What’s a Writer’s Voice?
Think of your food writing voice as your personality. If someone meets you, they hear the inflection of your voice. They see your movements and body language. They put all that information together and can quickly say, She’s a cheerful person or, He’s rather stoic.
Since your writing is seen either on paper or on a screen, the inflections of your spoken voice and movements of your body language are missing. Without those audio and visual clues for your reader, it’s up to your written vocabulary, sentence structure, tone, and pacing to get your personality across.
Why You Need a Writer’s Voice
You need a writer’s voice for the same reasons that you need a personality – because without one you’d be bland and uninteresting. Without a distinct voice, without a personality, a writer is little more than a robot churning out formulaic copy. The words might be in the right order but they aren’t interesting or engaging.
The good news is you already have a writer’s voice. It might be inconsistent or underdeveloped, but you’ve got one.
You just need to become aware of the voice you have and learn how to control and develop it.
The not-so-good news is that developing your writer’s voice isn’t something you can do in a day. Your writer’s voice will continue to grow and develop over the entirety of your career. The purpose of today’s exercise is simply to make you aware of your current writer’s voice and to give you the tools you need to refocus it, refine it according to your writing goals.
How to Get a Writer’s Voice
The first step in developing your writer’s voice is to determine what you want it to be. You do that by answering a series of questions. Write your answers down, in detail, to get the most out of this exercise. Be expansive in your answers.
WHO are you writing for? To fully engage your readers, you should write as if writing to them and only them, writing to them directly. You can’t do that unless you know who they are.
Who’s your ideal reader? Describe them in detail – how old are they, what do they need from you, what problem are you helping them to solve?
What sort of writing most appeals to your ideal reader? What level of vocabulary is best? What structure most appeals to them?
WHY are you writing? What’s your goal?
Are you trying to inform your readers, help them solve a problem? Are you trying to convince them to take some action?
Are you trying to establish yourself as an authority, an expert?
WHAT are you trying to say? What’s your message?
Recipe writers usually give their readers more than just a list of ingredients and cooking instructions. They regularly give recipes context, explain how they came to develop the recipe, or discuss the history of the dish, the qualities and nutritional aspects of the ingredients.
Their message might be aimed at home cooks, helping them to be confident in the kitchen.
Restaurant reviewers also create a context for their descriptions of the food and ambiance. They often explain what a dish should be like, the generally accepted standard before they describe what they were served at that particular restaurant.
Their message might be You should try this place.
Food history writers are usually storytellers and employ a three-act structure to their work.
Their message might be Here’s someone you might find interesting.
WHICH qualities are you trying to portray in your writing? Do you want to come across to readers as friendly? Stoic? Well-informed?
Do you want to be seen as trustworthy? Silly? Funny? Do you want to be chic or cool? Approachable? Wacky? Off-beat and unusual?
HOW do you want to say it? Are you formal? Or more casual? Impersonal or warm?
Do you want to use long, complex sentences or short, simple sentences? Will you regularly use sophisticated, multi-syllable words? Or mostly simple, one- and two-syllable words?
Will you be straight forward or ironic? Funny? Authoritative?
Will you avoid or employ cliches? Technical terms? Curse words? Will you avoid or employ metaphors, and vivid, sensory writing?
WHERE are you going to say it? Your voice may change depending on your medium. You’d probably be more conversational on a blog rather than an industry magazine.
Blogs and other online writing should be easy to skim. Bloggers use section headers to break up long sections of copy.
WHO are you to your reader? Are you a superhero with all the answers? Or the girl next door, familiar and friendly, who has some helpful hints?
Are you an energetic leader? A knowledgeable mentor? An unassuming equal?
Are you far beyond your readers in terms of knowledge and abilities? Or are you just a few steps ahead of your readers, sharing what you learn as you learn it?
Are you encouraging your readers to be bold and adventurous? Or are you suggesting that they be slow and steady in their growth?
Define Your Writing Voice
Take your answers and turn them into a list of all the qualities you want to be expressed in your writing voice. Post the list where you can see it every time you sit down to write or make it part of your writing checklist, along with making sure you have a strong headline, engaging opening, and so on.
When you write, refer to your writer’s voice list often. If something is out of sync with your desired writing voice, rework it.
When you finish a piece, make it part of the proofreading process to again take your writer’s voice list and check your work against it.
If the qualities you want to project are friendly, casual, and helpful, ask yourself, Is this blog post friendly? Does it sound casual and helpful?
If it does, great. If it doesn’t, rework it.
