“I am looking for authors with a distinctive voice.” [on an agent’s website] “Great premise but I couldn’t connect with the writer’s voice.” [publisher’s rejection] “The voice isn’t strong enough in the first ten pages to make me keep reading.” [agent rejection letter] So what do editors mean by “voice” when they talk about the craft of writing? Voice is the individual writing style of an author. It’s the way a narrator tells their story. When you put yourself into words it’s your personality on paper. Ouch. Does this mean the editor doesn’t like you? Not exactly. Criticisms of your voice, or the lack thereof, suggests you think about the way in which you express yourself in writing. Let your distinct personality, perspective, or world-view shine in your prose. Too often writers try to write in a manner so bland as to offend no one. It ends up sounding like something written by a committee instead of a real person. Or some try too hard to sound like an author whom they admire, and it feels derivative and inauthentic. Thinking about your voice means gaining a new critical self-awareness of how you sound to others (on the page). This is never easy or comfortable. And this feeling extends to our embodied voice and the discomfort and distortion we feel when listening to a recording of our own voice.  In a recent survey of 1,500 people, half said hearing their recorded voice was so harmful to their mental well-being that they would…

You can enter to win a free copy of Margot Bloomstein’s new book, Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, by leaving a comment on this blog post. Tell us what brand you trust and why. You’ll then be entered into a random drawing to be held on Saturday, May 8, 2021. One lucky winner will be sent a free copy of this terrific new release. To regain the trust of consumers and citizens, marketers talk about empathy and authenticity, transparency and accountability. But how do you get beyond those buzzwords? Margot Bloomstein offers an actionable framework focused on voice, volume, and vulnerability. Voice is the personality and style which should be consistent across time and channels. Volume is how much you communicate and knowing when enough is enough. Vulnerability is the risk you take in telling the truth, reaching to connect with your audience, prototyping in public, and taking responsibility for mistakes when they happen. Bloomstein shows with dozen of case studies how to employ concrete tactics to regain trust, respect, and customer loyalty. Airbnb, Zoom, the FBI, TED, the United Kingdom Government Digital Service, The New York Times, America’s Test Kitchen, local election commissions, and other organizations have all embraced strategies of content and design that transform their audiences into empowered decision-makers. Smart organizations teach their audiences to evaluate product options, engage in continuous self-education, and make more informed choices. She believes business can be a force for good. And she provides practical advice…

A common problem for writers of narrative is overwriting. They work on a piece, edit, add more, read it again, out loud, and add a few more things. Overkill. The writing becomes so writerly it draws attention to itself and gets in the way of the story. The raw authenticity evaporates in the translation to prose. There is enormous pressure on the unpublished writer to use the tools and conventions of literature, grammar, and language usage. And sometimes it sucks the life out of the idea. When a writer is insecure about whether they are being clear, they often continue to muddy the waters further by adding more. More is not always better. Simple, clear, direct language. Words and sentences your reader can understand. Don’t let the writing get in the way of your story. Adding adverbs or adjectives to your sentences won’t help. Your most common sentence structure in narrative form has to do with what happens next. “Who did what to whom, how and why?” Subject-active verb-object. If you have complicated sentences or ideas to communicate, try to express them in this way to help your reader follow the action. Let the reader draw their own inferences from what information you provide. Don’t tell the reader what to think or only give them your interpretations of raw data – provide the direct observations with concrete language. How can you tell if you are overwriting? Do you obsess over word choices? Have you introduced more than three new words…