Comments on: The Writing Chameleon

By: Amie

Amie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 03:50:56 +0000

The slogan for my freelancing business is "Your message, your voice, my words." Same idea, I guess!

By: Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:07:41 +0000

that's where being a playwright comes in handy. I can mimic any speech pattern.

It helps in speechwriting -- I can listen to someone for 10 minutes and write so it sounds like they're making it up on the spot.

By: Dr John Peragine

Dr John Peragine — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:05:59 +0000

I run into this all the time and it can be frustrating. Sometimes I client will hire me to ghost write for them, hand me someone else's book and want a relatively identical book with the other person's voice. The more frustrating thing is when I am expected to ghost write something and the client keeps returning it and says it does not sound like they wrote it. Of course, you can guess what my obvious reply is. When I ask for samples to try to get a feel for what they are talking about, many times they do not have any. I really try to avoid these jobs because I cannot literally crawl in someone else's head.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:19:30 +0000

It's common in my gigs for me to have to hit a certain tone. It's usually explicit up front: "This has to be in the voice of so-and-so." That's because there's usually a personality behind the brand. I'm really good at getting the voice, and I couldn't tell you how. If I can interview the "guru" or read enough of their stuff, I just absorb it unconsciously. If the client isn't sure what the tone should be, I ask questions like: "If there were a spokesperson for this product, who would it be? Whose voice would you hear in your head?" The answer to that question is tremendously helpful in shaping the tone of the copy.