I am trying to develop my voice.
As I read around, looking for inspiration, I’ve noticed a profusion of internet writing written in a particular style. These authors employ a technique of giving a majority of their sentences a line to themselves. Many of these lonely sentences are short.
Like, really short.
The voice is chummy, close. Sort of like your favorite aunt, Auntie Carol.
This one-sentence formatting commands the reader to obey a certain phrasing, the author’s phrasing. The outsized weight put on every sentence takes some of the thinking out of reading.
After all, who has the time or energy to think?
In the end, the effect is that of a self-help guru up on the podium, emphatically dropping inspirational one-liners onto an avid audience.
And you’re the audience.
That’s right, YOU.
Because this style of writing relies heavily on speaking directly to the reader, using the familiar “you.” (In English, we only have a familiar you, but that’s beside the point. This “you” feels very, uncomfortably, familiar!).
If I had something important to write, if there was a point to this post, I would put it here. But it doesn’t matter if I have something to say. The tension of my piece exists within the format, not the message.
Do you feel it?
La Giraffa 