Stylistic Writing and Finding Your Voice

“A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether.
And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.”
― Kahlil Gibran


What exactly is voice when it comes to writing? The dictionary definition is the distinct personality, style, or point of view of a piece of writing or any other creative work. We discuss finding our own voices when essay writing but have we ever discussed what that actually means? Consider these sentences:

1. Feminism is a movement for granting women political, social, and economic equality with men.

2. Feminism is a hate movement which includes the hatred of men, female superiority, and telling women they are victims in order to dissolve them of all accountability.

3.  Feminism is not simply a struggle to end male chauvinism or a movement to ensure that women will have equal rights with men; it is a commitment to eradicating the ideology of domination that permeates the Western culture on various levels-sex, race, class to name a few-and a commitment to reorganizing society…so that self-development of people can take a precedence over imperialism, economic expansion, and material desire.

There are obviously individual voices that color these sentences. The first sentence has a very bland and straightforward voice-one meant to give information and nothing more. The second is packed with strong buzzwords and passion for their standpoint on an issue. The third sentence employs colorful and didactic language as well as a flowing tone to reveal the voice of the author as a probably passionate and level-headed individual. The voice we create for ourselves, while inherently personal, is definitely changeable. 

Me for example. The first essay I wrote for Ms. Valentino's class was straightforward and analyzing, much like the first sentence. I read the essay after I got it back I realized that while my use of language and analyzation of rhetoric may have created a somewhat didactic tone, it did nothing to reveal who I was as an author. I am the type of person who loves and respects writing so much that when someone reads a piece of writing that I have created I want their souls to be able to dance between my words. I was crestfallen no doubt when I realized that high school had turned my essay writing and analyzation skills into gold while simultaneously turning my voice into mush. I straightened myself up for the next essay and told myself I would create stylistic improvements: I would avoid cliches, create original metaphors and similes-I would attempt to create a voice for myself. Indeed I got the essay back with the comment "the style was the best part". It was great, but not enough for me. I wanted to be able to write essays the way I write poetry; filled with fire and passion, sarcasm and hidden meanings. I wanted to explore the non-explorable using only my words to guide the senses of my readers. I sat down on that next Tuesday and decided: I was going to be sarcastic as hell. I was going to be myself and at the same time create a voice to sardonically artistic that there would be no way I would be disappointed with my writing. In truth I didn't change my voice, my voice was always there fluttering behind my larynx, I just needed the motivation to push it out through my pen and onto the paper.