Monday, April 2, 2007

What's Your Voice?

We all write to some extent.

Some write postcards, some compose e-mail. Some write on blogs and some on Internet message boards. But we all write. What is your writing "voice"? How do your letters, words, and phrases compare to your character you exhibit when in the company of others? When you write, do you make a conscious effort to create a more erudite persona than you might have when you're faced with responding on-the-fly and in-person? If you consider that to be a negative trait, is it a character flaw inherent in the person or is it something that can be modified, or even taught (coherent spontaneity, I mean) ?

Perhaps your writing is hackneyed scribbles at best and your real skill lies in extemporaneous dialogue? Perhaps it's not that you're more skilled at speaking, but that you find it takes more effort to collect your thoughts into the constraints of the written form? Letting a deluge of words come from your mouth takes less effort since you leave it up to the listener to interpret your meanings?

Whichever the case, I've found that brevity is key, no matter how hard I try to ignore it. :)

3 comments:

Nick Ritchey said...

word verification: gwehy
sounds like: gay

Just thought I'd note that.

About your post, good reflective topic. Some write amazing things and can't speak for shit, others can say amazing things but not write for shit. I tend to do both without too much consistency.

If we're always moderate in our speech, we may lose some spontaneity. There's a time and a place for almost everything, and same goes for polished writing.

Self-image / ego bloating is the purpose of many blogs, and we all do it to some extent, but if that's the purpose of a blog, letter, postcard, etc. then it's a pretty shallow pursuit imho and nobody gives a shit.

I've noticed you use lots of big words in your blog. Good job! I can guess but will be looking up 3 definitions from this post :o

Nick Ritchey said...

Sorry if I'm bringing down the intellectual level a notch, but I have a great joke...

ready?

"Your mom's ERUDITE!!!"

Haha ^_^

Derek said...

<< I've noticed you use lots of big words in your blog. >>

It's all part of sounding smarter. Or something . . . ;) I'm sure it'll go away as I write things in a more stream-of-conscious and a less composed manner.