Honing and Toning Your Voice
Simplicity works and sadly, it takes a while to learn it. Early wordsmiths often disjoint their writing from their voice in an attempt to cram flowery words that impress their wonderful vocabulary upon would-be readers. Well, this has at least been my experience of it. Finding your voice is hard work. Generally, a good rule of writing goes like this – “Write like you speak.” So, whether it’s for a company brand of for your own style, here’s some things I’ve learned about crafting your voice and getting the tone of voice just right.
Who are you writing to? What are you planning to say?
Whether it’s for a book, a play, a magazine editorial or a brand product, these two questions are crucial to have in mind. Additionally, many writers have slightly different approaches to how they answer – therefore knowing this from the get-go is a structural stepping stone.
Differences Between Voice and Tone
What are your values? From a writing standpoint, exploring your subject and developing a personal tone of voice takes many years. Just like training the body, the more you work out, the more fat you’re learning to trim, the leaner the content and the more consistent your writing. This is how one writer’s voice is discerned from another’s. Lets take some examples:
- Stephen King wields prolific fantasy, magic and horror to craft deliciously dark tales that often bend expectations and pivot from frenetic to alluring.
- Neil Gaiman returns mythical legends, folklore and magic with a modern twist that changes how we perceive dreams, time and history.
- Jeanette Winterson’s poetic and experimental style explores the boundaries of science and fantasy, motion and fixity, micro-worlds within worlds and stories within stories.
When you read these writers you hear their voice. Their values shape their interests, spur them to write about what drives them, which in turn shapes their tone.
Values > Tone > Subject
So, your voice comes from your values as a writer. Your tone depends on who you’re writing for and what you want to say. Developing a personal tone of voice is like trying to see the bones of your structure and word choices. Once you know your pattern and you know how to wield it, you might think about moving on to branding it.
Values as a Writer
Understanding your values grounds your voice and moves you towards what you want to write. Your tone therefore comes into play when you write for different readers. So, get your values down and ask yourself, what do you stand for as a person? This way, what you write, whether its for fiction or journalism, will be an expression of who you are, embedding sincerity and personality into the text, connecting your words to you. To reiterate: Write like you speak.
List your Values
You don’t need many. List about 4 or 5 qualities that are at the core of what you do. Ask yourself some questions to get to the core, such as:
- What drives you?
- Interests you?
- Keeps you up at night?
- Why?
- What keeps your customers awake?
- Which themes do you wish to explore? What motifs or patterns?
Meanwhile, start with a core vision. In other words, your content mission statement. For example: To be a recognized author of challenging fictional tropes by exploring dynamic character blended with astrology.
Your core values might look something like this:
- Fiction: I explore stories of fiction to see how character has changed over time, how protagonists are represented and how the image of what that means develop.
- Honesty: I’m curious to know truths and aim to present them openly as I discover.
- Astrology: I want to explore anthropomorphism in astrology and understand ancient myths as societal heroes and heroins and how those symbols work to represent history and memory.
As a writer, there’s no need to fully express this to your audience or disclose it – they can be just for you. After that, you’ll have no need to declare if you’re a travel writer or a journalist or a fiction writer for kids – your voice will be established by your values and direction. Now comes the next bit – tone.
Tone It
Your tone changes depending on who (which audience) you are speaking to. George Orwell wrote Animal Farm, a children’s book and analogy about the abuses and frameworks of power. 1984 uses fiction to explore a similar polemic, aimed at a more mature audience. Contrast those titles with The Road to Wigan Pier where Orwell explored the penury of miners in Northern England, or A Homage to Catalonia, where he joined anarchists in The Spanish Civil War to understand their fight. Orwell used different tones for different readers. These subjects, however, could be unified under George Orwell’s values, for example – themes of truth vs lies, power and authority vs freedom and democracy and the fear of Totalitarianism.
Values as a company
If you’re working at a firm, its a good idea to get to grips with the company’s values and understand what works and what doesn’t. A good way to think about tone is to think about language. This will break down a lot of walls. Sometimes surface communication problems can’t be fixed with a tone of voice.
“It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator’s skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen.”
William Bernbach
Communication
This is going to vary from a situation where you can not shoulder the voice entirely, like say in a company. Lets look at some good examples of a brand tone of voice:
Mailchimp: They’re genuine, clear and humorous with dry delivery that really connects with younger audiences.
Orange: They’re straight forward, consistent and helpful with great visual style and intelligent use of text.
Netflix: They’re fun, controversial and embrace taking risks. They understand what generates engagement. Moreover, they know their audience so well they can act like a member of their own fan base.
Having a strong and consistent voice drives better engagement with your audience. However, companies generally have a content strategy and style guide. So, if you’re hoping to take this further, I’ve included some tips, power words and worksheets at the bottom. Download and enjoy.
FREE TONE OF VOICE GUIDE AND WORKSHEETS
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