Thirteen Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Write Like ‘Them’

We all love our author heroes — but it’s time to write in our voice

When we start writing we’re usually inspired by one of the greats. Sometimes we get a half-dozen eye-rolls when we share our inspirations, but deep inside, many of us stand in awe before the same bag of writers.

It doesn’t matter where the inspiration comes from. The important part is we started writing.

Now we’re writers. The original voices pushed us to type the strange idea in our heads. It’s now time to wear our own shoes because they are the only empty pair available.

No one can out you, you. No one has your writing voice but you.

Sure, it’s all been done before, but it hasn’t. We need you to wear your own pants. Hemingway’s pants smell like booze and shotgun shells. J K Rowling’s pants are too magical to put on. Does Stephen King own pants?

As creators we do just that — create.

We copy until we don’t have to. We sound like someone else until we get our sea legs. We write with a pencil on Italian parchment, because so-and-so did. We write on one leg because Fancy Fran did. We hang upside-down because that guy who sells books in the grocery store can afford to do so, although his books are tired.

We copy. We stop. We find our voice. Open our mouths. And start typing.

13 Reasons to Write in Your Voice

1. You establish a personal brand no one can emulate. At best, all copycats will be also-rans. No one can out-you, you.
2. If you freelance your writer’s voice is your signature everywhere. Whether you write a book, a blog post, or an article — No matter where your audience catches your material, they’ll recognize your voice. This is important, because we’ve got to have our work so many places.
3. Developing your writer’s voice is part of your craft. Your voice is part of the journey. Want to be great at your craft? We better know what you stand for and how you read when we open your work.
4. If you don’t use your voice the very best you’ll ever do is come across as a great forgery. We don’t want to be the knock-off version of the Coach purse. Those are plastic and cost twenty bucks.
5. You can develop your own voice as a mash-up of your favorite authors. None of us are unique flowers. We’re all shaped by our environments and the writers we read. Smash all your faves together and come up with you.
6. Your voice is a great marketing tool. If a reader wants more you YOU she can’t go anywhere else to find the same voice. You can have deep competition in a certain genre, but if you’re the only author that sounds the way you sound, readers must buy your books if they want your voice.
7. Your voice is how they’ll review your work. Not only will reviewers leave opinions on your story, but if you have a unique writing voice you’ll leave a strong impression. We don’t want readers to think about the writing as they read, but we want them to remember who wrote it.
8. Your voice is [almost] all you’ve got. There are only so many different renditions of story. We put our own twist on everything we write, sure, but we’ve got genre constraints, audience expectations, copied bits of everything we’ve read until now. Your writing voice, however, is your writer’s fingerprint.
9. Your voice doesn’t have to be that different — just different enough to be recognized. We don’t need to sound over-the-top, or phony. We can remain genuine to our personality. I read advice from other writers who get bent out of shape about voice. Your writing voice can be subtle (through certain word choices) and unique, simultaneously.
10. Your voice is portable. Whether you write an email to fans, an article, a full novel or how-to book (non-fiction writers have voices too), our writer’s voice can translate across multiple media.
11. Your voice is flexible. You can write in more than one voice if you wish. Maybe you’ve got more than one series. You choose Voice A for this set of books and Voice B for the others. You’ll bring bits of your personality into both, but a targeted voice may be required for the work.
12. My voice is taken. So are all the others. There’s only one voice left — or renditions of one. We need you to use your writer’s voice, because it’s the last coat on the rack.
13. A writer’s voice makes writing fun. Maybe your speaking voice isn’t so great — like a leaf blower combined with an ice-filled blender. Maybe you don’t have much of a personality. Maybe you live in your head all the time. Maybe you’re hard to be around. But when you can unleash your writing on the world — in your voice — it’s a powerful stick to swing, my friend.

We need your voice

We’ve already got a King, a Hemingway, and a Rowling. But we don’t have you — yet. There are a whole lotta tail-chasers and copycats out there. Look at any genre and you’ll find a hundred authors trying to capitalize on what’s hot right now.

We need you to be yourself.

We want to read your twist on the story. We want to recognize your work when we open the cover. We want your writer’s voice in our ear when we listen to audiobooks. We need you to tell the story the way you see fit.

All the other voices are taken.

It’s time to be you. There are more books published now than ever — with the same amount of eyeballs (or fewer) with which to consume them. We need you to stand out so your work doesn’t get lost.

We’re waiting for you.