The Guide to Wattpad (& Creative Writing)

Finding Individual Voice

It's an idyllic idea that everyone has a unique writing style. One thing I'm sure of though, is that they change drastically over time. This can make it difficult to find just one narrative voice that is uniquely 'yours'.

Simply writing more frequently and producing more work could help. A way to develop your writing is just to keep writing.

This includes returning to old work and re-editing it. You'll probably notice a big difference correcting even minor grammar errors and plot holes. It's so important I've got a whole part in this Guide dedicated to editing and re-editing.

Reading professionally published books can help you pick up effective features to use as part of your own style. Even reading books on Wattpad, where errors are more common than professionally published books, could make you realise a mistake you've been making, or just sharpen you ability to spot them as you write.

I'd recommend trying to finish books without big time gaps between chapters. This will keep your writing style consistent throughout so you won't need to go back and edit old writing until it matches.

Maybe let go of the idea that your writing style will eventually just 'develop' and reach a peak from which it can't be improved anymore. You'll always be improving and you'll maybe always feel like your writing could be better than it is. But that's a good thing because it shows you want to improve.

On that note, try reading Guides like this to help with aspects of your writing like characterisation, plot, sentence structure, different writing methods and the importance of speech used with the correct punctuation, for example.

Therefore, I feel like 'finding your voice' or writing style is difficult because it never stays the same for long. Maintaining consistency throughout stories is important in at least presenting a single writing style or 'voice'. And consistently reading, writing and improving is bound to aid your search for a satisfactory writing style.

But the idea of an eventual end to this improvement is a draw back. I'm not convinced everyone has a completely unique writing style. But every writer has a writing style that no matter what, can be improved on.