After spending time with a bunch of fabulous bloggers on Friday night, I’ve been thinking a lot about my own blog. Not in a comparing kind of way, but actually just how much I love my own blog compared to this time last year. I think the main reason for this not only have I gotten my spark back, but I’m now really happy with my ‘blogging voice’.
When I say ‘blogging voice’ what I really mean is the language and tone I use in my articles. Do any of you fellow bloggers look back over your first few (or about a year’s worth) of blog posts and cringe because you hate how it sounds? I know I’m probably not alone there. As we evolve as a person, we continue to learn about new things which fuels our language and blogging tone of voice. Now firstly, I know my grammar is atrocious, I can’t even spell grammar to start with (I always put an ‘e’ at the end instead of an ‘a’) but isn’t blogging about the everyman, using an accessible platform to share their experiences? Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t think it’s very hard to spell check your posts (whole other story) but what really frustrates me is when the ‘grammar police’ come out to play. I like to read posts in my head in the ‘bloggers voice’ (I make it up if I have no idea what they sound like) and I don’t care if they use the odd word incorrectly. I’m sure we’ve all done it? We weren’t all born to be journalists which is precisely the point of blogging.
I feel a lot more confident with my blog post today than I did about them last year. Some of that is down to the change in content but most of it is too do with how I feel when I read it. 2012/2013/2014 were spent trying to incorporate humour into my posts in an unnatural way. It was forced and if I though a post wasn’t funny enough, I’d try and go back and add something whimsical in. These days, I’m so much better at just letting the words flow. I’ve started writing my blog posts how I’d say them out loud and go from there. Sometimes I have to take out a bit of waffle; other times I need to add a few more adjectives in to really give a feel for what I’m trying to say.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that my biggest tip for ‘finding your blogging voice’ is not to force it. Reading and listening to audio books has helped a lot. At 26, I’m still not done learning about the English language (are we ever?) and educating myself has moulded my language skills thus moulded my blogging voice.
If you’re a new blogger or even an old timer who’s been kicking around the blogging community for as long as I have, you’re always looking for improvements that you can make. I’m sure that I’ll look back in a year’s time and find ways to improve this post as well… it’s just natural. Just like blogger’s picture styles have moved from plain white background, to all things marble, our writing styles have also moved on. This is however, the first time I’m totally satisfied with my blogging voice. Now it’s just about how I use it.
Have you found your blogging voice? How did you find it? What tips can you give to new bloggers?
