Your Voice vs. "Your Voice"

One of the things I find incredibly odd is how thoroughly different a person's writing voice is from their spoken voice. And I mean that on two levels.

First off, written and spoken communication is similar, but always different. Writing is planned. No matter how quickly you write and how quickly you hit the send button, you have the chance to pick your words, a chance to edit your words. Most importantly, you get all the time you want to think about how you will respond before you even begin writing.

When you speak, you are on the spot. Silence is a major no-no. You don't get to edit cleanly. You may be able to edit by doing strikethroughs, but then everybody still sees your false starts. You have to say whatever is at the top of your head and the tip of your tongue and deal with the consequences.

The second level of this is that we assume that writers sound a certain way aurally or we simply never consider what they sound like in person. To see a writer and hear them talk can completely blow your mind. Somehow, their voice never matches what you thought it would be.

In both of these cases, there is really not a whole lot you can do about it. Just understand from both sides of the table (as audience member and as writer) that it will probably happen and roll with it.

Of course, in the case of written versus spoken communication, I highly recommend practicing both. Public speaking is an incredibly handy skill.