The most important thing to stand out as a writer is defining your writing voice, just ask yourself if have you ever instantly recognized the author of a passage you just started reading? Maybe because of a distinct quality, or a captivating way of weaving words, that’s their writing voice and its key to growing an audience and being recognized. But for many writers, especially for beginners, finding that unique writing voice can feel like searching for a hidden treasure that seems impossible to find.
But don’t fear because in this blog we’ll cover the tools and exercises to develop the writing voice that’s been waiting to be heard.
Reading and Self-Discovery
Your writing voice is a mix of your personal experiences, personality, and the literary influences you absorb, so the first thing you have to do to develop your writing voice is to immerse yourself into the world of words and start reading passages that have a tone you like, and make sure you read widely, across different genres and areas. And as you read, you need to pay attention to the authors who resonate with you, and understand what makes their voice different and recognizable. Is it the sharp wit of Jane Austen, the lyrical prose of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or the raw honesty of Sylvia Plath? You need to analyze the sentence structure they use, their word choice, and the way they develop their characters.
But not all is about external influences, it is also about introspection because while you’re consuming great literature, you need to always take notes of the emotions it evokes, and then ask yourself, what kind of stories ignite your passion, and what themes are you interested in. After you identify your emotional core and the kind of stories you yearn to tell, you can start working on your writing voice.
Unleashing Your Creativity: Experimentation and Exploration
Now that you have the inspiration, it’s time to start unleashing your creativity, and the key here is to experiment, so start writing in different styles, and try different genres even if those genres are out of your comfort zone. This experimentation and exploration of different styles, will allow you to discover what feels natural, and what resonates with your inner writing voice. Let’s see some tips to start your experimentation:
- Rewrite Scenes from Different Character’s perspective: For example, try to turn a shy character into the narrator and tell his viewpoint of Hamlet’s soliloquy.
- Choose an Object and Create a Backstory: Choose an object that would normally be irrelevant, and then create a complex backstory for that object.
- Start a story With a Nonsensical Line: Use all your imagination, and see where it takes you to create a start for your story with a nonsensical line.
Finding Your Rhythm: Sentence Structure and Word Choice
Your writing voice is not just the stories you tell, but how you tell them because everyone can tell or write a story, but what makes you stand out is a well-defined voice that’s recognizable and unique, and sentence structure plays a huge role here. For example if you use short punchy sentences you’ll create a sense of urgency, while long and flowing sentences build a more introspective tone, your role here is to experiment with different tones and different structures, until you start to develop your own voice that’s different from the rest.
Word choice is another key part when defining your voice, for example if you want to build vivid imagery you need to use descriptive language that will paint a precise picture of what’s happening, or you can use simple words for a more direct approach, and you also need to consider the emotional weight of different words to evoke the right emotions in your readers.
Sharpening Your Voice: Revision and Feedback
Once you’ve finished writing a draft, you need to revise it ruthlessly, because you’ll always find parts to improve or words that need to be changed, and even after multiple drafts your story will probably still need to be polished to ensure the best reading experience for your audience.
Another key part for improving your texts, is to seek feedback from a trusted person, or if it’s possible an experienced reader, so you can get a different viewpoint of your work, and use that feedback to correct mistakes that you probably didn’t spot before, so embrace feedback and use it a the tool it is to improve.
In conclusion, you need to go through a self-discovering process to find your own writing voice, enjoy this process and always keep practicing and learning, and if you want more help to improve your writing, you can use an online writing tool like Script-Timer, we offer all the script tools you need to take your texts to the next level, just sign up and unlock the best environment for writers now!
