Blogger's Secret

Building a consistent voice by repeated practice

The voice that you use when writing for your weblog is something that comes of practice. The work that you do keeps you at your writing and reviews matters of your expertise.

A practice of repeatedly addressing a question, whether it be something that you are personally interested in or a professional responsibility, has the net result of not only showing what you are habitually comfortable writing about but also gives people a sense for what sort of words you use and the tone that you take when you approach the questions that come up.

Your writing voice can be elaborate, with flowery and fiery words sprinkled throughout. If that's what you sound like, and if you can keep up this tone on a sustained level, more power to you. Whatever voice that comes out when you start to write can be improved by your own editing to make the writing better. My biggest recommendation is really a simplest one - the consistent habit of writing a lot will give you a chance to make the process that much easier and will keep your finger muscles going in sync with your thinking muscles to strengthen your writing voice.

A voice that is distinctively yours

Writing is like talking to the page, says my eldest son; and thus blogging is like talking to the net. You might hope that your words would sound good enough to read out loud to an attentive audience around the globe. At the very least they should sound like you when you read them aloud to yourself before hitting the "publish" button.

Blogging is a way to jot down some ideas that you've been chewing over. The chance to put words in writing is not about writing formally for publication, but instead a way to write on screen for others to hear your voice that is distinctively yours.

It takes practice to sound online like you do in person. It helps to type fast enough that you can keep up with the rhythm of what you say as you say it. However, it's not always enough to just key in the first blurt of first draft ideas. The opportunity to read and to edit your own words so that you sound just like yourself except perhaps a little smarter is a good practice to keep.