Blogging Tips #1 - It’s How You Sound

If you asked me the what the single most important thing to get right with your blog is, I’d say voice. 

It doesn’t matter whether you write about quantum physics, tap-dancing martians or writing itself. Your voice is what connects you to your readers. And it’s your voice that brings them back. 

I did once try strapping myself to readers via a bungee cord. But it got a weird. We were definitely connected. But the constant THUD! When a reader pulled against the cord and rebounded back, got annoying. 

So your voice is where that connection is best made. Let people get used to not just what you say. But how you say it. 

So, let me run through (not literally, that might hurt) five ways to develop your blogging voice.

Write like you speak
But tidy. Not with all the ah’s, um’s and random pauses. You are aiming to sound like you, but trimmed back like a hedge after a particularly enthusiastic encounter with a deranged gardener.

Embrace your quirks — they’re your fingerprint
It’s easy to assume you have to write all proper-like. Wiv the write spelings, an all that, gov’er. Know wot I mean? 

But, that gets boring. You might use dry sarcasm, odd analogies or something else. But if that’s you thing? Don’t eliminate it. Don’t remove it, either.

Always Read Your Stuff Out Loud
To be in earnest, this is THE ONE. If you skipped the other four, this one mustn’t be skipped. Always read your writing out loud. The number of flow issues, clunky prose and awkward phrases you’ll identify, are worth the effort.

Write often, review occasionally
Let the words out in a steam of conniptions (like a stream of consciousness but with more swearing). 

And keep going. Write a lot. Then, every now and then, review what you’ve been writing. Does it sound like you? If yes, keep going. If not, loosen the belt a notch. You don’t what your voice to be pickled, like beetroot.

Don’t aim to please everyone — aim to be unmistakably you
The more you try to appeal to a wide audience, the more you’ll sound like a spoon. Nobody shares a spoon. They share voices that make them feel something — even if it’s just “Oh dear, this one’s a bit unhinged.

There you go. Five ways to make you own voice the key element of your blog. 

Right, I’m off. Time to count my pens.