By Peggy Henrikson
Do you like to write in a light-hearted or serious style? Is your writing filled with delightful description or carefully crafted explanations? Do long sentences flow from your fingers as you type, or do you love the dance of dialogue or punchy prose?
When writing a nonfiction book or article, you’re faced with a challenge. How can you express your personal predilections, or your writer’s “voice,” yet still tailor your topic to your targeted readers?
Part of your unique voice arises from your natural tendencies and personality, the rest from skillful art. You can give your readers their due by wisely choosing your topic and then skillfully adjusting your natural writing style.
You may have a lively sense of humor but want to write a book on business building—a subject that doesn’t lend itself to jocularity. So you would include anecdotes, examples, description, or dialogue that have just enough humor to lighten up your subject without making light of it.
It’s wise to start by choosing a topic and market that naturally aligns with your personality and interests. The path of least resistance often proves to be the most successful.
What Tone Suits Your Personality, Topic, and Market?
Breezy, inspirational, academic, conversational, tongue-in-cheek, motivational? Think of your readers’ demographics. What tone would resonate with them? Does it resonate with you? If not, you might want to reconsider your choices.
Similarly, choose your vocabulary and sentence structure with your prospective readers in mind. If you relish writing complex sentences with multisyllabic words, don’t direct your work toward the general public unless you’re willing to adjust these elements. Instead of using long words and sentences, add vibrant descriptions, stories, examples, and dialogue where possible. All of these enrich your writer’s voice. Just make sure the tone they set is appropriate to the topic.
The trick to tailoring your voice to topic and target? Adjust and enhance your natural tendencies. How? By skillfully using elements that illuminate your topic and captivate the minds of your readers.
It’s a balance worth striving for to achieve a well-written article or book.
Peggy Henrikson is an editorial team member with Barbara McNichol Editorial. She constantly adjusts her editing to reflect the unique voice of each writer with whom she works.
