Your writing persona?

[Mike "Savant" Ferry]

A writing persona. We all have them, and we know we do. Something takes hold of us when we pick up the pen or mash the keys. The strength of this "transformation" varies from person to person, but it is undoubted that such a thing exists.

Most will tell you the old shtick about "Oh, I just write as if I am normally talking." If that were the case all of the time, then a lot of the articles we read and enjoy today would turn out drab and somewhant robotic in a sense. Talking and writing are two seperate animals, but a mix of the two is where our writing persona is born.

Take myself, for example. In life, I'm a pretty mellow fellow with the occasional clever statement. But when it comes to writing, I consider myself an adept wordsmith with an addiction to ample alliteration and comedic overtones.

What about the rest of you? Explain your writing persona.

[Susan Arendt]

Well, I feel kind of stupid saying it now, but I really do write pretty much exactly the way I talk. In fact, after meeting me in real life, more than one person has commented on that fact, usually with a look of horror or amazement on their face, I'm not quite sure which.

I try to keep a conversational tone when I write about games, because that's how I see what I do--as a conversation between me and the audience. For me, it's really no different than chatting with a co-worker about last night's episode of Kitchen Nightmares or what I thought of 30 Days of Night. The only difference in my case is that instead of talking to the guy in the next cube, I'm talking to a bunch of folks over the Internets.

[Mike "Savant" Ferry]

"If that were the case all of the time, then a lot of the articles we read and enjoy today"

No need to feel stupid, Susan. Some people out there have the ability to turn their own voice into words better than others. Apparently, you are one of those people. Most of us, however, are not. :P

[Jeremy Pluta]

Yeah, if I try to write like I speak, I end up with the most unorganized grouping of thoughts that one could possibly have. It's the major downfall of Adult ADD... lol.

[Mike Thompson]

Susan can testify to the fact that I'm also one of those people who writes like I talk. Well, except for the fact that I have access to a thesaurus and can edit what I'm saying when I'm in front of a keyboard, so I sound a bit more sophisticated and witty than I normally do.

With me, though, it's sarcasm and curmudgeonly wit that are the typical themes which pop up in my pieces.

[Dale North]

I try to come off as conversational, but intelligent. Not pretentious, but knowledgeable. I want to sound like the guy the reader would always talk to about whatever I'm writing about. Granted, blogging is much different from print or other, so you have to kind of change it up for each particular case.

That being said, I always strive to put in subtle food and music references in my work. I don't know why -- it's just fun.

[Russ Pitts]

I may be lying to myself, but I'm fairly sure I do the opposite; that is, modify my patterns of speech (not writing) to suit the circumstances. I don't write the way I'd normally speak, but I do write the way I think, and would speak, if I weren't overly self conscious about sounding like a pretentious ass.

[Troy Goodfellow]

Voice is something all writers have to work on, I think. I come from an academic background so the standards of writing for that audience were completely inappropriate to most games media stuff. But I don't want to lose that "thoughtful, knowledgeable" side - I am not excitable by nature and my training makes me even less excitable. So I guess I try to come across as mature, reasonable and interesting.

But having written for a number of different places, it's clear that some voices work better in some places than others. I could review a wargame for my blog and expect my readership to get where I'm coming from. Writing the same content for a wider audience would mean adjusting my expectations of reader familiarity and name dropping.

[Eugene Neubronner]

Interesting you say that Troy. Since I'm studying in university right now I have to constantly readjust the style of writing - which throws me off no end. It doesn't help I'm studying journalism and my university is based on hard news style articles! *laughs*

The voice that I use is much more casual, almost like what a friend would say to another friend. If I had to put a name to the style I'd say it's "PC Gamer USA" - I was heavily influenced/scarred mentally as a child reading it and PC Accelerator while growing up.

[Alisha Karabinus]

I mostly just have to swear less and avoid referring to things that should never be said in mixed company. My husband has stated that I will never, ever allowed to speak around the baby... or at least until he's about 15.

I do have to say that sometimes I throw in a little extra enthusiasm. I can't possibly be excited about everything; hell, as we've stated in another topic, we never have time to play any longer! So it's hard to be thrilled about things that may be neat, but that I'll never really get to spend quality time with. Other than that, I really do try to stick to an honest, if toned-down sense of what I would say in general... and thanks to the magic of italics, I can even toss in the occasional inflection.

[Mustafa Unal]

As stated already, I just refrain from swearing and mentioning things like rape in each paragraph. Since I live in London, the way I write isn't the way I speak, since we usually use a lot of slang here regardless of age and background. This seems to annoy some people however, because they think you're trying to impress them. I've never really thought about this question much, but I think compared to my usual self I just write much more formally than I speak. Simple.

[Eric Caoili]

Less swearing from me, too.

I try to to inject a bit of humor whenever I can, as regurgitating news updates and press releases that're being covered by dozens of other publications can get boring. Unfortunately, my idea of injecting humor involves implanting a sense of melancholy or dread in the reader.

Sometimes, in my case, it's best to just stick to providing the relevant facts as concisely and effectively as possible.

[Colin Campbell]

I try, as much as possible, to use long words that make me sound smarter than I really am. Or hip words with scientific undertones that I don't fully understand. It seems to work for [snip]