Happy Thursday!
What tune are you singing with your blog and your blog’s content?
Content with good value and some authority, expertise, or a fresh viewpoint on the topic are both key ingredients. But, so is the personality of the writer.
We call this “the voice”, and here’s why you might need it and how you get it.
Be More Than The Blog
Your voice is essentially the elements of style, expression, and personality that stands apart from the value of the content itself. It’s about giving your blog a distinct brand and a flavor that others don’t have.
Over time, readers may value your voice, just as much as the content. A good way to find a voice and a distinct personality in your writing is to live a more varied life than blogging alone. Most bloggers have other interests, hobbies, and social lives. Let these inform your writing style.
Get out and talk to others about the topics you will be blogging on. Don’t keep your writing process too insular or it can all get a little too monotonous.
Speak Better, Write Better
Clearly, writing is a different form of communication than speaking. If you wanted to speak your points, you would be better going with a podcast. However, it’s certainly true that bloggers benefit from learning to write like they speak.
The ability to write informally, to use idioms and figures of speech that don’t normally get used in the written form can give your writing a boost. So, becoming more confident with your speech can be a big help.
This is especially true of using courses such as the Effortless English Club if you’re not a native English speaker. Learn what sounds natural, what doesn’t, and how they can make your writing either feel more personable or strange and stilted to the audience, respectively.
Read Well, Write Well
As mentioned, blogging is a different medium from talking. So, keep in mind that while being more colloquial or “chatty” in your writing can help your voice come across; you have to be aware of the elements of style that are common in writing such as structure, phrasing, imagery, and different formats to present different kinds of information.
There are a lot of tools at your disposal and the best way to see examples of them in use, especially when it comes to forming a voice, is by reading other blogs and following other bloggers.
Don’t be afraid to borrow what works from others and to make it your own. Initially, you might find your style a little too close to your latest inspiration’s, but that’s a very common phase for budding writers.
Keep building a broader wheelhouse of inspiration and you will begin borrowing different writing tools from here and there, but you will have created your own individual tool set.
In Summary
If you want people reading your content, then you need good content. If you want them following your blog, however, you need a good voice. Hopefully, the tips above help you define your own voice, stand out, and let your personality enhance your content.
This is a collaborative post.
