Hi and happy Friday, I’ve been thinking about how people write this week. Thanks for reading xo Linda; Talking About Writing, Marketing and Medium! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Seems to me too many writers bury their voice.
I too cringe at the misuse of less and fewer, especially when I hear it from TV newscaster. I understand that language is changing, but damn, that should be sacred.
Jul 8, 2022·edited Jul 8, 2022Liked by Linda Caroll
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
You bring up an interesting topic, Sieran. Dan Brown teaches a master class on finding voice. One of the things he mentions in the overview is that Mark Twain wrote other stuff besides his classic children's novels, but no matter what he wrote, his sarcasm and dry wit was always there.
It makes me wonder if voice supersedes everything. Like, if I wrote one piece in conversational style and another in formal writing and yet another in academic style, would my voice carry through all of them? I suspect maybe it would.
Wow that's really intriguing! :) I'll have to pay more attention to what personality or tone of voice I can see across different genres of my writing, whether it be creative nonfiction, persuasive articles, novels, poems, etc.
Recently I've been encouraging myself to write in a more lighthearted, sometimes humorous way. I think my writing is too serious and sometimes grim, so I wanted to lighten up. It seems that many, though not all, of my "jokes" are making fun of the absurd in an otherwise sad or scary situation. Yeah I'll think more about this.
Sometimes I wonder if the writer can even see it as clearly as others do. I used to think I had no idea what my voice was, but people often tell me I don't even need to put my name on a story and they know it's me. Maybe they see what I don't. lol
lol. Or maybe "write how you should talk" because a lot of people have verbal tics - bad little habits we make. Likes and ums and a lot of us drag things out too much because clarity and spontaneity don't always play nice. But yes -- conversational for sure. :)
Love your unmistakable compassionate yet pragmatic voice, Linda. Poets have voices as well but depending on form mine May range from bass to soprano but always my throat.
Yes, yes, yes! It's a major reason I rarely published these days. I've read too many books about writing improvement, resulting in a stifling, a muting of my voice and an absence of satisfaction in the finished product. Voice is everything. BTW, I heard your voice in this article and it was beautiful.
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."
My pet peeve is when people take 50 words to say what could be said in 10. :)
I too cringe at the misuse of less and fewer, especially when I hear it from TV newscaster. I understand that language is changing, but damn, that should be sacred.
Today, I guess, less is more.
Perhaps, more or less.
The less said, the better.
Then I will say no more.
I appreciate your lessez=faire attitude.
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
You bring up an interesting topic, Sieran. Dan Brown teaches a master class on finding voice. One of the things he mentions in the overview is that Mark Twain wrote other stuff besides his classic children's novels, but no matter what he wrote, his sarcasm and dry wit was always there.
It makes me wonder if voice supersedes everything. Like, if I wrote one piece in conversational style and another in formal writing and yet another in academic style, would my voice carry through all of them? I suspect maybe it would.
Wow that's really intriguing! :) I'll have to pay more attention to what personality or tone of voice I can see across different genres of my writing, whether it be creative nonfiction, persuasive articles, novels, poems, etc.
Recently I've been encouraging myself to write in a more lighthearted, sometimes humorous way. I think my writing is too serious and sometimes grim, so I wanted to lighten up. It seems that many, though not all, of my "jokes" are making fun of the absurd in an otherwise sad or scary situation. Yeah I'll think more about this.
Sometimes I wonder if the writer can even see it as clearly as others do. I used to think I had no idea what my voice was, but people often tell me I don't even need to put my name on a story and they know it's me. Maybe they see what I don't. lol
It boils down to "write how you talk."
lol. Or maybe "write how you should talk" because a lot of people have verbal tics - bad little habits we make. Likes and ums and a lot of us drag things out too much because clarity and spontaneity don't always play nice. But yes -- conversational for sure. :)
Love this post!! Esp this “Volume isn’t how we stand out. Voice is.”
Punchy line worth meditating on for my week ahead, possibly life ahead as an aspiring writer.
Thank you Linda for your voice :)) Always love reading your stories.
Love your unmistakable compassionate yet pragmatic voice, Linda. Poets have voices as well but depending on form mine May range from bass to soprano but always my throat.
Yes, yes, yes! It's a major reason I rarely published these days. I've read too many books about writing improvement, resulting in a stifling, a muting of my voice and an absence of satisfaction in the finished product. Voice is everything. BTW, I heard your voice in this article and it was beautiful.