Your Voice

People really like song lyrics. That's not a problem to me, but it is annoying that people do not like attributing quoted materials. In short, people constantly use song lyrics but don't say anything to indicate that it isn't their words.

Sometimes it isn't too difficult to tell that something is lyrics. There is either weird line breaks or punctuation, or really obvious rhyming. Even still, that doesn't eliminate the possibility that somebody wrote some poetry and put it up for the world to see.

Even though none of my friends have ever posted original poetry on Facebook or as an away message, I would have no trouble telling whether or not it was theirs. And that is because of their voice.

People speak in a particular way. The longer you are around somebody, the more familiar you become with that. The more familiar other people become with you, too.

To a degree, you can't give other people your lines. They don't have your voice. You may be similar and be able to get by, but eventually it gets realized.

The best editors will do one of two things. They will either be able to approximate your voice as perfectly as possible so that the replacements they give you sound like your lines, or they will give you ideas and sparks that allow you to revise your work with your own voice.

Your voice will likely change over time. New influences like people and other writers will be a major cause. You will also sometimes change just because you got bored of doing the same old thing or because some new thing you came up with struck your fancy.

Still, when you have forgotten the words of those outside influences and you are not using some particular technique or turn of phrase, then you will hear your true voice. It is how you sound when you believe that you don't sound like you have been influenced by anybody.