Two Voices

When writing nonfiction, who you are writing for often dictates the tone of the piece as well as what you are writing. A personal essay is going to read much differently than a political or business piece.

HoJo73 said:

For anyone who writes or dabbles in non fiction, do you ever notice yourself using two distinct voices?

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Yes. At least two.

HoJo73 said:

It seems oftentimes when I write, I'll be super professional, writing in my 'grown up' voice, and other times I'll just start scratching out something more similar to a journal entry, or blog post. And that seems to be the one people enjoy, most. It's definitely MY voice.

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Same here. I hate my "academic" voice, and love my voicy voice.

HoJo73 said:

But I'm wondering... where does this other mood/voice even come from? I don't like it - it's no fun!

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I can't speak for you, but which pole my voice ends up gravitating towards—academic vs. voicy—depends on a lot of factors:

1) The "voice" of my inner monologue. 50-year-old foreign academics = insta-fail. Twenty-somethings who aren't afraid of slang/profanity suit me better. Female voices, too.

2) Intensity. For whatever reason, I don't do subtle well. I need to be loud.

3) How easy it is to find the right words. Ease is relative to writing speed. It never has to be easy—but when it isn't, I shouldn't try to write very quickly.

4) Whether my main goal is to communicate enjoyably—entertainingly, "funly"—or to communicate accurately. My voice is better when I focus on the enjoyment part first and fix my derps in revision.

HoJo73 said:

Does having two voices mean I have a split personality?

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It means you are possessed by an evil writing spirit who wants to transform you into a typewriter.

HoJo73 said:

For anyone who writes or dabbles in non fiction, do you ever notice yourself using two distinct voices?

It seems oftentimes when I write, I'll be super professional, writing in my 'grown up' voice, and other times I'll just start scratching out something more similar to a journal entry, or blog post. And that seems to be the one people enjoy, most. It's definitely MY voice. But I'm wondering... where does this other mood/voice even come from? I don't like it - it's no fun!

Does having two voices mean I have a split personality?

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I've found that I have three voices.

My "business" voice, when I'm writing essays for school.
My "random" voice for blog posts and whatnot, and my "author" voice who, honestly, I want to kill half the time. That idiot just never shuts up.

I have at least three voices: the Very Serious Academic Voice (ie, non-fiction), the fiction writing voice, and the colloquial voice that I use in writing to friends and here etc. It's a good thing to be able to switch registers as needed!

Honestly it's more than two for me. I have a whole deck of voices for any situation. Even my voice ON HERE is different from voices I use on different forums online. For one, I always make sure to use proper capitalization and correct spelling errors before hitting 'post,' and I do my best to speak proper English and not devolve into 'internet speak.' It's basically out of respect for all the writers on here. I feel like on other sites I can get away with typos and no-caps 'becuz its teh internet lolz.' Now that I think about it, even my emails to different managers are different voices. One boss I'm super goofy with, while another boss, I'm very formal.

Anyway...yeah.

I have more than two voices. To my mild annoyance, the most popular one is the "fairytale" voice (careful, elaborate, a bit purple), while the one I most enjoy using is the chatty/slangy voice.

SomethingOrOther said:

It means you are possessed by an evil writing spirit who wants to transform you into a typewriter.

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ohohoh! Can I be an IBM Selectric? I love those things.

As writers, we have to have many voices to fit the audience we're writing for. I have a set of voices that I use at work--from professional inner-office messages to super-professional and polite messages to people outside our office--and a set of voices I use for fiction--from Southern gentleman circa 1854, to Frenchwoman circa 1785, to more contemporary voices. I also had a particular voice for academic papers when I was in school, but since I'm not in school anymore, I don't have to make use of that one.

Having more than one voice means you're flexible as a writer. It's a good thing.