Voice is a point of concern for all blog writers. We want our blog posts to sound authoritative, our thoughts to command attention, and our writing to form a real connection with our audience.
Many writer’s fear that it can take years to develop a professional writing voice: one that reads authentically, solidly as you. Unfortunately, that’s all too true. There are countless bloggers that swim in the muck of mediocrity for far too long, never realizing the power of their voice as blog writers.
But, there are effective shortcuts that you can implement, ones that will dramatically improve your blog writer’s voice. One of those shortcuts is making the use of a voice recorder a significant part of your blog writing process.
Recording your actual speaking voice is a great way to transform your writing, align it to your actual speech rhythm, and get your text to flow as you naturally speak. Embracing your natural voice as a blogger gives your text authenticity, which helps you connect with your audience on a deeper level.
A Handy Tool
Using a voice recorder sounds simple. Just turn on an app in your phone and record your voice. And it is that simple; that’s part of what makes this tool so practical.
There are a few challenges though to making use of this device everywhere you go and in turning voice recording into a lasting habit.
Consider, how will you record anywhere—even while in public? How will you transcribe your voice notes into actual written text? How will this tool fit into your everyday blog writing process? And how will you literally capture, and make us of your voice?
With a recorder you can grab your thoughts quickly, dictate whole blog posts, and bump up the output of your daily word count. It’s a robust tool. Let’s look at how to best make use of a voice recorder to capture your voice, while addressing issues that could make you stumble.
Your Voice as a Blog Writer
Your voice is in your subconscious, you can taste it. It’s in the subjects that haunt and drive you. It’s in the way you tap this nugget, string words together, and howl. It’s your sensibility, world view, and diction wrapped into a burrito.
If you have a developed sense of purpose, and speak with passion, then harness it. How you put this voice of yours into words on a page is how you connect with your readers through your blog. Writing is a unique medium and there is a divide to cross and conquer between speaking and writing.
With blogging you are creating a dialogue with the reader that feels like you are speaking directly to them. It’s a conversation. Bring the power and personality of your voice to your written work.
Listen to Your Locomotion
When you ruminate on ideas—with wheels turning—asking yourself questions as you pace the room, the answers you get back are your voice speaking to you. When you dictate, you are tapping your internal monologue. You ask yourself questions; you get back answers. This is the writer inside you.
When recording voice notes, while in motion, there is no need to censor. These are notes to yourself. These are your ideas on the fly. Recording your ideas, and listening on playback to your locution, helps you develop confidence in your voice. You can hear how you think, solve problems on the move, and speak in cadence. You need to put your ear to your voiced ideas.
When you ruminate on ideas, internally, or out loud, this is your voice. How you put this voice into words on a page is your writer’s voice.
Using a Voice Recorder
Most of us own smart phones, which is a handy part of living in this century. While a smart phone is awkward for most of us to type on, it’s smooth to fire up a voice app and dictate a few ideas into it.
Ease of Use
With a voice recorder you can talk problems out while on a treadmill at the gym. Capture your solutions in mid-stride. Record your idea and then just continue jogging. You can use your voice recorder at home or while on the go anywhere.
I use the iPhone’s built in Voice Memos to record with. It’s handy and easy to work with. If you have another type of smartphone, then look for an easy to use voice recording app for it. You can always go with a dedicated digital recorder, but the convenience of using a smartphone is clear—it’s always at arms reach.
Now you may think you look silly speaking to yourself out in public, but that thing you’re speaking into is actually a phone. No one will realize you are recording your thoughts, rather than talking to someone, if you use your phone to record your voice.
If you follow similar etiquette as using a phone while in public, you can voice ideas as they pop into your head. Using above average quality earbuds with a built in mic is another helpful setup. I have a great pair of Skullcandy earbuds that I use attached to my iPhone that captures good quality audio.
Voice Processing
There is software you can use to turn your dictated notes into text automatically and there are moments that is helpful. It saves you quite a bit of time. If you have a favorite transcription software solutions for this, leave a comment.
On the other hand, it’s a good exercise for developing your writing voice to listen to your ideas in your own spoken voice. Go through the process of manually turning your dictated ideas into written ideas through transcription. It’s labor intensive, but there is no truer connection with your voice, than going through this process.
Through manual transcription you’ll pick up on your arguments, write down your thoughts in the flow of your spoken voice, then interact with your ideas, and continue the thread you were on.
As you transcribe your thoughts, you’ll have more thoughts on those thoughts, and what may have been a small kernel of an idea when recorded becomes a well thought out written piece. You’ll pick up additional ideas and run with them—carrying what you said further.
This practice of working with voice recording software to dictate then transcribe paragraphs of ideas will start to blur the line between your writing and thinking. You’ll begin to write the same as you speak and vice versa. With ear tuned, you’ll hear your rhythm and tap out your ideas. You’ll be able to capture whole blog posts in your recorder and write as you carry a conversation in your natural voice.
Romance Your Cadence
Many bloggers stress over developing their voice as a writer. As an entrepreneur, it’s more important that you are capturing your ideas, sharing them with your audience, and being authentically you in the context of your business, than getting overly concerned about some writerly notion of developing your voice.
Sure, developing your voice as a blog writer is helpful. It’s worth putting effort into. Keep in mind though: it will naturally strengthen over time the more you write.
A voice recorder is just a tool. Use it to help your voice along.
Get comfortable in the skin of your voice and in the pumping-veins of your ideas. Dictate, record, listen, and carry on conversations with the writer inside you. Ask yourself questions and listen for the answers.
Have fun with it, speak out loud, rant with passion in your mind, and run-on and on at length with your words, until your thoughts both spoken and written blur into a unique, standout, singular voice—one that is remarkable and yours.
Graphic Credit: Talking designed by Lucian Dinu from the Noun Project.
