Find Your Joy & Creativity
Voice vs. Vibe — How to Balance Technique with Emotion
Ana
8/21/20254 min read
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Dear Joyvity™ Friends,
As writers we leave a fingerprint on the page — not just in the words we choose, but in the energy those words carry. That’s the difference between voice and vibe. Understanding both gives us clarity, confidence, and a way to write that feels unmistakably ours.
I’ve pared down for you here my own learning from books and courses, and woven in my own humble advice from the effort of writing my first book draft. My hope is that this mix of craft insight and lived experience will help you better see how voice and vibe work together — and how you can cultivate both in your own writing.
What Voice Really Means
Your voice is the technical side of your writing. It’s what shows up when readers notice how you arrange words on the page.
Sentence length & rhythm: Short bursts vs. long, flowing meditations.
Word choice: Sparse and clear vs. lyrical and layered.
Syntax & structure: Do you love fragments, rhetorical questions, or stacked clauses?
👉 Voice is the repeatable pattern — the craft choices that mark your work as uniquely yours.
What Vibe Really Means
If voice is the skeleton, vibe is the heartbeat.
Mood & tone: Playful, tense, nostalgic, dreamy.
Genre feel: The sharp tension of a thriller compared to the quiet intimacy of a memoir.
Intention: The emotional truth you want the reader to carry.
👉 Vibe is not about mechanics — it’s about energy. It’s the emotional atmosphere that lingers beyond the words themselves.
Why Writers Need Both
Voice and vibe often get blurred, but separating them helps you refine your craft:
A pared-back voice can shape a quiet, reflective vibe.
A lush, descriptive voice can intensify a suspenseful vibe.
Your voice tends to stay consistent, while your vibe flexes with each scene.
Together, they shape writing that feels intentional instead of accidental.
Real Examples
Donna Tartt (The Goldfinch): long, detailed voice; dark, moody vibe.
Colleen Hoover (It Ends With Us): simple, clear voice; emotional, confessional vibe.
Ernest Hemingway: short, pared-back voice; vibe shifts — tense in one scene, tender in another.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby): flowing, poetic voice; shimmering, nostaligic vibe.
Charles Dickens (Great Expectations): descriptive, character-focused voice; lively, bustling vibe.
Your own writing will move the same way: steady in voice, shifting in vibe.
How to Cultivate Voice
I’ve gathered here some of the most popular and effective exercises used in writing courses and workshops designed to help writers sharpen their craft.
Imitation drills: In many workshops, writers copy a short passage by hand from an admired author. Then they write a new scene in that style. The point isn’t copying — it’s training your ear for rhythm, syntax, and diction.
Sentence experiments: A common MFA exercise is to take a passage and rewrite it in two extremes — only short sentences, then only long ones. Feeling which version rings true for you helps surface your natural voice.
Word audits: Instructors often ask students to scan their drafts for repeated verbs, images, or sentence patterns. Those consistent choices? That’s your voice revealing itself.
How to Shape Vibe
Workshops also emphasize tone and mood — the emotional filter readers sense before they even register the words.
Scene check-in: In many creative writing classes, instructors ask, What should the reader feel here? That question guides atmosphere.
Mood boards: Some courses encourage using music, photos, or even scents before drafting to tune yourself into the right emotional frequency.
Tone shifts: A classic classroom exercise is rewriting the same scene in three different moods (playful, tense, reflective). It shows how vibe changes everything, even when your voice stays steady.
Finding Your Creative Frequency ✨
Writing isn’t only about words — it’s about tuning into the space where voice and vibe align. Having a ritual helps you find that balance. Here are some ritual products to support your rhythm:
Journal – PU Leather, elegant and practical, available in 10 colors
Its thread-bound lay-flat feature makes it easy for all hand users to write on every page. It has 216 ruled pages that don’t ghost or bleed-through. Just lovely!
Pen – Bic Velocity 1.0 in black
I have used these for years due to their comfortable grip and easy glide system. I won't write with anything else!
A Candle That Grounds You
Choose a scent that signals focus — sandalwood, lavender, or something personal that reminds you of warmth and stillness. This here is the one I prefer.
A Ceramic Mug That Feels Like Yours (Unisex)
There’s something grounding about holding the same mug every day — it becomes part of your creative identity. I love this one: the image on the outside, the writing on the inside, the feel & the shape.
An Hourglass That Binds Your Time
Flipping an hourglass at the start of your writing block turns time into something tangible — a visual ritual that signals focus, presence, and the gentle pressure of now. This is mine - 60min.
👉 You can also explore more in my gift guide for writers: Gift Ideas to Support a Writer’s Daily Rituals
Final Thoughts
Think of voice as the shape of your footsteps, and vibe as the echo they leave behind. One grounds the work, the other carries it forward. Writing is the art of holding both — the structure of craft and the breath of emotion — in a way that makes the page come alive.
Warm wishes as you balance craft with heart,
Ana
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