How To Develop Your Own Unique Writing Style

Ever read something and told yourself, “I wish I could write like that”? Or maybe you’ve thought to yourself, “I wish I could stand out from others and write a certain way”? Well grab that longing, and let your writing bloom from there! In this set of writing tips, we’re going to uncover four tips and how to use them in order to develop a sophisticated and authentic writing style that fits you and your writing!

TIP #1: CONSIDER ASPECTS OF YOUR IDENTITY

Writing is such an intimate and unique experience which often correlates directly with what makes you you. Whether it’s your interests, your culture, your heritage, your personality, or any other number of key features that set you apart, considering identity can help you create more authentic pieces! Because each person is different, it’s incredibly valuable to utilize your own personal experiences to create a specific and authentic brand of writing that suits you. While considering your identity in writing sounds like a fairly basic concept on paper, how exactly does one go about achieving this?

A stream of consciousness writing is a frequently used technique in order to get your pen moving. In this style of writing, authors engage in unfiltered and fast-paced writing where they detail whatever first comes to mind and choose to move directly with the flow and not pause for revisions. It is not uncommon for writers to use prompts such as “I Remember” or “I Am” and write lists under these categories in stream of consciousness writing. This can be an excellent way to discover and unpack your experiences and traits on paper and see where they lead you. Exercises like these can help you grow more familiar with yourself and can apply into multiple fields of writing.

Even if you have grown familiar with the aspects of you that matter most, it can be difficult to apply this to creative or stylistic writing. A common way to consider identity in creative writing is mirroring these traits and experiencing in your characters. Additionally, writing purely from experience or centric to yourself can be an excellent way to discover new forms of creative nonfiction such as personal essays or personal poetry/prose. Taking a singular idea and creating a self reflection or poem around it can be such an exciting way to uncover a unique and specific writing style!

TIP #2: GAUGE INSPIRATION FROM OTHERS

Developing your writing style from a bare foundation is challenging. Oftentimes, we need to charge ourselves creatively before we can produce our own artistic output. Gauging inspiration from others is the perfect way to do this! Think about it like this: your vocabulary range is a growing amalgamation of all the conversations you hear to the pages you read. Similarly, your writing style is a mélange of all the literature you’ve ever read. This includes the writers you love the most to the styles you’d never touch on.

You can find inspiration all around you – whether it be in your bookshelves or within the back section of the library. Selecting different writing pieces to gauge your inspiration from is the first step. This could be in the form of a novel whose style you admire ,or a friend’s poetry whose style is vastly different from yours. Understanding different writing styles is difficult, so rather than struggle with listing these – highlight your priorities! In the context of your current writing, regardless of the level your style is developed, use your sources of inspiration – and prioritize points you want to implement in your writing that are missing or lacking. These points could range from literary devices (perhaps your novelist uses personification that is otherwise void in your normal writing!) to emotional aspects (tones of anger through color and sound that the novelist uses would be new in your own writing).

Place yourself in the writer’s shoes and hypothesize a creative process from their writing. Depending on whether the writer is famous or simply a friend, understand their real thinking process as well. Remember, gauging inspiration is distinct from replication. Enjoy the writing, and when you find yourself longing, “I wish I could write like this!”, let the buds of inspiration bloom into your own literature. To further stabilize your journey of inspiration – create yourself prompts based on your sources of inspiration. You could write off of a paragraph from your source, apply the style based on a piece of visual art, etc.!

TIP #3: EXPERIMENT

When trying to achieve and create a personal writing style, you need to accept it’s not going to magically happen on the first try! It’s important to balance patience with curiosity and keep an open mind as you attempt several approaches and styles of writing! There are several ways to approach writing and regardless of how you approach it, you are bound to establish a unique and authentic tone.

For example, one week try writing a short story or other short creative form of writing but in a formal tone! Experiment with varying amounts of description, dialogue, tension, and plot points. The next week, attempt writing a similar type of writing but with a more casual and lighthearted tone. The stark difference you will notice is shocking! Through this method of experimentation and fluctuation in what you write and how, you will unlock new ways to express yourself and your writing style!

Another key way to experiment is actually trying to mirror your favorite authors and styles. As discussed in our section “Gauge Inspiration from Others,” sometimes it is useful to think outside of your own shoes. While many people may argue mirroring is the least effective way to develop a personal writing style, it’s actually a wonderful way to experiment and decide what style of writing fits you best.

No matter how you choose to experiment with your writing, the process of uncovering several different modes and tones will help you to develop a style that feels right and flows well on paper. It may take only a few tries or it might take a hundred, but remember writing style and tone are two constantly changing aspects of your creative process and experimentation will deliver the results you seek.

TIP #4: KEEP WRITING

Practice, practice and more practice! Writing is a gradual skill that simultaneously grows alongside your writing style. Utilizing all the other tips in the context of consistent writing will make wonders of transformations for your writing style! There are three things vital to keeping up a writing streak: time, theme and routine.

Creating time in your schedule for consistent writing is complicated. Rather than setting time goals that may not be practical in all circumstances – set word goals. This could be 1000 words per week: setting word goals allows you to distribute your time as you see fit along each day. Even if you get the time for only a 100 words one day, it still counts toward your goal rather than being unable to make it to a 30 minute goal for the day. Personally, writing freely and not against the clock feels more creatively free! The most important factor is getting daily writing in, and you can increase or decrease your goals as you see fit.

When writing constantly, figuring out a new theme for each piece can be a demotivating challenge. Planning out a month of your writing could be something to invest some time into (search for some inspiration with tip #2!). The two best formats for consistent writing are poems/ prose and short stories. Writing a bit of poetry/ prose everyday gives quick spurts of writing – and could even be themed around your day. Short stories on the other hand allow you to work on the same storyline for a longer time – yet without the commitment of planning as with longer stories. These themes allow you to hype focus on writing.

Routine formation will make or break your goals. Writing consistently should be habitual – and as necessary a component to your day as brushing your teeth. Habits take time to develop, luckily there’s plenty of things to do to aid your consistent writing. Reminders and integration generally into your daily life is an easy way to accomplish habitual writing. Put a daily reminder on your phone, or a sticky note somewhere where you’ll see it. You can even integrate this into association with another action that’s already a habit of yours. Perhaps every morning you brew a cup of coffee – begin writing during the waiting time and the time it takes for it to cool down!

Confidence in your ability to be consistent is important. Even if you miss a day or two, continue on. You are able to persevere regardless, and the few times you couldn’t are not excuses to stop! Writing is beautiful, enjoy it and congratulate yourself for reaching your goals regardless of how intense they were.

SUMMARY

• Use prompt exercises to uncover your identity and mirror these discoveries in your creative writing.

• Place yourself in the shoes of those who inspire you and highlight what you wish to apply into your own writing.

• Experiment different writing formats with varying tones and compare/ contrast what flows best for you.

• Develop a habit of consistent writing by planning with three core concepts: time, theme and routine.

And that tops off our tips for forming your own unique writing style. Good luck and let us know if these tips work or you have anything else to add!

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These are original tips.