This article is dedicated to all my Methods peeps.
Voice is more than a TV show.

If you are an English major or have ever written a paper in your life, you’ve employed this invaluable resource of creativity. Voice is one of the six traits of writing, and out of all six, it and word choice are in a tie for my favorite.

Voice is essential in all written work, even research papers. However, voice is starting to fade away from students’ work mainly due to the emergence of technology and the encroachment of online resources, which aren’t bad things. I mean, I don’t know how I would survive college without the Internet or technology, but you know what they say “too much of a good thing.”

Writing without voice is as drab as a plain white wall, just glaring at you, blankly staring, preying on your very soul. It’s like eating the same tasteless sludge for every meal for every day of the rest of your existence on Earth.

A paper without voice is like Robin without Batman, Juliet without Romeo or Elizabeth Bennet without Mr. Darcy.
They are meant to be together, to walk hand-in-hand. If your paper doesn’t have voice, then it’s a regurgitated waterfall of meaningless gibberish that provokes no vivid imagery or personal connection. It’s like sitting through a wisdom tooth extraction without any numbing agent. It hurts. It hurts badly. You feel every jerk, tug, and crack that ripples through your fleshy gums as the troublesome tooth is extracted from its now blood-filled abode.
That is the exact sound a brain stem hears when it suffers through a voiceless paper. Without voice, writing flops like a soggy pancake dripping tears of what could’ve been.

Voice makes writing unique, a kaleidoscope of ideas and images, that when stirred, create new, never-before-seen imaginings in one’s brain.

Be unique, be weird, push the limits of your own creativity. Life is too short to cower in the wings. You have to strut out onto the stage and soak in the spotlight. Take risks in life and in writing. Voice allows you to be yourself, express the innermost odd facets of your brain.

Writing is my outlet. For others it’s acting, sports, reading, singing or playing instruments. Whatever your outlet is, put everything into it. Leave nothing out. Pour every fiber of your very soul into what you do. Do it with a passion to rival the greatest of love stories and when it’s all said and done, smile because you have no regrets.
Voice in writing is a way to show this burning passion even if you don’t enjoy writing ten-page research papers. I’m sort of a writing nerd and don’t mind the occasional paper, but voice is what makes writing fun.

If you act you just don’t put on a costume and go through the motions of your character. You create a whole new life for yourself through this fictional character. You embody them and probably without you knowing, they adopt some of your characteristics and vice versa. You’re not just impersonating. You’re living.

That’s what voice does! You literally live through your writing. Without it, you’re just a bystander looking in.
Do a cannonball into the chasm of imagination! Be weird, strange, kooky, avant-garde, odd, and quirky.

Here’s a quote to live by, “Be weird. Be random. Be who you are, because you never know who would love the person you hide.”