10 Essential Tips to Find Your Voice as a Writer

Learning from My Mistakes and Defining Success

There are over 600 million blogs worldwide and over 31 million bloggers in the US, and — guess what? There is still room for you in the blogosphere! I firmly believe that finding your voice is crucial for optimizing your chances of success. I share some thoughts about success at the end of this article — an encouraging follow-up after some practical tips.

Whether you want to write a book, start writing and publishing on Medium, or publish your work in any other format, having the courage and confidence to write in your unique style is vital. With the introduction of AI writing and tons of content flooding the internet every day, writing in your unique voice will help you stand out, attract an engaged and loyal audience, and help you gain confidence as a writer.

How to Describe a Writer’s Voice

Let’s start here. You might think, isn’t that obvious? A writer’s voice is just that, their voice, right? It’s a little more complex than that, or, as writers, we wouldn’t struggle with how to write in our own voices. Crafting content in your voice isn’t as simple as writing in a conversational tone, but it isn’t as complicated as we often make it.

A writer’s voice includes elements like:

• Tone
• Word Choice or Diction
• Sentence Structure
• Pace
• Personality
• Perspective
• Values and Beliefs
• Descriptive Language and Imagery

Before you start to feel overwhelmed, take a deep breath. You already innately have all of these elements. You just have to understand yourself and be confident to produce content using what is uniquely you!

A writer’s voice is their distinct, individual style and perspective. Think of it like this. Style is the mechanics of your writing, like word choice and sentence structure. Your perspective is your unique take on what you are writing about. You can write about canned soup, but if you do it in your style from your perspective, you will likely draw an audience that will enjoy and engage with your work. When you approach your writing with this mindset, finding topics will become less overwhelming, and writing will flow more easily and clearly.

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10 Essential Tips to Help You Find (and Use!) Your Voice as a Writer

1. Read — Broaden Your Reading Horizon

Many famous writers share this advice. If you want to write well, read a lot! Reading from an eclectic variety of writing genres and styles is also a good idea. If you tend to only read fiction, start to read some biographies, a different fiction genre, poetry, magazine articles, blogs, and more medium articles (shameless plug for myself and all my Medium creator friends!). Reading more is known to help writers explore different writing styles, expand their vocabulary, and inspire new ideas.

If time is an issue, consider audiobooks. Check out Audible here!

2. Self Reflection

Dive deep into self-reflection by thinking about your own experiences, values, and beliefs. Explore your likes and dislikes. Pay attention to what you are drawn to reading, watching, or listening to as you go through your days. My favorite way to practice self-reflection is through journaling. Understanding yourself will help you share your thoughts with confidence.

3. Write Regularly, Even If You Don’t Publish Right Away

Consistency is essential to developing your voice as a writer. It helps you establish a habit of writing and grow your writing “muscles.” The more you write, the stronger your writing will become. This may seem unreal, but it has to do with brain science, which I don’t fully understand. Many professional writers attest to this strategy. Write every day, even if you don’t feel inspired. Sure, not everything will be publish-worthy, but you will feel yourself growing stronger as a writer and will see and “hear” your voice taking shape through your work.

4. Seek Feedback and Be Willing to Receive It

Feedback is hard sometimes. Writing is a creative process. It feels vulnerable, especially when writing from your personal perspective and attempting to share thoughts and ideas in your unique voice. Seeking constructive criticism and embracing the revision process will help you develop your voice and grow as a writer. An idea that may read very clearly to you may not to someone else. Find trusted peers or editors* willing to read your work and provide feedback. You won’t need to do this for everything you write, but it is a way to help you grow as a writer.

*Medium tip: if you are submitting work to publications on Medium that offer feedback and suggest revisions, consider that a compliment! That means the editors like your work and hope you re-submit it!

5. Resist Duplicating, Trust Your Ideas

If you want to grow your blog, go viral, get noticed, make money fast, or have any fast-paced motivations, duplicating content online may feel tempting. You might come across something that is receiving a ton of engagement and think, hey, I know something about that. Maybe I will do that too. Wait? What? Am I suggesting avoiding topics other writers have written about? No way! I am doing that right now; finding your writing voice is a well-covered topic.

Resisting duplicating content does not mean you never write about a topic someone else has written about. It is resisting the urge to copy someone else. Sadly, it is very easy to copy articles and still avoid plagiarism, and even sadder plagiarism (copying someone else’s work verbatim) happens all the time. Being inspired by someone is very different than duplicating what they are doing. Trust yourself and your ideas, find your voice, and run with that!

6. Cultivate Confidence

What is confidence? The definition of confidence is

“A belief or conviction that an outcome will be favorable. Belief in the certainty of something. Belief is the effectiveness of one’s own abilities or in one’s favorable acceptance by others; self-confidence.”

-The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.

Some ways to cultivate confidence in yourself as a writer include:

• Stop comparing yourself to other writers
• Re-frame your negative self-talk
• Start small
• Set attainable goals
• Focus on progress, not perfection

7. Face Your Fears — Hit That Publish Button!

Speaking of progress and not perfection (last point above), hit that publish button! If you are like me, you will revisit your work and immediately find some mistakes. I’m not going to lie; it happens, and it’s upsetting, BUT the alternative is never publishing, and I am done with those days. Are you? Developing your writing voice is a process. It is a journey, not a destination. Publishing your work is part of the process. You can do it! When you do, please share your links in the comments here. I would love to read what you publish!

8. Use Prompts or Other Voice Developing Exercises

If you feel overwhelmed or stuck thinking about defining your unique voice, try using prompts or writing exercises to kick-start the process. Some ideas include

• free writing or stream-of-consciousness writing
• find a daily writing prompt list to use
• write something outside of your genre

9. Be Persistent but Gentle with Yourself

What is the difference between persistence and consistency? Aren’t they the same? No! Being persistent means you keep trying as you face challenges (and you will face challenges!). Consistency involves sticking to a regular schedule or routine. Finding your voice will present challenges. You will feel voice-less sometimes. This is where persistence matters. Don’t give up, even when your writing voice feels silent — write anyway, but be gentle with yourself. Remember, this is a process, but you can find and use your voice.

10. Celebrate Your Unique Perspective and Voice

As with many things in life, you need to be your loudest cheerleader. Celebrate your uniqueness, your experience, your perspective, and your voice! You can celebrate all this by writing and publishing your work, sharing it with friends and family, reading it to yourself, and being proud of what you have created! It’s ok to like what you write. No one has had your life experiences the way you have experienced them. Your perspective is unique to you. Sharing your uniqueness will draw in readers who can relate to your words. It’s a beautiful thing to be uniquely you in a collective space — online, in the world, in our families, schools, and workplaces.

My Mistakes

Believe it or not, I have been writing online since 2014. If your standards of success are follower count and earnings, I am not successful (yet!). For me, this is a long journey. It’s safe to say persistence is one of my strengths! I refuse to give up, and I am finally finding my voice.

Here are some mistakes I’ve made.

• Trying to be Perfect
• Thinking My Voice Was Not Enough
• Giving in to Writer’s Block
• Inconsistency
• Not Trusting the Process

Defining Success

Success is not linear or objective. It is a subjective variable. Some may define success financially. Others may define it in professional terms, for example, being on the New York Times bestseller list or having a regular column in a publication. There are many areas of success, from personal life to lasting legacy. Success to you may not mean success to someone else.

You need to define success for yourself.

My writing career so far may not look or feel successful to many people, but to me, it is a success simply because I am writing. I write and hit publish, submit to publications, have an e-book, write as a paid content writer, and write for school. My lifelong dream, from when I was a little girl to this day, is “to be a writer.” To me, that means writing something that someone will read and that will resonate with them somehow.

We live in a day and age where someone like me (or you!) can “be a writer” just by choosing a platform and hitting publish. I am a writer simply by writing, but if one person reads what I write and finds an inkling of encouragement, inspiration, or motivation, I am successfully living my lifelong dream — I am a writer.

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I am a graduate student at Lipscomb University pursuing my Clinical Mental Health Masters degree. I work as a freelance writer, graduate assistant, and primary support person for my daughter, who is navigating complex mental health issues. Check out more of my work on Medium, #thesosblog and #hopehas4paws.