There’s a tension between two (correct) views on writing:

1. Writing is a craft that you learn. You improve at writing by following general lessons that increase the clarity and impact of your prose.

2. Writing is an expression of your personality. You improve at writing by finding your individual voice and speaking in that voice.

I feel this tension after writing an essay that is then radically transformed by editorial feedback. Getting a red pen on my essays tends to make them objectively better, shortening them, prompting better exposition, cutting the filler words that cling from my academic days. But with each editorial comment, there is a branching path between making my writing better and making it more me.

I consistently choose better over more me, but to be a writer today, it seems like personality and individual style matter more than anything else. As Jasmine Sun put it bluntly, parasociality is the moat.