through your words.
Let’s Talk!
Do you have a clearly defined voice for your blog? How did you come up with it?
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I think in my my business, one of the key benefits is that people start to feel that they know me, which makes them more comfortable hiring me. I am very much the same person in my writing and in person, so neither I nor my approach are a surprise when I meet potential clients.
I also think writing in your own voice makes for a better and more fun to read end product. I love when I feel that I’m hearing the “real” person when I read their blog, not a promotion or rehearsed content.
Agree 100% – including the part about your writing reflecting your personality. You’re awesome!
Jami’s advice is spot-on.
I *think* I have an authentic writing voice, as people who know me often tell me that they’ve read something without knowing I wrote it…but felt that it must have been by me. For working with clients, I think it’s essential that the voice of my blog posts and my web site (the latter of which is a bit more formal) echoes the person they’ll get on the phone for a consultation, and in person for work. I write as much for my own enjoyment as for edifying my readers, so I hope that I’ve found my authentic writing voice. The question is whether I can learn to be authentic without being quite so expansive. I know brevity is the soul of wit (and lingerie, if Dorothy Park is to be believed), but my wit seems to only come in X-Large.
😉
And that’s part of your uniqueness IMHO!
The idea of “finding your voice” as a writer resonates with me. It’s about being authentic, but that is easier said than done. I didn’t always love to write and I never considered myself a writer. But at some point I recognized that I have a long history of writing and in fact enjoy it a lot. The more I write, the more I love to write. It was after I wrote my book and began blogging that things changed. My audience grew and interacted, which helped me develop even more.
Jami mentioned being aware of your observations. That spoke to me. It’s one of the things I incorporate into my writing. I love to see what people are feeling, talking about, and experiencing. I collect ideas and like to connect things together in new ways. When I’m writing for the blog, my goal is to share something that will help someone else. It could from something I’ve experienced, learned, or observed. As much as I love to write, my favorite part is the conversations that ensue.
Linda, the quantity and quality of comments on your blog is a testament to how well you write! I love the way you usually begin your posts with a personal observation, build on that to share a valuable life lesson for your readers, and then initiate a conversation.