As a web writer you may feel you are largely anonymous in the sea of content on the Internet at any given time, however whether you are a web content writer or a blogger, every article or blog posting you write is putting your voice out there. The problem for many beginning writers is that figuring out their writing voice is far from easy. Many new writers simply write in the voice they think they should be using, but this can result in writing which sounds stiff or simply generic.
Most all writers have struggled with finding their writing voice and are uncertain about how they want to sound therefore they try on many different voices throughout their writing career—and especially in the beginning—to see which one fits them the best. This can be confusing for readers of a specific blog, since most people who follow blogs expect to “hear” approximately the same voice from post to post. Yet many blog writers read something they wrote only a week or so ago and feel it sounds totally different from the one they wrote today.
Understanding Your Writing Voice
Before you can find your writing voice you have to understand what a writing voice is. We all understand that our “real” voices have a certain pitch and tone, and that different people speak with different accents or in different manners. Writing also has a tone and a style, and indelibly marks your writing with a certain “feel.” When humans read they unconsciously whisper the words in their mind, making it easier to grasp the meaning and commit the message to memory. Most writers are afraid they won’t be funny enough, friendly enough, sound smart enough or professional enough, so we look to the writers we love to read and attempt to mimic their voice. While this might work in the short term, it is unlikely to be a long-term solution.
What is Your Writing Goal?
Do you know what the goal of each page of content you write really is? What do you want people to know when they finish reading your content? How do you want them to feel about what they just read? Do you care about what you are writing? If you don’t, it is unlikely anyone else will either. Are you passionate about your subject even if it is one you either don’t know that much about or have never been particularly interested in? Any subject can be interesting, you just have to delve into it enough to understand what makes it interesting then convey that to your readers.
And through all this, you must still write in a way that sounds completely natural and genuine. The best way to achieve this is by being true to who you are in your real life which in turn makes your voice comfortable, natural and familiar. This is not to say you have only one voice—after all you as a person are actually made up of many people. You are an employee, a boss, a parent, a child, a friend, a lover, a jogger, a gardener, a solar installer, or…a writer. Every facet of your personality is a part of you, and each one possesses a specific writing voice.
Work at Finding Your Voice
Define who you are, with all your multiple facets, to yourself. What adjectives would you use to describe yourself? Once you have a list, write a few hundred words, attempting to infuse those qualities into the words. If your writing voice was a drink, a food, color, which ones would it be? Try writing like you talk—you might want to read your content aloud and ask yourself if it really sounds like you when you are talking to your friends, family or co-workers. In the end write for yourself even if you write for others and your voice will find its way onto the page.
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