Be Your Own Role Model

You Will Never Be Able to Write Like Me

No Matter How Hard You Try, It’s Impossible

During the two years I’ve been writing on Medium, I’ve read a lot of writing. As the owner and one of the editors of three Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs publications, I’ve read thousands of articles. I’ve learned a lot by reading that many writing pieces.

I’ve read some really amazing stuff. I’ve laughed my head off at a lot of humor pieces. I’ve nominated about 200 writing pieces for Medium’s Boost program. And I’ve been inspired to write my own articles after reading a number of articles that touch on certain subjects.

But there’s still one thing that I’ve never seen in two years: I’ve never read a piece that was written like my writing.

This is Article #965 in 25 months. I’ve done a lot of writing. I’ve read far more articles than I’ve written. I can honestly say that I’ve never read anything that reminds me exactly of my own writing. And that’s a good thing.

I have no doubt that some writers attempt to emulate other writers. We all have influences on how we’ve become the writers that we are at this stage of our Writers’ Journeys. There are people that we’ve either directly or indirectly patterned ourselves after. It’s bound to happen.

I’m talking to you, Dave Barry. I’ve read your writing since I was a child, and it’s directly influenced me. Though I’m certain you never used the word “fuck” before.

I know for certain that as much as I loved reading Dave’s daily articles in our newspaper growing up, he’s not my only influence. Obviously, my stories don’t seem to be a duplicate of his wonderful, humorous column he once shared with us in newspapers across the country.

But other things have contributed to my style of Renegade Writing. I credit other risque writers for that. I know it’s also due to R-rated movies I’ve watched, music that I love, and a lifetime of funny experiences that I have in my book of memories.

We all have experiences and people who have helped form and shape us into the people we are today. With any luck, we’ve had more positive role models and funny people who have contributed to what we do as writers than negative, horrible ones.

Though writing about pain and controversial topics can also be a good read.

My point of all of this is that we should be proud of the writers we are today. Though I read some awesomely funny writing pieces early on in my Writer’s Journey by Lindy Vogel, Hogan Torah, and Rusty Shackleford, I didn’t attempt to copy their styles of writing. I love what they do and admire what they’ve accomplished here on our platform.

But I’m not them. I haven’t experienced what they have in life. So why would I attempt to mimic or emulate their writing?

As they say, “Imitation is the highest form of flattery.” When I read hilarious blogs by Robin Wilding, Claire Franky, and Kendra Sparkles, I’m always so impressed, once I catch my breath from laughing at their ridiculously funny shit. Sometimes they make a joke or a play on words and I think, “Damn, why didn’t I think of that?” It’s more of me feeling impressed than being jealous.

That’s what we should be doing as writers. Rather than attempting to copy someone’s writing style, we should be appreciating it. While also working on our own Writer’s Voice. It gets easier to do as time goes on.

My earliest blogs were shit. Though I did inject some humor into even the earliest ones, most of the first 50 or so were pretty lame, compared to the other 900+ I’ve written. Writing about the new Dexter reboot, John Madden’s death, and telling men to quit being so macho didn’t attract much interest from readers and other writers.

In fact, the only writing piece that got a lot of attention at the time was when I wrote about helping people reach 100 followers. It was then that I learned that writing about Medium was good for stats. However, it was kind of boring and I knew I didn’t want to only write about writing itself.

As time went on, I found my Writer’s Voice. Instead of playing it safe and writing vanilla-flavored, PG-rated blogs, I upped the ante. I decided that cursing in my articles was just fine. It reflected my real-life personality better. I learned that by being authentic, people would be drawn to that.

I also decided not to shy away from controversial topics. I had a lot of anger and frustration back then about politics and religion. I still do. It was cathartic to be able to voice my opinions and stand strong in my beliefs regarding racism and bigotry.

Plus drama sells. Controversial topics always perform well statistically for me.

Sadly, my humor writing tends to perform the worst, at least in terms of stats and earnings. But it’s my favorite kind of writing. Though I do attempt to put a little humor into any article I publish, the ones that are ridiculous, dirty, way-out-there comedy pieces have done the worst.

And that’s ok. When I have a wild hair up my ass about a really funny idea, I will always still write the damn thing. I don’t really give a fuck who approves or doesn’t. The positive comments I receive on the story are all the validation I need to keep doing my thing.

Staying true to yourself as a writer and finding your own voice is incredibly freeing. It’s awesome to write exactly in the style of YOU, rather than trying to copy another writer’s method or the ways they do things.

Nobody is more of an expert on you than YOU. Use the voice that you have, the life experiences you’ve endured, and the funny things you’ve heard, said, or done. People will be drawn to your writing because of this.

Nobody can write like me. Just as nobody can write like you. When we embrace our originality and use it to create awesome writing, we’re living up to our full potential as writers.

We can’t be cloned. AI can’t do what we do. And that feels awesome. &:^)

© 2024 Jason Provencio. All rights reserved.