Answering the question of who you are is a big step to refining your writing process and establishing your voice. It’s part of finding your voice and making it distinct. You want to be memorable.
As the Bard wrote:
This above all: to thine own self be true, Hamlet Act 1, scene 3 (Learn more about the Hamlet)
Who am I?
So . . . who are you? Are you an expert? Are you an angry naysayer? Are you the Pollyanna of your industry? Are you just a guy who has a lot to say? Each of these people will sound a little different. Don’t worry different is okay, different is good. Don’t try to be someone you aren’t and in the same sense don’t deny who you are just to make other people happy. I presume that if you are writing for a blog, for social media, or whatever it is that you really would like people to read what you wrote. Then be happy in who you are and write as who you are.
What’s my blog writing voice?
The expert will have technical information that (hopefully) made accessible to the reader. You can expect rants from the angry writer. Pollyanna should leave you either feeling much better about the world or even more cynical about it. If you’re the guy who has a lot to say, you may have to work harder to find your distinct voice, but you’ll never lack for things to say.
Deciding who you are helps you refine your writing. An expert who wants to help others grasp the technicalities of a complex subject is going to try to use vocabulary that is accessible to general readers with an interest in the subject. Pollyanna will use sunny, happy words. Perhaps she’ll salt her posts with positive quotes and pepper them with shiny song lyrics. Those won’t be the words you find on the ranter’s page.
Edit the Blog, Lather and Repeat!
Reading aloud what you’ve written helps you find your voice, too. (Yes, that was intentional.) It’s true that it’s good for proofreading, but it also helps you figure out the tone you’ve used. When you discover your writing needs lots of inflection to be read correctly, there’s probably a better way to say it. Your voice probably isn’t coming through your words the way you want it to. That’s when you buckle down, rewrite, and find how to say what you need to in a way that you can be heard.
What is my Blog Voice?
Figuring out who you are sets the tone for your each of your posts. It minimizes tangents you don’t really want. It maximizes the probability of never being mistaken for someone else. It eases the editing task.
So . . . who are you?
