Finding Your Own Blogging Voice
I have been writing for a while and have definitely found my own distinctive writing voice. Blogging, on the other hand, was a different ball game–putting up your thoughts on the web, for friend and foe alike, raw, unprocessed, unedited. Wow!
How does one find the voice for that? Not too personal, not too boring, not too pompous or distant. Writing for unseen, anonymous readers.
I have been blogging for almost six months, with some success–top 20 in Wikio UK in both culture and literature, high ranks in technorati, and top blog sites. But I had not found my real voice, me. I was not sharing who I really was, just what I thought.
An accident helped me find my own blogging voice. I wrote a post of great interest to the large Christian community to which I belong. I had 1400 page views within a week, 852 of them unique page views (the rest were repeats because of the 60 or so comments.)
And as always happens when you have a sudden spike in page views, most dropped off, but not all. My graph of page views was suddenly on another level.
I suddenly had a real audience–people I knew, whom I worshipped with every Sunday, and met mid-week every week. True, I did not know which individuals, but I suddenly felt I had real people reading my blogs, who somewhat knew me, and were interested in what I had to say.
There is nothing like that for finding one’s real writing or blogging voice.
I have now found my own distinctive blogging voice on two of my blogs, theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com and wanderingbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com. I still need to find my own voice, who I really am, on my third blog, a literary blog called thegoodbooksblog.blogspot.com.
I think of the pop psychology book popular when I was a teen, “Why am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am.” It goes on to say, “I am afraid to tell you who I am because you may not like who I am, and who I am is all I have.”
So, a truly good blog, a truly interesting one, is written by someone who is not afraid to tell you who she really is.
Bookmark this on Delicious
Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
Connect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anitamathiaswriter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anita.mathias/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnitaMathias1
My book of essays: Wandering Between Two Worlds (US) or UK
Sorry Anita for the delay in reply. Yes, we are in Egypt long-term. And about the *voice* issue, well, I think I've gotten a better handle of finding what my blog's voice is. I don't know if I still agree with what I said about choosing a niche = choosing a voice. I think expat bloggers tend to be more story-oriented than anything else so maybe that is true.
And yes, I would agree that being too vulnerable on a blog isn't necessarily the way to go. You can reveal certain things about yourself but this doesn't mean you have to share EVERYTHING, right? Although at the same time it's important to be honest…
Hello Erin,
Blogging is actually great for finding one's own voice. Rules which have helped me–and as I said, I have not yet found my voice on this blog, though I have on theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com–don't be afraid to look ignorant or foolish or stupid; don't fear people's judgements; don't make yourself look better than you are (at least, don't do that too much), be honest. I don't think blogging is the place to be vulnerable about one's current dilemmas, since it is read by tout le monde. But it is a great place to take risks in style and subject matter, and say what one really thinks and feels.
What are you doing in Egypt? Are you there long term?
I have been pondering this point myself, trying to determine if my blog is really representing me or just some version of myself. But when we choose a blog niche, we are also – in a sense – choosing a voice as well. Maybe it's because we have to compete with the others in our niche or maybe it's because we're trying to reach the larger audience or maybe it's simply because we don't know who we are yet (well, not in a blog-sense, that is).
I'm working on it. From what I read, the only way to know is to keep writing, right? Everybody makes this look easy!