Too many writers bury their voice
Hi and happy Friday,
I’ve been thinking about how people write this week.
Seems to me too many writers bury their voice.
Can’t really blame them, because there’s a lot of bad advice about “voice” if you go looking. A lot of writers don’t know what voice is, really.
Know what I couldn’t help think of?
Say the word “voice” and I can’t help but think of Gilbert Gottfried.
There’s no way you hear Gottfried’s voice and think it’s someone else. Hear it once, you know it’s him. Same with Bob Dylan, David Bowie. Can’t think of more off hand, but I’m sure you can add to that list.
With Gottfried, it was an act. He had a “real” voice off stage. But it’s still a great example because his voice is so unique it’s instantly recognizable.
Now think the writing equivalent of that…
A writer’s voice isn’t complicated.
A writer's “voice” is simply the way his/her personality comes through on the page…
Problem is, most of the time the writer’s personality does not come through on the page. They bury their voice under fluff and rambling.
When I read some of what people call writing, I know — KNOW — that if I was having coffee with that person, that’s not how they’d tell me the same story.
A while ago, I wrote about a New York literary agent who accepts or rejects books in the first 5 pages. His clients include Pulitzer Prize nominees, NYT best-selling authors and American Book Award winners.
Know what he says the most common mistakes are?
Fluff and rambling.
No matter where you write, the competition is crazy
For example? There are 1,385,000 new stories posted on Medium every month. LinkedIn is no different. Vocal is no different.
Doesn’t matter where a writer is writing, competition is crazy.
All those people who say ‘write more’ — they’re wrong.
All writing more does is teach me whether a writer is worth the click. I don’t need to read very many rambling messes to know that person is a no. If they are always in the feed, well that’s what the mute button is for.
Volume isn’t how we stand out. Voice is.
“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it” — Elmore Leonard
This week, I decided to change how one of my publications work. I want it to grow and the only way to do that is voice, not volume.
Specifically, is this how the person would “tell me” the story over coffee or a beer. Is it storytelling? It is conversational? Is it compelling?
Or does it sound like writing?
If it sounds like writing, I don’t want it. Because readers won’t either. I learned that the hard way. I can see it right there in the stats.
There’s a phrase for it in French.
Je ne sais quoi.
It means an appealing quality that cannot be adequately described. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to describe voice. Personality comes close.
But if you think about your favorite writers, the ones you read every time you see them in your feed, I bet they have that je ne sais quoi.
Do you see the same in your stats?
When I look in my stats, I see it pretty clearly. It’s not even that the “best” floated to the top. More that the ones that floated to the top had something the others lacked.
I’m curious — do you find the same?
More reading…
World’s Youngest Mother Had A Baby At 5 And Doesn’t Want To Talk About It
History of Women Is Changing. We Need Women’s Stories More Than Ever
People Hated Mary Shelley So Much You’d Think She Was The Horrible Monster
P.S. If you’re reading in email, click the title to get to the online version where you can leave a comment. Click the heart to send me a thumbs up, too. :)
xo,
Linda
Retired newspaper copyeditors like me don't have any problem with leaving out the "ums." I do cringe when folks use "less" when they mean "fewer."
Hey Linda,
A consistent compliment I get from readers, is that they like how authentic I am in my writing. One reader says that it feels like I'm talking with him from across the table.
At the time, I thought this was a natural consequence of me writing about deeply personal experiences, and that I try hard to simplify my writing for the general audience. (I'm naturally quite flowery and ornate in my writing style, I'm afraid. But I learned to tone down for the sake of my readers unless it's poetry and in some cases, fiction.)
But that's intriguing to hear how you define voice here! Some writer friends said that they like seeing a conversational style, where the other person writes how they talk in real life. Uhhhh in real life, I use a lot of metaphoric language and even some "advanced vocabulary" that I would reserve for poetry. This isn't because I'm "smart," but because I have a background as an English lit major and am used to that kind of writing style. I had to actively undo those elaborate speech habits in my writing, so that readers won't be put off and think I'm a stuffy academic or a show-off writer.
I don't actually do this deliberately to show off, though. I just got very used to this style of talking from reading a lot of literary classics and poems, mostly from the 19th century. In fact, I found that when I feel especially anxious, the way I talk becomes even more formal than usual. It's like I use formal language as a shield against my uncomfortable emotions. :/
I'll have to think more about what my true writing voice is. A tip I've heard from a popular book on editing, is that you edit your words until you feel "a jab of pleasure". Keep editing and polishing your words until they feel good and right to you, whatever that may look like for you personally. Over time, you will develop your writer's voice. This is the strategy I've been using all along to develop my writer's voice, haha. Hope it worked! Thanks for another thought-provoking article. :D