How To Find Your Writing Voice
Many writers start out mimicking the style of their favorite authors when they write. Some, on the other hand, immediately manage to find their own voice very young in their careers. Regardless of how they began, most who stick with their craft eventually mature to develop their own styles.
How do you develop your own voice? The simplest answer is to just relax and let it come out. If that’s too vague for your tastes, here’s more detailed advice.
1. Follow your hunches. When drafting, we typically let our inner writers take over. During editing, though, we can get a little too critical. If you like a particular item in your piece and want to keep it, don’t let your fear of what people may think run you over. Your hunch is usually right.
2. Break the rules, but don’t disregard them. Your grammar software enforces rules for a reason – they make your writing clear and easily comprehensible to your readers. Disregarding them for the sake of expressing yourself just doesn’t fly. Your style should work around the rules – occasionally finding a creative way to break them. That way, readers can understand you even with your “voice” turned up at its highest volume.
3. Stop comparing yourself to others. Every writer is different. Your strengths, weaknesses and life experiences all come together to make you the craftsman that you are. Comparisons have no place in that scenario.
4. Don’t write for everyone. Finding your voice means producing writing that appeals to some but not to others. You can’t please the world. Instead, picture your ideal reader and write for that one special person.