How to Become a Writer by Finding Your Writing Voice
I was reading a post from Henneke on how reading improves your writing skills and realized that finding my writing voice had come through the reading of other people’s writing. Allow me to share the details on this in hopes that you will find some wisdom in something I share that will guide you on your own journey as a writer and entrepreneur.
When I came online in 2006 I realized very quickly that I would need to become a writer in order to be successful as an online entrepreneur. This entailed daily practice, something that was simultaneously physically and psychologically painful for me until I got into the habit of writing. But knowing what to write about brought deeper frustration than I had imagined would be possible. Finding your voice can be a journey of its own.
Back in those days I had reading to do for my work as a classroom teacher, reading about real estate and appraisal for my business, and reading for pleasure which took the form of fiction by John Grisham, Elmore Leonard, and Stephen King, for the most part. There was nothing in any of this reading that related even indirectly to my new business on the internet so I made a drastic decision and stuck to it for over a decade. I stopped reading fiction in the middle of John Grisham’s seventeenth novel “The Last Juror” and did not return to its pages until 2016, long after I had found my voice.
How is Your Blogging Going? It May Depend on What You’re Reading
With my teaching and real estate careers behind me I was free to explore books on business and made the conscious decision to only read books that would be helpful in my newly chosen vocation as an entrepreneur working on the internet. I discovered new and seasoned writers during this time and even made new friends along the way. I can remember when Pat O’Bryan released Your Portable Empire: How to Make Money Anywhere While Doing What You Love during the fall of 2010. I immediately wrote a blog post reviewing this book and Pat then contacted me when he received the Google alert for his name and the name of the book. We became fast friends and even co-authored several books over the next few years.
Now I am not saying you should do the same as I have in terms of genre and more, as this is a very personal decision and must be based on where you are right now as a writer and blogger, your goals, both short and long term, and a plethora of other experiences you have encountered over your lifetime. What I am sharing here is simply my experiences and perceptions as to how and why I have been able to achieve the level of success that continues to come my way.
Finding Your Writing Voice Through Reading
Never a voracious reader, I had to get into the habit of reading for twenty to thirty minutes each 
morning and then writing about what I had just read. Like I mentioned, this was a painful process as I sat in front of my computer and made an effort to write words that would form sentences and paragraphs that made sense. I struggled with finding my writing voice. My goal each day was to get to two hundred fifty words so that I could post to my blog and also publish the same article on the article directories that were popular at the time.
It was a morning ritual that I was determined to master. I even challenged myself to write one hundred articles in one hundred days, but that did not happen. Instead, those one hundred short articles were written by me in just seventy-eight days and I was officially a writer.
Thinking back to that time I did not realize how important my decision was to turn myself into a writer. Writing has changed my life and this year I will write and publish my one millionth word. Yes, I realize how incredible and unbelievable that sounds. I have now published three thousand blog posts, hundreds of essays and short reports, and twenty full length books, as well as compiling and contributing to over a dozen more. Finding your writing voice can be lucrative and rewarding in other ways as well.
As a classroom teacher I impressed upon my students that readers are leaders and all writers are readers. Even though I knew these concepts to be true, it wasn’t until I lived them as a reader who more easily wrote because of what I was reading that everything fell into place for me.
So if you ask me about blogging and what makes a good blog post and a successful blogger I will ask you what you are reading. This is to make sure your writing will continue to improve and serve you well for a lifetime. Your body of work as a writer depends almost entirely where you stand as a reader and will be of great benefit to you as you are finding your writing voice.
I’m author, publisher, and entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green and would love to connect with you. If you are new to the world of online entrepreneurship please check out my comprehensive training on how to set up Funnels That Click and learn how to gain an unfair advantage when it comes to building a lucrative online business.
A very important topic, Connie. When I had folks with advanced degrees reporting to me, and they needed to write, it was challenging for them to find their non-academic voices. I wish I’d had your suggestions then.
Roger, thank you for your comment and insight into this topic. As a classroom teacher it was a struggle to persuade my young students to write creatively. If it did not fit into a specific type of writing they had been taught, it was as if their brains turned off and the words would not flow. This is a much bigger issue than I first imagined.
Connie Ragen Green
This line “I can remember when Pat O’Bryan released Your Portable Empire: How to Make Money Anywhere While Doing What You Love during the fall of 2010. I immediately wrote a blog post reviewing this book”, reminded me of when I was 12 or 13 and my sister who hated reading was in the 10th or 11th grade, she wold get me to read her literature book and do the book report on it. I have had a great love for reading and writing from an early age. Today my sister is an entrepreneur but anything that needs writing she will draft and pass it on to someone (usually me) else. Though she is a good business woman and has a wealth of knowledge, some areas in her life are affected due to her lack of confidence in her writing and word choices. She never allowed her writing voice to be cultivated. She has now starting reading books for knowledge, but she still does not like to read for pleasure. I can attest that reading makes a huge difference in how we write and how we speak.