Literary Blogging 101

Literary Blogging 101: Why Your Blogging Voice and Style Matters.

Lara28 Comments

Blogging Authenticity

Why blog if you won’t let yourself be heard? Each and every one of us, who take blogging seriously and are now members of the Blogosphere has a voice. The Voice I’m referring to is showcased in the way we write, what we create and how we show it to the world, our own special kind of style, which makes our contents our own.

It’s quite easy to lose one’s voice when blogging, due to various factors and I’m going to explain some of the ways bloggers can lose their voices and style below and why it’s always good to stay true to our voices.

Blue #1

Your blog is getting next to zero visits and it seems no one likes what you write, so you decide to copy someone else’s style just because the person is getting all the things you want for your own blog. The thing is when you copy someone else’s posting style directly instead of merging whatever it is you adopt from someone else with your flow to make it your own, you’re going to burn out and lose the passion you had for blogging because there’s no originality to the content you’re putting out. Being creative and exploring new ideas is what makes all the work we put into our blogs pay-off trust me because your personality shines through to your readers.

Blue #2

Herd mentality! Think outside the box, just because everyone else is doing something, doesn’t mean you also have to do it. It’s so easy to fall for this in the Literary blogging community, because of how so many books get hyped up long before their release date or a specific genre gets more attention than most, so you sacrifice reading and talking about books you actually enjoy or want to read, to follow the trend and be in the now.

Please don’t do this, don’t give up one love for another or force yourself to read or talk about books/genres that aren’t for you, for the sake of readership. When you blog about things you don’t really have interest in, you’re killing your passion and once again you may burn out. I’m not saying don’t stay updated with the trends, but don’t let them lead you on a path, that’s ultimately not for you.

Blue #3

Writing fake positive reviews of books you’ve read because either the Publisher, Author or Publicist gave you a free copy to read and review or all you’re seeing are positive reviews from other reviewers.

First things first, when you feel a book is very bad (you just know a really bad book, when you pick up one to read) and all you’re seeing are glowing reviews, your assumption is right! Many of those reviews are fake and could have been bought, for the people may have never read the book and it’s your duty as a blogger to not let another unknowing reader fall victim and take the bait.

I for one never take the words of any of those so-called bloggers seriously anymore, because there’s no integrity to their reviews. Never let anything (problematic) influence your opinion or thoughts about something, trust your guts. So you don’t compromise your voice or integrity and lose the trust of your readers.

Blue #4

As time goes by we all change and so does your blog! Match that outward change with your blog. Don’t get too comfortable with repetitive content and let a bit of your life’s spontaneity onto your blog.

I tweak my blog here and there, I have various styles, but what they all have in common is my personality shines through and through and even though the style is different, whoever is reading still feels my personality through the phrasing of my words. Could be the graphics, the format of the post etc. I always like to see changes as a stone marker for growth. Even changing the whole layout of your blog to match how you’re feeling goes a long way. (How a person’s blog layout looks, most times than not says a lot about the blogger behind it.)

Blue #5

Proofreading! I can’t stress this enough. Writers make a lot of errors when writing their first draft. And that’s what we bloggers do, writing. Always make sure to go through your write-ups to correct any minor mistake you could have made, trust me there’s one hiding there and even after you hit that publish button.

I find lots of errors even after I’ve gone through my text three times (I know I’m not that good of an editor, lol) and still after I have published my write-up and I go visiting the post to find that there are still see grammatical errors that escaped my notice. Proofreading is important because when one isn’t articulate or the words on display don’t make sense, it blocks your message from being properly comprehended and therefore hinders your voice. Editing is always important for bloggers, even months later still randomly check your published posts, to correct naughty little errors.

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In the long-run staying true to our voices allow our passion for blogging to grow as we aren’t compromising our passion for anything or anyone.

Have you ever found yourself losing your blogging voice, what did you do to get back on track? or do you have any advice to share about staying true to your own blogging style? Please don’t hesitate to discuss it with me in the comments.Blue Sign Off

28 thoughts on “Literary Blogging 101: Why Your Blogging Voice and Style Matters.”

  8. I can agree with number 2 a lot, because in the early stages of being a blogger I was starting to mimic another popular blogger’s writing style, and it definitely drained me more than I can admit. Having your own voice can really bleed through your work and give your reader a sense of who you are.

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  9. Some very important points made in this post. I agree with you, I sometimes look back over my old posts and see loads of mistakes, even when I think I got them all, another one pops up. I also really agree with 1, at one point I felt pressured to copy other blogs to increase my views but there’s very little to gain from it.

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  10. This really is the best advice I have seen in a while for blogging. I do not let another blogger’s writing affect my own because I actually feel pretty good about what I write…most of the time.

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    • Lol, I love that! I love what I write now, but at the begin of my journey I felt like an imposter or didn’t know what I was doing, but after getting to know more people, I realised I should be proud of my style. Thanks for stopping by!

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  11. Great post! All of these are very valid/important things to keep in mind about blogging. Especially proofreading (which, I am guilty of not doing a lot of the time because dumb) and making sure your voice is your own, not someone else’s. AND *lists every single thing in this post because it’s just spot on*

    Also, reviews! I always wonder how many reviews are genuine and how many are either (a) bought by the publisher or author and/or (b) just falsified because the reader feels like they have to. It’s so important to be honest in reviewing books because these reviews are here for readers, not authors and publishers, and reviewers have a pretty big influence on readers.

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    • Your comment is giving me life, thanks for reading! Authors/Publishers well I notice the Indie ones are the ones who really buy reviews, and like Angelina said above, thank god real readers are smart.

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  12. I totally agree with 2 and 3. Being an author and book blogger, number 3 has me peeved. I hate it when there are fake reviews. Authors work hard with their books and therefore need to have true results even if their book will get a bunch of 1’s or 2’s. How else is the author going to learn and get better? If my readers didn’t tell me my writing sucked when I started out, I wouldn’t have gotten better. I would have thought myself to be great. I’m thankful for all of my reviews. They make me better.

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  13. This is such a great post. The fake reviews are extremely obnoxious. About editing, there’s an app that I use called Grammarly that picks up on things that I didn’t catch, one of my biggest pet peeves is spelling and grammar errors when I’m reading other blogs. Spelling and grammar errors are one of the many reasons why I won’t follow a blog.

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