8/9/2019 How to develop a voice: picnic, lightning
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Vladimir Nabokov wrote those words in 1955, buried in
a paragraph somewhere within Lolita. I never read the
book. Nabokovs voice is, for the most part, too owery,
his sentence structure too complex for my taste. But in
2000, Billy Collins wrote a poem about the random waythat death
strikes, and used Nabokovs words as the
spark. In 2006, I read that poem, and my voice changed.
It struck me (forgive the pun), that those two words:
(picnic, lightning) told a complete story and were no
more than two nouns held together by a small piece of
punctuaon. Wow wow and wow. My new goal in life
became my desire to do * that*.
But rst: Why develop a voice? Whats wrong with the
one you have?
Chances are, nothing. If people for the most part under-
stand what you say, if they dont doze o in the middle of
your sentences, if you can make other people smile and
laugh well, then. Youre doing something right.
Butsee embedded in that sentence above is what I try
to do beer. In every sentence I write, I strive for
1) clarity 2) brevity 3) engagement and humor.
I want a voice thats strong and clear and disncve and
funny.
Here are some reasons YOU might want to think about
your voice, especially if you are doing a lot of wring, or
communicang in the online space:
1) It makes what you say more memorable
2) People come to know you more through your wring,
and tend to view you as a friend
3) It shows a certain condence, especially if your voice is
disncve
4) You can use it to topple stereotypes
5) It gives you a framework to evaluate your own wring
y very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic,
lightning) when I was three.
A few guidelines:
1) Ask yourself what you want peoples percepon to be
when they read something you write. Go so far as to try
to imagine the exact words you want other people to sa
Maybe its That Steve, hes a fount of knowledge. So
informave. So helpful. Maybe its Jill always makes mlaugh. Or
maybe its Have you read Chuck? Man, that
can tell a story.
2) Work backwards. Now its easy, right? You want to be
known as an expert make sure most of what you say i
fact-based. You want to be known as a great storyteller
Remember: every story has a beginning, middle and en
Stay present, all the way through that journey.
3) Want to be funny? Hint One: wait unl you think or s
something that makes you laugh out loud. Quick, write
down. Hint Two: Find a group of people who share som
knowledge that not everyone does. Think of an insight o
that group would understand. Hint Three: Eggplant is
inherently funny.
4) What you say is far more important than how you sa
(This should remind you of rule #1 of branding how yo
act is more important than what you say about yourself
5) Think about your personality. What do you love best
about life? about yourself? Really. Let us hear it in your
voice.
6) Whatever else you do, strive for clarity. Copyblogger
Brian Clark writes: Want to be clear in your wring? Cla
comes from deeply caring if people truly understand.
So there you have it. Get out there: Experiment. Pracc
My goal these days is to combine the brevity of a messa
on a bolecap with the cadence of a poem with the cla
of an instrucon manual. And if I cant get you to laugh
with the menon of an eggplant, well. Ill just keep wor
at it.
