Your voice is your superpower

Writing can be hard for a lot of reasons - outside factors like a lack of time, but also inside factors like writer’s block, procrastination, and anxiety. One reason we get anxious is that we’re worried our voice won’t sound credible

In school we learn that there are correct and authoritative ways of writing and everything else is slang or sloppy or only appropriate for fiction or poetry. Imagining your cranky ninth-grade English teacher can really get in the way of creating good content. ​

But think about what you like to read. When you’re zooming around on the internet, when you get dozens of emails, when you're scrolling through your feeds, is your attention drawn to anything that would have gotten you an A on a high school research paper?

If you’re doing a deep dive researching some symptom you have, MAYBE, you want to read articles from medical journals - but even then, most of the time we are looking for a more WebMD type approach. ​

We want to get information we can understand that connects with what we already know and how we understand the world. We want to connect with a familiar voice that makes us feel good about ourselves, not one that makes us feel stupid or alienated. Having a warm, welcoming, authentic, and trustworthy voice is like a magic key unlocking access to an audience.

​That’s why huge corporations concoct fictional characters like Flo or the Geico Gecko, or they hire spokespersons like Samuel L. Jackson. They want to stir the emotions of their audience. They want to draw on the human desire to connect to others. 

In other words, you don't want to sound like them, they want to sound like you!

​Your voice conveys so much more than the literal meaning of the words. For people in your community, your region, your profession, your niche, it feels like friendship, home, and community. Your voice is trustworthy, welcoming, caring, and authentic. It just sounds “right.” ​

We don't have just one way of talking though. We all have many voices for different people, places, and purposes. I have a goofy ridiculous voice that’s only for the members of my household with its own idioms and pronunciations and made-up words. This voice is perfect for communicating with my family and wholly inappropriate for anyone else! I talk one way at church, and one way at work, and another way here on this blog.

I also have a “scholarly” voice for writing about Foucault and queer theory and another for writing about literacy. I absolutely have to write and speak in a particular way to be taken seriously in scholar circles, and it took me a long time to figure out those rules.

But that same way of speaking is overcomplicated, incomprehensible, pretentious nonsense to people who don’t also speak that language.

When we talk, we all intuitively choose from among our many voices, choosing our words and tone and the rhythm and length of our verbal “paragraphs” based on who we are talking to and what we want to convey. We can do the same when we write content.

​Consider, for example, the various ways someone might talk about science: a weather forecaster on the nightly news, a pop radio DJ sharing the latest nutrition headlines, a parent explaining why the sky is blue, an elementary school teacher introducing the field of chemistry, a group of researchers in a lab, a doctor explaining a diagnosis. 

So when we think about writing for our own blog, our websites, a social media post (whether personal or professional), a cover letter for a job application, or an email - we shouldn’t ask ourselves whether our writing is “correct” in some abstract way. We should ask whether our way of writing will be understood as legitimate, credible, trustworthy, friendly, and so on in that particular context.

​When you sit down at your keyboard ask yourself these questions. ​

What “kind of person” am I in the context of this bit of writing? Parent, small business owner, gardener, baker, attorney? Think demographic stuff like race, gender, neighborhood, age, religion, social group. But don’t forget lifestyle communities like vegans, recyclers, stay-at-home-parents, teachers, activists, etc.

What “kinds of people” am I talking to? Clients, potential clients, colleagues, neighbors? Are you writing as an expert or a peer? 

What work is the writing going to do in the world? Are you teaching, selling, pitching, persuading? 

Of course, a new layer of complexity is added when we talk about “voice” in writing, particularly when writing online. You may have an intended audience, but your audience isn't’ standing there in front of you.

You literally don’t know who you’re talking to.

You don't know how they’re feeling, or what they already know or believe about the topic at hand. You don’t know if they are busy or have time to really read carefully. You don’t know how interested they are, if they’re understanding you, or if you’re making them angry.

You can’t tailor your message or your voice to the specific person ‘hearing’ you and you can’t adjust your message to their needs, and yours, as you go. 

So…. what should you do? Well for starters just relax and talk the way you would if your audience was in the room. Don’t try to sound like a professor or a newscaster or whatever evil English teacher hobgoblin you may have in your imagination.

First and foremost, think about who you most hope to reach and just imagine that there are likely some other folks listening in. It can help to literally imagine a room with various types of people in it. It can also help to write an imaginary email to an actual human you know who fits in your target audience.

If you aren’t a fast typer, the speed of getting words to the page can make capturing your voice difficult so you might experiment with using voice-to-text. (Almost any program that allows typing has a voice-to-text option. Check the accessibility settings).

Then revise, revise, revise. Read it out loud to make sure it sounds like you. Have someone in your ideal audience read what you’ve written to give you feedback. 

​You know what else can make writing easier? Hiring a writing coach - specifically me! 

My specialty is helping my clients put their voice to paper in a way that is clear, effective, and reflects their values. Wait though, why have a writing coach if my voice is my superpower? Most of us know what we’re talking about with a real audience in a conversation or maybe even giving a pitch. We know what we're thinking, but in our heads, it's a fuzzy cloud of ideas not an organized piece of writing. 
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Here's how I get your voice down on paper. 

1. We get together for an intake meeting where I get to know a little bit about you, your goal in general, and your needs for the project at hand. 
2. I read anything you’ve already written about you, your organization, and the key messages for this project.
3. I come up with great questions to draw out your ideas in an authentic conversation. I am genuinely curious about what you do and I love to hear about what’s important to you! And thanks to grad school, I can type like the wind, capturing your voice along with those key messages.
4. When we’re done chatting I can take everything you’ve shared and organize it into a cohesive piece of writing.

When we’re done, you get to double-check to be sure that I’ve captured what’s most important and that it still sounds like you. Remember, you are the voice that is most credible, persuasive, trustworthy for your audience! You don't want to sound like me! You want to sound like you. 
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If you want to know more about my process, reach out on my contact page! We can set up a free consultation to find out what I can do to help you generate content that makes the most of your superpowers - with your voice and your values!