What is a voice and how do you find yours?

A writing voice is basically who you are. It's all the values and ideals that drive you forward. It's all the questions that you ponder at unreasonable hours. It's your quirks and beliefs and tendencies. It's your personality, distilled into words.

Sounds pretty straight-forward, right? If your writing voice is who you are, all you got to do is write from the heart. It's a piece of cake that has a cherry on top from the start.

The problem is, you have to know your heart to write from it. You have to know how to communicate what it says and you have to know how to do so consistently.

If you've worked on either you brand's voice or your own, you know that this is no easy feat. Crafting your own unique voice is a pain in the a**. It's sort of like climbing a super-slippery mountain: you'll backslide every time you advance and always run the risk of losing your foothold.

Your voice is not a statement but a series of questions

One of the reasons for this slippery slope is that your voice can't be built on assumptions. The assumptions you have may be totally off (assumptions often are) and you may end up with a voice that isn't connected to your values or beliefs. This, in turn, would make the voice arbitrary. It would be a voice that could belong to anyone and, as a result, using it consistently will be a royal pain: if the voice is arbitrarily chosen, there is no reason to keep using it.

It's sort of like walking to the store without needing anything. There is no reason not to take a detour if you suddenly find yourself in the mood to go another way.

The toddler method

This means that you need to ground your voice in true values and beliefs, and ask questions to get there. One way is basically to ask "Why?" until you find firm ground to stand on - kind of like a toddler who keeps questioning even the basic things.

This is really an existential exercise. You will break down your assumptions until there are no assumptions left, at what point you can start to craft your true voice. Simplified, the process can look a little bit like a Q&A section and might go something like the imagined conversation below.

For the purpose of this imaginary exercise, we'll say that we're crafting a brand voice for a company making an HR app. This app is supposed to help employees with their work-life balance.

Assumption: Our voice should be informal and fun. It should basically be the voice-version of Seth Rogan.

Why? Because we want to be different. If everyone wears a tux we want to wear sweatpants.

Why? We said we were fun, right? Honestly, how fun and informal can you be in a tux? Those things as stilty as ****.

Why? Because they just feel that way? I don't know.

Why? Because they're uncomfortable, OK? They're buttoned-up and we want to be all loosey goosey.

Why? Because our audience should chill down a bit. They need it.

Why? Look. We're against that whole hustle-culture. We just want to help people feel better and do better. It's all interconnected and stuff. You can't do better until you feel better. You know?

We could keep going, of course, but at this point we already have some solid stuff to work from. The fictional company wants to help people and have them take a breath. They believe that people need to feel good to do good, and they want to drive change. This might result in having a voice that is:

Non-stressful

Non-judgemental

Daring

Friendly

Empathizing

This is a really good starting point that the voice can be developed from. That way, the voice will truly be tied to the company's values and actually has a reason for being. Which increases the chance that it will be used consistently and be a true extension of their brand. Something that is actually key for standing out from the crowd.

The upside-down method

You can, of course, also do this the other way around. You probably have a good idea of what you believe and what you want to do, and then you can start naming these things and build your voice from there.

In the best of worlds, you should do both. You may start with your values and beliefs and set the defining characteristics of your voice, before you start tearing it up with a ton of questions. At some point, you'll find the defining characteristics of your voice and can take it from there. It will be amazing and it will be yours.

Tips to make it happen

Crafting your voice is like crafting yourself. It's not easy and it takes a lot of work and soul-searching. You may also need some help along the way, which is where these tips come in. They've helped me when crafting my own creative voice after some 15 years of trial and errors, and when defining our voice at SP_CE. Not to say that any of them will ever really be finalized (we develop and so do our voices), but still.

1.Throw words around

Whether you're finding your creative voice or your brand's, you can start by throwing words on paper. This is not a time for structure. It is a time for creation and thoughtlessness and action. It is a time for letting words flow where they please.

Basically, you can just write without a plan. After that, you can read through it all and see what makes sense. What feels right and what feels a bit off? What feels like you and what doesn't? This can give you a first idea of what your voice is (though it might take some time and a whole lot of writing).

Throwing words around to craft a brand voice: If you're crafting a brand voice, you might want to do this after you've done the initial work: once you've questioned things and nailed down what you really believe - and want to communicate - it will be easier to just write and identify what feels right.

When defining our SP_CE voice, for example, I used this method after I'd questioned a lot of assumptions and boiled them down to writing principles and defining characteristics.

Throwing words around to craft your own creative voice: Crafting a creative voice is a little bit different from crafting a brand voice: you only have yourself to answer to and feelings play a larger part. Writing something in your own voice simply feels right. Which means that this step can take a long, long time and a lot of trial and errors.

That said, at some point it might just click. For me, this recently happened after I'd written some 80 pages of a plot-less novel that will never be publishable. When reading through it all, it became clear what was me and what wasn't.

2. Write new and different things

This step is about doing all the things you didn't do when throwing words on paper. Here, you'll actually have a plan and write different and new things with a clear goal in sight. It can help you reaffirm the foundation of your voice, iron out the kinks and make sure it's strong and flexible.

Write new and different things to craft a brand voice: Your brand voice is to be used in all communication with your audience. I.e. it needs to work in a ton of different places. If you have a software product, you might, for example, try to write error messages and guides and keep the same voice throughout it all. It will give you a chance to see how the tone might change depending on what you're writing for.

For our SP_CE voice, I spent a long time looking at the different components and writing versions in what would come to be our voice. This was also when I set the foundation for what would become our tone map. It became clear what tone of voice was suitable for the different components and touchpoints, especially after a little bit of brainstorming with our team.

Write new and different things to craft a your creative voice: When we only write what we're comfortable with it's easy to revert back to some default voice or style. This is no good. To craft a unique and true voice there needs to be experimentation involved. The comfort zone needs to be breached, so you can see what's outside. For example, my creative voice came to me after I tried out writing short stories for the first time. It was scary and strange and ended up giving my voice space to grow.

Take help

Solo is not the way to go. Use friends, colleagues and peers to brainstorm and go back and forth on the voice. That way, you won't risk assuming things you shouldn't and the voice can grow stronger. Remember, this is not the time for pride and I-can-do-it-all-myself approaches. Different viewpoints can give you the input you need and help make sure your voice is useable and right.

Take help in crafting a brand voice: Involve everyone who can offer input. Get ideas from people in different roles and stay humble. This is how you can understand your beliefs and mission and values. It is how you can iron out the kinks. It is how you can make sure that the voice you create is really yours.

During the work I did with our SP_CE voice, there was a lot of back and forths and a lot of discussions with different people. It made me reconsider my choices and defend others. It made our voice a joint effort, which is what a brand voice should be.

Take help in crafting your own creative voice: Other people have an advantage over you, because they aren't you. I.e. it's easy to lose sight of stuff once you've written a lot, and having a trusted editor or reader can help point out inconsistencies and errors. As for my creative voice, it was really a joint effort between me and my brother. He happens to be the best editor ever and has a command of language like you wouldn't believe.

He also doesn't miss things, while I miss a whole lot. He could tell me that "this part right here doesn't fit in...it isn't the same voice", and I would go back to read it. He would be right and I would find the right way to phrase it.

Act naturally

It can be easy to pull out all the bells and whistles and go crazy with your voice. You want it to be unique, and then the risk is that it ends up different for the sake of being different. If that happens we're back with an arbitrary voice, only now it's kind of crazy.

It's sort of like growing up and experimenting with clothes. Myself, I experimented a lot when I was young. I wore mohawks and silver-taped the holes in my shirts. I also wore coats that were big enough to disappear in and wrote some weird stuff because I thought it was unique.

I had missed the point entirely. The point is not to be unique, but to be honest and true to who we are. This is, in fact, what allows our voice to be unique. In other words, trying to be unique won't make your voice unique, but crafting your own voice that's true to yourself will. It's kind of trippy, I know.

Oh, and if you're wondering why the article you're reading has a picture of cows on the cover, this is actully the reason. I recently stumbled upon them while hiking in the Pyrenees and they seemed so unbothered by what everyone else was doing. They were perfectly natural and were just doing their own thing.

As for your voice, this is exactly what you should aim for.