5 Quick Tips To Nail Your Writing Voice (And Why You Need One)

Who do you want your business to be?

So, before getting hooked on the fun finishing touches — what’s your writing voice?

Before we get into it, I mean voice…not tone. The difference is straightforward:

Voice: The personality — stays consistent across media (and time)

Tone: The emotion you want your piece to have. Often context-dependent, which is why a lot of tone gets lost in email conversations — leading to some awkward encounters.

If you peel back conversation layers, your personality is always there. Maybe you dial it back, depending who you’re around, but you ultimately stay the same person.

Your brand’s voice is a valuable cornerstone. It can be your greatest weapon, or the knife in your back. Voice is crucial for connecting with your audience. It’s how they learn who you are, across all your products and services. After all, you’ll never meet face-to-face.

Relatability creates familiarity.

So…how to figure your writing voice?

Developing your voice is a constant learning process. Books, articles, and blogs opened my writing world. And mind your wider social circles! There’s always a useful soundbite to be learned from interacting (and eavesdropping) with the right people.

Rule 1 of writing with a voice? It isn’t strictly pass/fail. And it can be improved. 

5 hacks to master your writing voice

1. Switch up your sentence length.

You take pauses, get carried away, or make little weird comments. Your writing should reflect you.

In your daily conversations, you don’t talk in clunky, run-on sentences. Unless you’re rehearsing a speech, maybe.

2. Cut the jargon. 

We get it. You’re clever. I like showing off when I learn something new, too. Ask my toddler, who’s sick of me playing “The Wheels On The Bus” on her xylophone.

If you go OTT with the big words, you risk turning off your audience — who won’t know what you’re on about. Nobody wants to keep a dictionary (or blank google window) on hand to keep up with you.

I’ve had to do a lot of unlearning. Rules drilled into me by bored English teachers and university textbooks. Academic and workplace writing can kill creativity. Dead.

Just assume your reader is a newbie (maybe a friend or relative) who’s out of the loop, and in need of some friendly advice.

Remember, though. There’s a fine line between being relatable…and treating people like they’re stupid. People don’t really enjoy the latter. Unless they’re paying you for it. Which is a conversation for another day…

3. Read your writing out loud.

When figuring your voice, read your writing. In your actual voice. Outloud. If your final edit feels stilted and awkward, it’s a sign that you need more edits — easiest hack ever.

Again, switch the pacing. Mix up your sentence lengths. Own your writing and pack it with your vocal mannerisms.

4. Use contractions.

Unless you stroll around your manor, on horseback, you probably use contractions every day in your vocabulary. It’s a long, stuffy, English lesson word, meaning a short form of a word (or words), e.g., ‘‘is’ and ‘not’ becomes ‘isn’t’. Simple.

Contractions make it easier to write how you speak and unstick your writing — helping it flow more. Chatty, familiar language and relatability are best buddies.

5. Study your writing heroes.

Who do you follow? Authors and bloggers alike, whose updates do you look out for?

Give it a think, and then figure out why.

Whether it’s their pacing, opinions, or jokes…something about them has you hooked. Go study and break down some of your favourite works of theirs.

And then try their style out for yourself. 

It’s like breaking a new pair of shoes. In time, they soften and mould to your feet — becoming comfy and yours. After writing for a while, your own writing style will show up.

Trust the process.

One thing, though. Take your heroes’ advice, sure, but never take their work. It’ll be embarrassing as hell when you get exposed (people have ways of checking this stuff). Not to mention the potential legal mess. Don’t profit from pinching people’s work, it’ll feel more satisfying in the long run. 

You’ll get there — go make some wicked content all your own.

The final takeaway?

If you’re not working on your writing voice — you should be. It’s easy! It signposts your take on a topic, how they should feel, and what they should take from your story.

If you’ve tried all this and it’s just too time-consuming? You’re in luck — that’s what copywriters get paid for. 

Drop a message, let’s chat, and we can fix up your brand with a hot new voice — all uniquely you.

And if you’ve got it handled? Well, leave me your best tip for finding your writing voice (I’m always looking to improve!).

Follow me on Twitter (@thecopymixtress)