“…be yourself when you write. You will stand out as a real person among the robots.” William Zinsser in his book On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction

I remember when I first started writing, I longed to be the best writer I could be. So I set my first goal. I wanted to try to sound like those other successful writers I admired. I thought if I could just sound like them, I would be a great writer too.

Despite my best efforts, I failed miserably.

How to capture the heart of your writing voice is often the single biggest struggle for writers. At least that’s been one of my big obstacles to finding my authentic voice.

And yet ironically, it’s also the key to unlocking your creative potential.

5 Steps to Help Find Your Authentic Voice 

It’s normal when we’re first learning to write, that we imitate writers we admire. That’s often how we start with most things we want to get really good at. For example, like riding a bicycle or learning to sing. I remember doing that when I started with singing lessons years ago. I would try to sing like the popular singers I heard on the radio. My teacher would constantly tell me. Let’s try again. This doesn’t sound like you.

My next step was to try to play it safe. This happened in singing as well as when I began writing. I tried to go with a good clean sound in both. A sound that would be attractive.

Only I discovered that finding and capturing the heart of your voice doesn’t work quite that way.

It takes effort to develop it. It’s a discipline. And as I’ve kept scribbling for the last few years, I’ve realized that this is really important if you’re going to have the impact your words deserve.

I found 5 steps that have worked to help me discover more of my real writing voice:

1. Free write. Write(without editing) whatever comes into your head for about ten minutes. Just go nuts. Write in a way that’s most comfortable to you. Then go back and read it. Ask yourself do I publish stuff that sounds like this?

2. Ask yourself if you enjoy what you’re writing as you are writing it. If it feels like work, you might not be writing like yourself.

3. Write down at least three blogs, books, or articles you like to read. Ask yourself: How are they similar? How are they different? What is it about how they are written that catches your attention? I know for myself I often admire what I aspire to be. Maybe you do too?

4. Something that might help is to ask yourself if the way you write is how you talk. I have done this and used to see a big difference between how I talk and how I write. I’ve been slowly closing that gap.

5. Stay aware of how you’re feeling. Do you feel nervous, anxious or worried before you publish? Good. You’re on the right track. Usually if we’re completely at ease with putting our words out there, then most likely we’re not being vulnerable enough. Try writing something that is a little more you. Use the fear you’re feeling to inspire you to make your writing matter.

I’m still working to discover the heart of my authentic voice. It is a struggle, and sometimes it’s frustrating, but on the other hand, it’s been surprising and fun to see which words will make their way onto the page.

The truth is that there is a bunch of noise out there in the world. And if you are going to be heard, it’s not enough to just raise your voice. You’ve got to set yourself apart, showing that you have something unique to say.

So be brave and continue to write. Trust yourself. Most of all, keep writing those words you love most.