Discover what writing point of view best expresses your voice

Are you new to blogging?  Do you have a million questions coming your way?  As a novice, you must decide what blogging platform you’ll use, how often you’ll post, what you’ll post about, and what goals you have for the blog.  It’s tough.  We’ve all been there.

One of the most difficult issues is your writing style.  Formal? Casual? Educated? Relatable? It’s a hard to find your voice, but we’ve put together some tips to help you out!

Who are you?

It’s a broad question, but you need to know.  How would your friends describe you?  If you’re a funny person, you should be funny!  If you’re very easy-going, you should write that way.  Use your skills!  Did you study fashion? Maybe you should incorporate some of the terminology or skills you learned in school.  Are you a great writer?  You could write a few longer posts demonstrating your talents.  Think about what you have to offer.  Looking at your resume with your job and education history can help you easily pinpoint where your strengths lie.

Who is your blog?

What do you want your blog to represent?  Are you a fashion blog?  Are you a lifestyle blog?  Do you want to start conversation?  Do you want to engage readers?  These are all valid questions in getting you started.  Understanding what you want your blog to represent will help you reach your highest potential.  Do your research!  Look at blogs you admire and specify what traits you like about their blog.  This is a great way to start and get some direction.

On a side note, an important part is understanding your blog goals.  Are you doing it for fun or do you want to go professional?  If you want to be sponsored, work with companies, or be professional, you must note that the writing rules are a bit different.  You should watch your grammar, spelling, and language, depending on what type of brands you are trying to reach.  Such common chat lingo like ‘lol,’ ‘jk,’ etc does not always look professional.  Lastly, cursing and foul language is not always looked upon well, especially if a brand is looking to sponsor you.

It’s all about practice!

A great way in finding your voice is practice.  As with most things in life, practice makes perfect.  Try this action item.  First, make a list of adjectives that you want your blog to represent.  Pretend you are writing a blog post and pick a topic.  Next, write it in less than ten minutes. Take a break and then write it with only 100 words.  Take a minute to examine your pretend posts.  How do they sound?  Do they represent the adjectives you wrote down earlier?  By giving yourself these limits, it should force you to write in the only way you know how and to only include what you deem important.  This is a great way to recognize your voice.  Go from there and focus on the qualities you want your blog to represent.

You’ll see that after some introspection, research, and practice, you’ll be able to write in a way that you and your readers recognize and bests represent you!