How To Find Your Natural Writing Style

Finding your own unique voice in writing is not something that can simply happen overnight.

When we’re born, we don’t pop out of our mother’s womb conversing fluently in 3 different languages. It takes time to discover how to communicate, and even when we’ve achieved a competent grasp our native language, it’s still a lifelong journey of finding new nuances, learning new words and honing the way we communicate so we can understand – and are understood – more clearly.

So your writing is a natural extension of this. Even when you have that competency in your mother tongue, as a writer you can then go on to develop an original and distinctive writing style. Here are 5 tips to make this a rewarding journey:

1. Discover what you like to read. The best place to start to find your own original writing style is to find the authors that you most enjoy reading yourself. Actively explore the work of the writers you already know, and other writers in similar genres. Be open to different media like novels, poetry, articles, guides. Find all the types of writing you like most.
2. Learn the most effective writing patterns and techniques. Once you start to become aware of the writing you enjoy reading, take this a step deeper and ask why you’re drawn to certain authors and styles. Is it their descriptive qualities, the way they construct realistic dialogue, the powerful way they connect with the senses, the clarity of their communication? Find the key elements that make different kinds of writing so enjoyable to read.
3. Experiment writing in other people’s styles. Now that you have a good idea of what you like to read and why, you can start experimenting yourself. Pick one of the elements you enjoy most and try writing in that way yourself. Yes, this is about finding your own style, but the more you understand other people’s, the easier to find and more authentic your own writing voice will be.
4. Be curious and open to new influences. Now that you’ve started experimenting in various styles, you’ll find those that come most naturally to you, and your own unique combination of these will start to appear. Stay open to these influences and new writing that moves you, ask why, and incorporate some of these elements into your own.
5. Enjoy the lifelong journey. You can start steps 1 to 4 above in a few days, but the same process applies for your whole writing lifetime. We continually evolve as people, as we go through new experiences, meet new people, see new places and so on. It’s inevitable that this same evolution will occur in your writing. Keep exploring the influences you enjoy, and most importantly, keep writing.

Follow these 5 steps and your own unique creative writing voice will naturally emerge.

If you take nothing else from this article, remember this crucial point: The best way to learn to write is simply to write, write and write some more.