A New Voice

I never learned grammar in school. While perhaps not shocking if you’re a reader of this wildly successful and lucrative newsletter, I bring it up as it feels like a major contributor to my writing style and philosophy.

Since I worked as the Sports Editor of the University of Wisconsin’s student paper, I’ve always balked at abiding by conventional writing norms. Now, mind you, I’m not suggesting I’m ‘an original’ but merely stubborn. When it came to covering sports objectively, I was never interested — I wrote from a pro-Badger perspective because that’s what I felt.

And rather than take the all-mighty wisdom of the journalism gods as gospel, I used my columns as a chance to channel my inner Bill Simmons, waxing poetic about the “bourgeois class of running backs” at Wisconsin.

Point is, for better or worse, I have a voice. And thankfully I get paid to write in my voice every day. But recently, I’ve begun the strangely alienating process of Ghostwriting.

One day I’ll have a post about the lessons learned from this work. But today, I have no lessons, just thoughts on how surprisingly difficult it is to write on behalf of others and strip away my own voice.

Nothing has ever made me so consciously aware of my own habits and crutches. Boy do I love a good em-dash. I use parentheticals as tools to make little jokes. I write like I speak (mostly).

Having to remove all of these factors that make up my writing toolbox is a painful endeavor. It forces me to look myself in the eyes and realize what my work must look like to others. Uncomfortable!

Perhaps most strikingly, covering subject matter alien to my normal interests as if I was an expert gives me an uneasy feeling. An hour of research doesn’t soothe my anxiety when I know industry experts will be scrutinizing my/my ‘client’s’ work.

I don’t have a neat little bow to wrap around this rambling Thursday morning post — I already said I had no lessons — but for now, I’m going to keep forging a path forward in my own words as well as through others.