Finding Your Writing Style, Finding Your Voice
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Resources: Writing Voice and Style
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Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing (2nd Edition)
Price: $18.00
List Price: $40.00 |
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Writing with Style: APA Style Made Easy
Price: $21.00
List Price: $30.95 |
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Writing with Style: APA Style for Social Work
Price: $29.70
List Price: $41.95 |
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Just Writing: Grammar, Punctuation, and Style for the Legal Writer, Third Edition
Price: $47.08
List Price: $60.00 |
Do you let your voice shine through your writing?
Everyone has a unique writing voice and style. Have you found yours?
I was trained as a journalist in college. Trained, like a performing dog, to write using a very specific formula for creating a news story, and another for creating a feature article, and another for rewriting press releases, and yet another for writing an obituary. There was little room for creativity and I found it to be a thoroughly voice crushing experience. It was cramping my style. I can put this skill to use when there is a need, but it doesn’t flow from me with ease.
Sometimes your writing voice is your thinking voice; sometimes it’s your speaking voice. Sometimes it can be drastically different from who you seem to be entirely.
My writing voice is obvious to me. It is my thinking voice. And this is how I think. Snippets. Incomplete sentences. Abrupt. And also long, unending run on sentences that seem to go on forever and ever because the thought is expansive in some way and I just can’t fully explain it with out using many colorful, elaborate words. This has always been my voice, since the third grade when I was first inspired to write a book about my life and my feelings. I quickly ran in to some technical problems with my Apple IIe and never did complete the manuscript. Yes, the writer’s many excuses is a topic for another article.
I don’t think grammatically. I think I may have been born without the grammar gene. I know this drives some readers crazy and they want to tell me how to fix it and why to fix it and how much damage I am doing to the reputation of the English language because I refuse to fix it. I know it is there irking you, but I often just prefer the way it feels. My own little rebellion, I suppose.
Most of the time I seek to amuse my reader with my writing voice, but I am not all that amusing live and in person. I hate small talk. I just want to get right to the heart of the matter. Tell me what you are all about. Tell me about your struggles and triumphs or be done with me. I can’t connect well with people casually in the hi, how’s the weather manner. Oh, unless you want to talk about the cold and how monumentally annoying and disruptive it is to life. I try to connect with readers on a deeper level, letting them know that I get it, what ever it is.
Writing and real life personalities don’t usually match up perfectly. A meek person can write with fire and a fiery person can write with gentleness. A shy recluse can write effectively about social issues and a social butterfly can communicate the pain of loneliness.
Explore a little with your writing voice. Try a new one. There is no rule book that states one voice per writer. Follow your thoughts and let them stream out onto the page. Talk as you write and see where it goes. When the world looks drab, ordinary and plain reach back into your memory for something beautiful or intense to mull over in your mind and find a new angle.
Nurture Your Writing Voice
Nurture the passion and creativity within you and watch your writing voice come bouncing out like a super bouncy ball or flowing through you like a tranquil, steady stream. And start your sentences with AND however often you like and don’t let your creativity and voice be stifled by anyone, or any method or any theory or any stylebook. Then, when your voice is clear and strong, you can use such resources to sharpen and enhance your work. That is, if you want to, have to or feel like it, or if you are overcome by the immense responsibility of being a grammatically correct member of society.
More About Writing Voice and Style
- Finding your voice
Making your writing sound like YOU. Article by Christoper Meeks at Write Away. Includes tips and suggestions to strengthen and develop your voice as a writer. - Finding Voice in Writing
Article by Susan Letham at Write101.com. Includes examples of voice and tips for the novice writer.
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Comments
Delightful and encouraging! Thanks.
Amy Jane, I want to share this article with you. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0 It's old, but I ran into it recently and the boldness of her voice was what struck me most. Let me know what you think?
Thanks Rainbow, glad you enjoyed it. i think you will enjoy the links too - they are from a less personal / more practical view :)
Hi C-Lee, thanks so much! I am going to go take a look at that now and I'll come back to comment!
Just stopping by and upping the page views, LOL
Thanks Mark, I appreciate it :)
This is a good one, Amy! A keeper for sure... :-)
Interesting - I think I write the way I talk - but then I have to go back and fix the spelling and put all the little words in that I missed like but, to, not etc!
Thanks Steph!
Hi Lissie, I am always missing words too when I write, or I write half a word because I am trying to get all my thoughts out fast :) Thanks for reading!
Another great hub. My voice tends to ramble on, and on, and on... I fight the stream of consciousness bug all the time. Thankfully, the ability to downsize and edit was drilled into me by a few journalism professors back in the day. I enjoy your style. Keep on going!
Thanks, Rob! I hope let that stream of consciousness bug run wild every now and then, just for fun :)
Nice Hub Amy. It is nice to know I don't have to apologize for the style I feel comfortable writing in. Keep it up.
Thank you, Akeejaho. Never apologize for your writing style!
You are so right about style and grammar. For our voice to be realistic, we have to break the rules sometimes. We don't speak the way we write, so to follow the rules unconditionally takes our writing even farther away from our speaking voice.
Thanks, TwoCansMom! I like to ditch the rules, on occasion :)
After years of producing numbing cookie-cutter writings for a living, I am now looking for my voice. My voice is not obvious to me. I know I have it, I just can't find it.
It could be under the bed, in a corner of the kitchen, in some dank and dusty lost-and-found drawer in a worm-riddled desk, or in Australia. It could be in a letter I wrote to a friend years ago. It could be in a poem I penned as a child. Perhaps it is in the silent conversations I have with myself. At times, it plays hide-n-seek with me, allowing only a glimpse of itself before vanishing again. I don't know where it is, yet I know it is somewhere.
Amy, what an insightful hub this is. You inspire me to intensify the search and rescue mission.
Warm regards, S.
I love your voice, Amy Jane, and certainly have never been tempted to call the grammar police on you-- Not that I am on good terms with them either. I spent so much of my writing life doing the kind of formula writing you talk about that I am really loving "unwinding" here on Hubpages and letting my voice do its own thing:-)
Sally, your voice is very clear to me! Even when you post comments or in the forum, I think I would recognize you without your name :) Your writing has a distinctive flow that I really enjoy... thank you for reading and commenting!
Hi Robie, I agree, hubpages is a great place to unwind after years of writing for others standards or requirements. Thanks so much for stopping in!
I also write in snippets and bursts. Thanks for a great article.
Amy Jane, it is so interesting that I "hear" my voice so differently than you do. Your affirming comment caused me to think about why that might be.
My thoughts go along these lines...when we look at ourselves in a mirror, we do not see what others see when they look at us directly, and that is because our faces are not symmetrical. Artists have wrestled with this fact of asymmetrical facial features for centuries. Even now, we wonder if the image we have of Leonardo da Vinci through his self portraits would allow us to identify him in a crowd at, let's say, a flea market or a NASCAR race. Chuck Close is easier; he painted his self-portraits from photo images, images that told him what his face looks like from others' visual points of view. We can pick him out of that crowd in an instant.
So I wonder if our perceptions of our own writing voices are somehow affected by an asymmetry. For example, if the right brain is responsible for processing spatial, non-verbal information, and the left brain leans more toward the verbal and a concrete, conscious thought process, then maybe our own perceptions of our writing voices are somehow reversed, or at least confused?
Anyway, as I said, food for thought! I need a cookie now.
Warmest regards, S.
Hi Cheryl, thanks for reading and commenting :)
Hi Sally, certainly food for thought! I see myself as grammatically incorrect, yet no one else seems to notice. I find that so confusing! It is fascinating to think about how others perceive us, either through our writing or in person. People are never what they appear to be anyway, right? I know I am not. At least, I am not what people guess just by looking at me. A writing voice may be a most accurate view into a person. Hmmm...my kids ate all the cookies.
As a writer, I enjoyed reading this and found it insightful. And liberating!
Thanks so much, Danielmybrother. i am so glad you liked it! I come back and read it myself when I need a reminder that writing is fun, because this really was fun to write. :)
Great article
Thanks dutch!
A very good hub, thanks :)
You are welcome, uninvited writer. Thanks for reading!
Hi Amy!
Great hub , you hit the nail on the head, for some reason we have been taught that there are rules! but those were just made by teachers who were taught by someone else.......anyway point is sky is the limit with our imagineations and spelling LOL...i write the way I talk and think...i wrote the Hub...ROME AND AMERICA....with the first thoughts that came into my head when a friend gave me a title and started the sTop watch and coupled with the fact I come from the land of Blarney.. good old ireland I have an arsenal of words...I mean our national past time was gabbing with our neighbours and swapping stories at the local pub...anyway ...great Hub ...Great to meet you....Mike Quinlan
Hi Mike, I like the idea of using a top watch. Sometimes I hestitate when i just need to put thoughts onto paper. Thanks for reading - great to meet you too!
Hi amy, I liked this article, and in fact i find your grammar to be correct, you are a gifted writer..im notgifted, but i think in the same way,,snippets, flashes of ideas just come and change and go! and that's how i write most of the time
thnx alot
Hi Mezo, thank you for your kind words! I'm looking forward to reading your hubs. I'm sure I will appreciateyour unique writing style. :)
Great hub Amy Jane! I'm only recently discovering that I have two very distinct writing styles...one is a flaky, frivolous one and the other is actually veering to the more introspective and serious. Makes me wonder what else is going to pop up!
Hi Feline Prophet, thanks for commenting. I agree - it is interesting to see what writing voices will pop up when you allow oyurself to play and explore your vioce!
Amy Jane, I wouldn't say you were grammatically incorrect at all! Yes, if I ran your Hub through the MSWord grammar checker, it would pick all kinds of faults - but honestly, if we all wrote grammatically perfect prose, it would sound horribly stilted and old-fashioned. Modern English usage and strictly perfect grammar are two different things, IMO. And I'm a sentence fragmenter, too!
Thanks Marisa! I'm glad I'm not the only sentence fragmenter around. :) I think you're right, if we all wrote perfectly it would be very dry reading. Thanks for commenting!
Thanks amy jane. I needed that "permission" to go back to writing just exactly how I want to. I often find myself doing what the rule writers tell me to and forget that the voice of the writer is what is so interesting.
Hi Tdarby - I get caught up in the rules now and then myself. It truly is your own unique voice that will make you stand out in the crowd. Looking forward to reading yours!
The key is in relaxing. This is a great article.
Excellent hub. What you say is important for so many people. From my own work I know that many people could find new employment and a more interesting lifestyle if only they could find their writing voice (and be comfortable with it). Too many people get stuck trying to write everything in a very formal way. That can be good but, it can also paralyze.
Good hub,l always knew that when l was writing l felt different, Now l know that it is my thinking voice..Thanks to you.
Thank you all for the comments! I agree, relaxing is key. When many people sit down to write, they think they need to mimic what they read elsewhere. I think that completely cuts off your unique voice!
What a fascinating hub my formal education was very poor and my knowledge of grammar almost none existent so I am always a little self conscious about my writing contravening rules that I know nothing about. It is very encouraging to read someone that has written professionally say that being grammatically correct is not the be all and end all of writing.
Hi Maggs! I too feel that my knowledge of grammar is mediocre, but I'm not sure why. I did decide somewhere along the way that it doesn't matter enough for me to worry about it. Many editors would disagree with my opinion, but if you can express yourself clearly, if people feel your emotion, if you are enjoying your written creations, you are on the right track.
I enjoy your writing, and would not have suspected any lack of grammar training!
Nice way of putting things. I know I tend to write about things I feel strongly and I am passtionate about. I like humuor sometimes too. I try to get across what I am feeling to people. Thanks!
You're welcome! Keep writing, enjoying and expressing yourself. Your voice will emerge clearly and quite naturally.
I've never thought much about my writing voice. I just write the way it flows out of me. Then I go back and fix what doesn't seem to flow easily. The purpose of grammar and usage rules is not to be a straitjacket; they are to help us learn to communicate clearly. I love to start sentences with "and" and "but," and sometimes I do. But when we break the rules without knowing what we're doing, we sometimes make it hard for people to understand us. If grammatical errors don't jump out and scream at educated readers who aren't just trying to be picky, one is probably not committing any grave grammatical sins. You certainly communicated clearly in what you wrote. Most readers don't have a red pen mentality. If you engage them immediately and get them interested in what you're writing, they will forgive the errors an English teacher might not. But if your style violates too many rules, you probably won't be able to hold onto your readers because it won't be easy to understand you.
I began calling myself a 'writer' only a few months ago and am very comforted by entries such as these. It took me a long time to think enough of my writing to use the word self-descriptively. So when other people who write admit struggling with 'voice' and 'usage', etc., I just know that I am in the right place.
Thanks again, amy jane, for this 'taste of your voice'!
Laurel
Thank you so much for the hub! I really enjoyed reading it! I love to write poetry and have never really tried to write much of anything else. It was great to hear someone who is a very skilled writer explain that your voice is the important part! At this point that's all I've got!! lol
I agree with you, there is an underlying voice that guides not the reader alone but also for the writer. Finding the writing style and the voice will surely benefit the writer. Nice hub.
amy jane, I really really loved this article. I never thought of the term a writing voice before, but you are right. I have on occasions even spoke to myself while I was writing, and I found it fascinating. Thank you so much for the enlightenment. I will read more hubs of yours for more insight.
Thanks Amy, this hub inspired me a lot to express myself in writing. From a long time I've been working on improving my writing skills and I was always worried about the grammer and the difficult words. You have given me confidence to put down my thought without worrying about criticism.
Nice hub Amy. Finding your voice can be so rewarding. I know sometimes people offer me constructive advice on what I write and am always open to helpful comments, but sometimes you are who you are, and that's how you write.
It's taken me some time to get there, but I'm getting much closer.
Thanks for encouraging others.
Great article! I agree 100% that we need to write in our own voice. Thanks! I'll be reading more of your hubs!
RainbowRecognizer says:
2 years ago
Thank you, Amy - this is a great article - I'm going to visit some of the links in my next period of "Me" time :o)