Most people don't write like they talk. For some that is a good thing, for many it is a tragedy.

Storytelling relies on us hearing a singular voice, rough edges and all. This doesn't mean sloppiness, or ignoring grammar to the point of being incomprehensible, it just means imagining the language you would use to explain the story to a person without any relationship to your subject or your life- the proverbial person-on-the-street. If you write imagining the puzzled look on the face of your audience member, you will not only be more natural, you will also be clear.

Am I making any sense to you? Good, now let me move along.

Most of us are trained in numerous ways to suppress our natural voice, some by family and friends correcting us, others by well meaning but zealous composition teachers pushing us toward rigorous standardization, and sometimes just by the overwhelming consumption of stories in books, radio, flim, and television, where historical conventions create a sense of a "acceptable" storytelling voice (one that we don't happen to have). If we are trained in a given profession, law, the scientific world, business, the arts, academia; we also develop habits of only using the styles that are considered acceptable in those fields. The language is stilted, technical, difficult and usually deadly boring.

Part of finding your voice is also knowing when to turn of phrase that comes from your unique experience, training or authorities, and when just plain talking is acceptable. As a general rule, try limiting yourself to a single rhetorical flourish in a given story. For some folks, that will be painful.