Be the Real You When You Write

By Annette Rey

Supposedly Benjamin’s Franklin’s father told him, “Nothing is useful that is not honest.” I think that is a great way to start this post.

We writers need to be honest when we write.

Our own voice needs to be in our pages. We can learn writing techniques and grammar and vocabulary, but we shouldn’t try to write like someone else we have read. Our writing needs to bear our own individual sound. It should include intricacies of our own making, like tone and sentence structure.

If you naturally write in a conversational tone, don’t try to force writing in a formal tone of voice, and vice versa. Don’t force putting humor in your work if you don’t tend toward that talent. It will fall flat and your readers will smell a bad fish. Satire is a great thing if you can pull it off, but use it only if you have a feel for it.

You can still learn new things about writing and crafting new styles. As you learn, your writing will reflect that you are advancing. It will present itself in a natural manner and in a gradual evolution. Your readers will not rebel or feel they are being deceived. They will recognize you are being an honest writer, that you are being true to your own inner self.

Being genuine bears its own sound of truth.