Sound Human, Not Robotic: Tone, Voice, and Personal Story Arcs

If your posts read like a press release, AI didn’t fail—you skipped voice capture. This guide shows how to define tone, collect examples, and use story arcs so your posts sound like you, not a template. Includes a filled Voice Card, a before/after edit, and a cliché blacklist.

Key Takeaways

• Build a Voice Card with do’s/don’ts, phrases, and gold examples.
• Use story arcs (struggle → decision → outcome) to humanize lessons.
• Edit with a de‑cliché pass and a 20% trim.

What Are Voice and Tone?

Definition: Voice is the consistent way you sound; tone flexes by context.
When to use: Always—especially with AI‑assisted drafting.
Quick steps: write Voice Card → attach to prompts → outline story arcs → trim clichés.
Pros: Authenticity, trust, differentiation.
Cons: Requires examples and deliberate editing.

Filled Voice Card (Founder)

• Do: be specific, name numbers, ask real questions.
• Don’t: use buzzwords, dunk on people, write vague praise.
• Phrases I use: “Here’s the part we got wrong…”, “The boring habit that worked…”.
• Two gold posts: one about deleting a feature to raise activation; one about a failed experiment and what changed.

Story Arcs that Work

• Mistake → Lesson → Change — we mis‑prioritized features → interviews exposed the gap → we rebuilt onboarding.
• Belief → Test → Evidence — we believed “more features = more value” → we removed steps → activation rose.
• Before → Tweak → After — before: 7‑min first‑run → tweak: checklist + autosave → after: 3‑min and higher week‑1 actives.

Before/After Edit (Real Example)

Before (too vague):

We’re so excited about our latest update. It’s a game‑changer for productivity and customers are loving it.

After (human, specific):

We cut first‑run from 7→3 minutes by deleting steps, not adding features. Two customers told us they finally reached the “aha” moment without guessing. If you’ve trimmed onboarding recently, what did you remove?

Cliché Blacklist (kill these on sight)

Two‑Pass Edit

Capture your voice once; reuse it forever. Store your Voice Card and templates in features.

Why Voice Beats “AI Tone”

Readers forgive typos before they forgive vagueness. A recognizable voice—grounded in specifics and small stories—survives edits, tools, and algorithms. The Voice Card makes that portable across drafts and collaborators.

Practice Loop (15 minutes/week)

1. Save two “gold” posts you wrote that sound like you.
2. Rewrite a new draft in that voice; trim clichés.
3. Record yourself explaining the post in 30 seconds; match the cadence.

Anti‑Robotic Checklist

• Specific numbers over adjectives
• Concrete nouns over abstractions
• One short, human line (“Here’s the part we got wrong…”)
• One honest caveat (“Results vary; here’s our context”)

Store Your Voice Card Attach it to every draft