How to Find Your Writing Voice

How do you write?

That’s not a trick question.

The way you write will have a big effect on how well your marketing is received by your audience.

Some people find writing with personality a breeze, others find it more of a challenge, but that’s not really surprising. All through school, college and university you are taught to write in a bland, academic way. This forces out any trace of your personality as everyone strives to churn out the same old stuff.

Writing great marketing means you have to forget everything you have been taught up to now and start writing in a way that naturally reflects your personality.

The problem is when something is so engrained within you, it’s very difficult to break free from it and just be yourself.

Hopefully, the following 5 tips will help you find your inner voice and allow your personality to run free.

1. What do you like?

Reading around the subject is something you spend most of your school and college life doing. Well it doesn’t stop there. If you are creating marketing copywriting you must read lots and lots of stuff for inspiration.

It will also help you develop your own distinctive voice.

Read stuff that you enjoy. It can be anything from fiction to magazines, just so long as you like it and it makes you want to read it. When reading your favourite blogs take note of how they start their articles, the language they use and what it is about it that keeps you hooked. Although you shouldn’t try to emulate their exact style, it will give you some clues as to how you can improve your own writing.

2. Forget business

One of the best ways to develop your own voice and style is by freewriting. All you have to do is open a Word document and start writing about a favourite topic that’s unrelated to work. Let your imagination and creativity run and write as if you were talking to someone. Allowing this free, conversational style to develop will help you create a distinctive voice for your marketing.

3. Stay focused

If you lose the focus of your message your writing will start to ramble and lose it’s impact.

Concentrate on one key message and make sure everything you write is focused on that. If necessary, write it on a post it note and stick it to your monitor so it’s constantly in your eye line.

4. Thesaurus

Using a thesaurus will help you come up with new and interesting ways of saying things, but use it with caution. Most people have the tendency to believe that marketing copy must contain complex words; it doesn’t. In fact the best writing uses a simple vocabulary.

5. Out loud

How often do you read your content out loud?

Probably not very often, but you should.

Reading out loud will give you a much better feel for what you’ve written (as well as highlighting mistakes). It will show whether it’s easy to follow, if you’ve repeated yourself (or words) and whether the rhythm flows.

It’s well worth practising these techniques and developing your own unique style. If you want people to read your marketing, articles and blogs you’ve got to somehow connect with them and the best way to that is by letting your personality shine through.

It may take time so persevere; it’ll be worth it in the end.

Author: Sally Ormond, Copywriter at Briar Copywriting Ltd and avid reader.