How I found my blogging voice & why it’s important #Blogging #MondayBlogs #Amwriting
I’ve made mistakes with my blogging. Oh lordy, have I made mistakes. But that’s life, right? You need to make mistakes to grow, become a better person, and all that other self-improvement junk stuff. The problem with blogging is that you make your mistakes in a public forum – a public forum that is always awake and never disappears. Never ever. Lucky for me, one of my first blogging mistakes was to not use one of the various well-recognized and well-developed blogging platforms so my early blogging mistakes are now gone. Poof! Where did they go? I like to think of those early mishaps are in an Internet graveyard somewhere resting peacefully knowing that they have served me well as learning tools.
So, what’s this huge mistake I’m alluding to? Not finding a blogging voice/writing style to match the purpose of my blog. I wrote my initial blogs as if I were writing a legal treatise. As many of you know, I’m a recovering lawyer and sometimes that legal mumbo jumbo just seems to come flying out of my fingers without conscious thought. Now, don’t get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with writing blogs like legal treatises if – and it’s a big if – your blog is meant to promote your legal business. It may even be okay if you write legal thrillers, but that’s pushing it.
But promoting my legal services was not – and is still not – the purpose of my blog. I started a blog to develop an author platform – whatever that is – and promote my writing in the vague hope of selling more books. My books avoid legal topics like the plague and, therefore, there’s no reason for my blog to sound like I’m still an uptight lawyer (because being a lawyer totally made me uptight).
I needed to find my blogging voice. How did I do that? First off, I looked at the purpose of my blog – promotion of myself as an author. What kind of blogging voice/writing style would promote my books – without actually shouting buy my books! over and over? The vast majority of my books are humorous. Why not try to write funny blog posts? If a potential reader stumbles upon my blog and likes my snarky humor, maybe their appetite will be whet and they’ll actually buy one of my books. Sounds like a plan to me.
Naturally, blogging is different than writing a novel and there’s no law that says you need to use the same writing style for both. But be careful. I’m a voracious reader and blog follower. It happens on a regular basis that I try a book from a blogger whose blogs are witty and fun to read, but I don’t end up buying her book because it’s serious as a heart attack. There’s nothing wrong with serious – even if I sometimes avoid it like the plague. But if you’re using your blog as a marketing tool to reach potential readers, a disconnect between writing styles may not be the way to go.
What does everyone else think? Should a writer maintain the same writing style on different forums? Or am I full of it? Comments welcome.
I agree. My experience was similar. I’m a licensed Mental Health Counselor but no longer in practice. I write children’s books. So, naturally I thought I’d write to parents about parenting. Well, it came across as too preachy. I nixed that and started sharing about other children’s authors and I have a School Psychologist who regularly blogs. I’m still working on my own voice. Thank you for sharing! It gives me food for thought.
I’m glad to hear that someone else had a similar experience. It’s easy to think you are the only person in the world when you work at home in isolation. Thanks for stopping by!
Yes, it is. When you write often you feel like you’re in your own little world. Most often that’s a great place to be–creating and all but sometimes you feel isolated and aren’t sure if you’re the only one going through something.
I write historical romances and I made a very conscious decision not to blog about writing. I have a history blog which was only supposed to serve one purpose, but now serves two. It was originally intended to be somewhere to record my research so that I could retrieve stuff fairly easily. It has become a means of meeting other people who are obsessed with the past, which makes me look at how I look at the past.
I have a slightly different voice on the blog to the one I have in my novels. Novelist me is, I hope, more amusing and more emotional. There’s nothing very amusing when you’re writing a post about the Black Death or the daily life of peasants in the fourteenth century. Now you’ve made me think about it, though, I can see that it would be interesting to look at what made fourteenth century people laugh.
That is an interesting question. I’m not sure there was much to laugh abour as a peasant in the 14th century but I’d like to be proven wrong.
I think people in tough times always find something to laugh about. Boccaccio included some very funny stories in the Decameron. Ten people go out into the countryside near Florence to avoid the Black Death. They spend the time telling stories to one another. Some of them are very funny. I grant you that they’re not peasants.
I, too, read blogs for book recommendations. I have been surprised at how different a writer’s blog is from the writer’s books.
Good question, Dena – I wish I had a good answer. I have the same struggle. Writing in two different genres (inspirational non-fiction, and science fiction) complicates the issue. So, I decided to write two different series of blogs – one for each voice. I’m still struggling. When I first started blogging back in early 2014 (you’d think I’d know what I’m doing by now, eh!) I was told that the purpose of the blog is to get readers to like your writing well enough to buy your book(s). That’s logical, and it supports your idea of having a consistent voice.
Oh geez. Inspirational non-fiction and science fiction are like way, way far apart. I don’t envy your struggle.
Some have suggested that I abandon one to focus on the other. However, I enjoy the cerebral challenge of the non-fiction, and I have a lot of fun writing fiction. I’m not prepared to give up either one. Yet.
I wouldn’t! Do what interests you. Not what other people think you shoukd do.
Authors so often complain readers blur an author’s work with the author’s personality. Why compound the problem? IMHO, an author’s blog should reflect who they are and not how (or what) they write. That’s why I maintain two blogs – one where I post on what interests me, and one more focused on the things I write, and reading.
In a perfect world all blog visitors are potential readers but life isn’t that easy. Any blog visitor can connect with the site owner on a number of levels and return regularly…or at least frequently.
An interesting point. I think it really boils down to the purpose of the blog. Do you blog for yourself or to gain a potential readership? And now you’ve got me thinking about an author’s personality and life and whether our characters are really just ourselves in disguise. A lot of readers assume I get inspiration from living in different countries and traveling extensively, but only one of my books take place outside of the US – a place I haven’t lived in in over 2 decades. Hmmmm