While there may be lots of blogs out there which fall into the same category, type or style as yours, remember that yours is unique. Part of this uniqueness will come from the design of your blog but a big part will come from you writer’s voice. By this I mean the style of your writing and the personality that comes across. There are a number of things which come together to create your writer’s voice and while your voice is often confused with the tone of your writing, they are not the same.
I write only because there is a voice within me that will not be still.
Sylvia Plath
Differentiating between Voice and Tone
The voice is the way that you say or write things. It is made up of the things that make it recognisable as yours: the words and phrases that you choose, the way you put them together, the style you use will all go towards creating your voice. They are the things that others recognise as being distinct and belonging to you. It doesn’t just have to be able words but can be about the way you structure your sentences or link your paragraphs. It is made up all of the things that make your writing specifically yours.
Tone differs in that it is more about the mood of your writing. It is formal and professions, sarcastic or sensitive? Where a blogger will tend to develop a particular voice, their tone will change depending on what they are writing. You can be funny, angry or sarcastic. All of these are different tones and if you think about your writing, you will probably have pieces of each. Voice can be explained as the author’s personality expressed in writing, while tone refers to the attitude of the writer in a piece of writing.
Finding your Voice
Voice is like other aspects of writing in that it will change and develop over time. Often we are influenced by things we read, but hopefully on your blog, you will be able to settle on a style that suits you. As your content grows, the things which make your posts stand with a likeness to each other, and a difference to those of other bloggers, are what will define your writer’s voice. That is not to say that you can’t change these things, and many of us adopt different voices for different types of writing, but there should still be some markers there which make your writing unique.
Unique and Authentic
If you can make your voice come across in your writing then you will set yourself apart. It will be a key part of getting dedicated followers and readers and that it is really the only way to write. While we may adopt the styles of other authors for a bit of fun, it is not sustainable long term as you really need to be your. Your own experience and perspective is bound to influence the way you write about certain things so if your blog is opinion based, reflective or informative then that should mean that you have a head start.
Similarly to being in a busy room, to raise your voice won’t be enough to get you heard; you need to be different, say something in a way which catches the favour of your reader and is personal to you.
The post, Spoken Voice ~ The Reflective Blogger, also deals with the writer’s voice so you may want to check it out.
Sometimes it takes a while for a blogger to find their voice, but once they have, they always use it, even if they don’t want to. And it’s great to alter between tones, to sometimes have a serious post, but also fun(ny) ones. It keeps reading a blog interesting when the tone is altered. Great post, Missy.
~ Marie xox
I was about to say what Marie said – sometimes it takes time to find that voice and a blogger may experiment – which is fine – it is experience and finding out what fits 4 u too
May xx