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🏷️ Categories: Writing, Creativity.
Yesterday I read a text without looking at the signature.
And still I knew who had written it.
I recognized it before finishing the first sentence: those words, rhythm, and metaphors that come back in every piece and instantly give away the author. It was impossible for that text to belong to anyone else. Once again, it became clear what quality every writer should pursue: that the voice be so recognizable it doesn’t need a signature.
That the voice be the signature.
Today, moreover, this has become a necessity.
Anyone can generate a “correct” text in seconds. AI does it better than humans: impeccable grammar and structure, everything immaculate. It’s “correct” text, not personal. AI has no scars, no obsessions, none of that handful of words, phrases, and metaphors a writer returns to again and again.
That’s exactly where your voice lives.
We all have a small arsenal of words, verbs, expressions, and metaphors we repeat, sometimes on purpose, sometimes without noticing. A musician has chords they always return to. A photographer, a favorite framing. A writer creates with their own language. Your voice is your collection of words.
And that collection can be refined and elevated to make you unmistakable.
I’ve spent months deliberately building mine. I call it my lexicon, and this is the method I use to achieve it in four phases.
Let me tell you about it.
Before building anything new, you need an inventory of what you already have.
A few weeks ago I opened my latest articles, personal notes, and several pages of my journal. I was looking for patterns. I underlined every word that repeated. Then I did the same with verbs, expressions, and metaphors.
In barely half an hour, the pattern was obvious.
That’s the exercise: gather ten or fifteen texts of yours that feel personal and underline everything that repeats. In this phase, just gather your patterns.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
Not every word you use deserves to stay. Ask yourself, one by one: does this word represent me, or was it just the closest one at hand? Imagine you discover you’ve written “important” or “very” twenty times in your last ten articles. That’s fine, it’s an adequate word, but maybe you notice that “crucial,” “decisive,” “critical,” or “essential” fit the tone you want better.
Compare it yourself:
Usual version: “This is an important step in the process.”
Refined version: “This is a critical step in the process.”
The change seems minimal. It isn’t. You’re no longer choosing a synonym to sound more sophisticated: you’re choosing the word that best represents how you think, depending on the case.
Repeat the exercise with your most frequent verbal tics:
Do you always write “do”? Try “build,” “design,” or “forge.” You can be metaphorical, if that’s how you want to be recognized.
Do you always talk about “ideas”? Maybe “keys” resonates more with you. Maybe “seeds.”
Do you always write “problem”? Perhaps you identify more with “obstacle,” “friction,” or “challenge.”
There’s no correct answer. There’s one that sounds more like you.
Your voice is words, and also structures.
Maybe you always open a reflection with “the key lies in...” Or you resort to the formula “it’s not about X, but about Y.” Or you chain three adjectives after a noun before finishing with a short sentence. In my case I discovered I constantly resort to nature metaphors: cultivating ideas, planting habits, putting down roots, pruning projects, blooming little by little. That’s how my head imagines these concepts.
Notice what changes when you apply your own filter to a neutral sentence:
Neutral sentence: “You have to work little by little on ideas until they bear results.”
With my filter (nature): “You have to cultivate ideas little by little until they bloom.”
Same information. Completely different voice.
When you become aware of your own molds, you stop using them out of inertia and start using them with intention. That’s where style stops being an accident.
This is the phase that turns awareness into a system.
Open a notebook or a note in Notion, Obsidian, or wherever you prefer, and start building your lexicon from A to Z. Under each letter, write down the words, verbs, and expressions you feel already form part of your voice.
My entry under the letter C, for example, looks like this:
Key
Crucial
Cultivate
If you read me often, you’ll already have noticed that all three appear frequently.
For metaphors I do the same: seeds, roots, gardens, growth.
But don’t stick only to what you already use. Start incorporating uncommon words that represent you, even if you don’t use them yet. It’s not about forcing the reader to open a dictionary every other line, but it is worth having on hand a small peculiar repertoire that, when it appears, sounds unmistakably like you.
An example of mine: I don’t say “great advantage,” I say “overwhelming advantage.”
Think about changing “harsh criticism” to “scathing criticism.” Or take words like “conspicuous” for what stands out effortlessly, or “taciturn” for someone who speaks little and carries weight when they do. You don’t need to use them always, they’re like tools in a box, you don’t pull out the hammer for every project, but you know where it is when you need it.
When you repeat this exercise for weeks, your lexicon becomes internalized.
It becomes your personal style manual to the point that you stop consulting it, and what you were looking for from the start happens: someone reads a text of yours without seeing the signature, and still knows exactly who wrote it. That is the only real defense you have against a world full of generic text and AI.
I hope you give yourself the space this week to start your own lexicon.
See you in the next letter.
Stay creative.
— Álvaro
Iceberg Theory: Hemingway’s method for creating unforgettable stories
How to become so creative it’s scary (50 ways to generate ideas about any topic)
P.S. I also offer 1:1 consulting to help you grow on Substack.
If you’re just starting out and don’t know how it works, or if you’ve been at it for a while but are stuck, this will help you. I’ll help you find your direction, position yourself as a leader in your niche, and build a system tailored to your needs for sustainable growth.
My credentials? Over 100,000 global readers in 2 years, 100% organic growth, with 300,000 monthly visits. All from scratch, writing all by myself in my spare time.
If you’re interested, email me at: jardinmental@proton.me
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