Write Like You: Discovering Your Unique Voice

Anastasia Barbato
Jul 17
4 min read

Your writing voice - just like your speaking voice - is unique. And unlike Ariel in The Little Mermaid, nobody can take it from you. But how do you “find” it in your writing?

Luckily, finding your voice won’t require you to defeat a sea witch. And even luckier, we've outlined some writing exercises to help.

5 Tips To Help You Find Your Creative Voice

a painting of a skull, notebook, and wax seal with a flute on a table — europeana, Unsplash

Read Like a Thief

We all know what Shakespeare sounds like. But aside from writing everything in iambic pentameter, what makes Shakespeare’s writing stand out, centuries after his work was written?

The world around us is filled with amazing writers, and chances are your favorite authors are your favorite because of how they express their work just as much as what they write.

So naturally, the easiest thing to do to develop your voice is: Research! Read your favorite stories and ask: What makes this sound like them and not someone else? Then, experiment with their voice in your own writing.

Chances are, you subconsciously already do this–I know I do! After I read a particular book and then go to write my own stories, I find little bits and pieces of what I just read scattered throughout my own pages. It could be a way someone else writes dialogue, or how another author uses metaphor. There’s inspiration to be found everywhere if you’re willing to see it.

Pro tip: You’re not cloning these authors’ voices — you’re mining them for tricks your own voice might love.

Scattered black and white word magnets on a dark background. Words are in English and French, creating a playful and creative mood. — Aedrian Salazar, Unsplash

Say It How You’d Say It

It’s a common misconception that to sound “smart” is to use a lot of big words or flowery language. But if you wouldn’t say “plethora” in your everyday life, why is your narrator saying it? Plus, you run the risk of every character sounding exactly the same when they speak, leaving your text falling flat.

Write your first draft like you’re telling a story to your smartest friend over dinner. The more your natural speaking and storytelling rhythms come through, the clearer your voice gets. Then, build from there, noticing any words you may repeat. Play with sounding more casual, versus formal, and see what happens. Experimentation is the name of the game!

Of course, your tone of voice depends upon the type of story you’re telling. A contemporary romance novel will have a different voice from historical romance, from a thriller or fantasy, and so on. But that’s a story for another day. For now, we’ll stick to finding what you sound like across genre.

Two people sit on a green bench in a park, wearing colorful clothes. A large tree with autumn leaves is in the background. — Joshi Milestoner, Unsplash

Use Details Only You Would Pick

Voice isn’t just your personal style — it’s what you notice about the world around you. Train yourself to write details that resonate with you, not just the ones you think you’re “supposed” to describe.

For example, if you and I wrote the same scene, the details we’d focus on to describe the setting or the character might be completely different. You might focus on the chipped nail polish on the villain’s thumb, while I might write about the strained hum of the air conditioner. Drawing your reader’s attention to details you find compelling, guiding them through the story with your specific lens…that’s voice, too!

Pro Tip: Grab a writer friend and take your preferred writing tools into the wild (aka, some public location). Notice what you see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, and spend a few minutes writing them down. Compare notes with your friend - and be surprised by the differences between what you both notice about the exact same place!

Mother and child lean over a rustic stone well in a garden. Cobblestone path, wooden fence, and lush greenery under a clear blue sky. — Maxime Bouffard, Unsplash

Kill the Generic

If your sentence could be dropped into any other story by any other writer, your voice just fell asleep. This goes for clichés, genre-specific motifs, and yes, dialogue.

The “show vs. tell” method works wonders here. Coupled with your unique ways of describing the world around you, find different ways to write about the thoughts and feelings of your characters - avoiding any metaphors, similes, or clichés you’ve heard before.

Instead of:

“She was shocked.”

Try:

“Her stomach was in free-fall, like someone had just pushed her down a well. Flailing for a handhold as she plummeted into herself, his words floated far above her, a pinprick of daylight growing smaller by the second.”

I think the difference speaks for itself.

Handwriting with a pen on lined paper, blue ink, close-up view. Focused, attentive mood, warm lighting, text slightly blurred. — Benja Godin, Unsplash

Keep Writing. Then Write More.

The strength of your voice only increases with volume. The more writing you crank out, the more you’ll start to see patterns: certain words you overuse, images you return to, and turns of phrase that feel right.

When I first started writing, I used to have a habit of using adverbs with every piece of dialogue (i.e. "She said angrily" or "He walked anxiously"). Cringy and amateur, for sure. But once I noticed it, I could delete the repetitive ones and use the good ones to my advantage, supplemented with plenty of “show vs. tell” descriptions. As I grew as a writer and learned even more tips and tricks, pretty soon my patterns started to sound like my own voice.

Pay attention to these quirks of your writing–nobody has quite the same combo of them as you do. The clearer it is to see these patterns (good and bad), the easier it is to start using them on purpose.

Final Pep Talk

Your voice doesn’t have to be loud, flowery, sarcastic, or profound — it just has to be yours. And the best part? You can write a ton, trying on different voices until one fits just right.

So research, experiment, cringe, rewrite — and make it undeniably yours.

Want help finding your voice? Drop a comment or share your favorite lines and we’ll help you grow! We love seeing your development process.