Finding Your Voice

Finding a voice is one of the most important aspects that young writers learn to develop. Often, writing with a journal or writing letters to a friend will help with developing voice. Does your writing take on a friendly tone? Or is it reserved and intelligent?

Start by not thinking about what you're writing too hard. Write in a journal about your personal story, views, and beliefs. From there, review your writing. Is it sarcastic? Humorous? But most importantly, is it you?

Continue to write with different tones, sentence forms, and words. All of them add up like pennies in a jar to make your paragraphs flow with a unique, curious voice. You may find that your paragraphs are short and full of action words. Or that your writing takes on a reflective and laid back tone.

In any case, if your not happy with the way your voice is sounding ask yourself a couple questions. What about the writing don't you like? What words would your friends use to describe you? What can you do to incorporate those descriptions into your writing? If your friends describe you as a romantic then go ahead and write that opinion article with some lovely, serene words and tone. Even if you later edit and don't use those sentences, you at least have them out on paper and in your voice.