What is your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?

[Deleted member 128077]

For about six months, give or take, I’ve been working on my book, and in that time, I’ve found out what my strengths and weaknesses as a writer are.
My weakness is that I’m not good with complex systems that need me to keep track of a lot of numbers. For example, before I started my current project, I got caught up in a NaNoWriMo event and tried writing a litRPG, but after only a few chapters, I gave up on the story. There were just too many things to keep track of.

I didn't learn from that. The first draft of my novel was supposed to be an epic fantasy with a complex three-layer magic and relic system. Everything from the types of metal used for weapons and armor to the food buffs they ate that morning would affect the characters' strength. It was too much, to say the least. I have since streamlined my magic system and cut out most of my old ideas, and writing has become easier.

My strength, I would say, is dry and situational humor. I recently wrote an intro for a story about a group of misfit merchants who can mess up even the easiest job. I put in as much dry humor as I could, and I have never had as much fun writing a scene as I did with that one.

With all that said, what are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer, and how long did it take you to figure them out?

 

[Jemini]

My weaknesses are character descriptions and writing romance. I just don't like giving character descriptions because, in most cases, I just feel like they break up the flow of the chapter. As for the romance, I'm an asexual aromantic, so the entire concept of romance in the story is just a little alien to me. I never find it interesting in other people's works, and I don't consider it interesting to write myself.

For the character descriptions, I wind up being a little minimal with those. For the romance, I've sorta gone the route of making most of my characters at least physically very young, so that way if anyone tries to bug me to toss in romance or sex scenes or something like that, I won't even have to reject. A good part of my audience will do it for me by calling them out for requesting weird pedo stuff.

As for my strengths, that's definitely going to be in my ability to weave in extremely lore-accurate portrayals of various ancient mythologies. I'm currently doing very heavy research into Celtic lore, which was hard starting out, but I've finally peeled back the final layers and made my way into the actual historical community that discusses this stuff.

And you know what? I found something I wasn't expecting to find while I was researching this. I found Epona. You know, Link's horse Epona? Well, I found her name origin. She's named after a Gaelic goddess of horses.

 

[Indicterra]

My weakness is I have no strength

I got nothing special going for me and I am mature enough to realise that just because you have the passion doesn't mean you have the talent.

So yeah a normal dude trying his best

 

[Deleted member 128077]

As for the romance, I'm an asexual aromantic, so the entire concept of romance in the story is just a little alien to me.

I feel the same when it comes emotional scenes. I'm not an emotional person, so I'm always worrying if those scenes feel natural. Like, "They should cry there, right. That's what people do, right?"

 

[miyoga]

Starting with a strength, I think that my greatest one is making the characters feel real. Not in an "I LIIIIIIIVVVEE!" sense, but more like a "yeah, this is believable" way. I mean, I intro'd my first short by describing the gods of different pantheons and religions as being a bunch of high school bullies (which, let's face it, most of them were).

But that's just it, my weakness is that I would be extremely hard pressed to go above ~5000 words. I've got this big idea for an entire universe in which the gods are real, but they're also "real" and I'm not sure how I'd actually go about that. Hell, I'm still stuck on my next idea: Greek god/immortal's familiars in a group therapy session. That sounds all sorts of crazy fun, like having Medusa argue with her snakes while Hermes' snakes throw their thoughts in to it. Seriously, it'd be a riot to put on paper, but then where does it all go from there and what story would I want to tell? What story could I tell once everyone's introduced?

 

[Deleted member 148356]

My strenght is weird narration style, creativity and randomness.
Weakness is disciplin, experience, doing it for others, conversation, clear goal, very slow process to write and confusing for others to read as its between poem and metaphor of my own.

There is improvement to be made like a lot and I'm happy about it.
Being a failure with 1 success is very satisfying.

 

[Dieter]

I yap too much about things readers won't care about. There's so much chaff sometimes in my story that the main plot disappears. I reread my manuscripts and sometimes I forget what my overarching plot even was. Oh, right. MC entered the academy to outshine his older brother. Why did I yap on for 7k words about his daily life there again?

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Strenths: thumb, index and middle fingers
Weaknesses: ring finger and pinkie

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Strength: The Ability to warp reality to my choosing.
Weaknesses: Silver, Sunlight, Pie (The kind with a crust covering), Nail Biting, Cookie Dough Ice Cream, when the great unmaker opens at least three of his seven mouths to sing the song that destroys worlds and character descriptions.

 

[SuperMushroom]

I really like writing fight scenes. It's one of the few things I don't feel insecure about when I have to read my own work.

I am absolutely terrible at describing physical places! And I always hate doing it, too! When I see lengthy descriptions of them in books my eyes just glaze over, so that's probably why.

 

[Enkiari]

Strength - I can write a lot.
Weakness - I have to read what I write, and I always think it is bad.

 

[ArchlordZero]

Strength: I love writing.
Weakness: I don't like to read.

 

[Jemini]

My weakness is I have no strength

I got nothing special going for me and I am mature enough to realise that just because you have the passion doesn't mean you have the talent.

So yeah a normal dude trying his best

I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as talent and, in fact, "the passion" is actually the most important part.

Writing is just pure skill, a skill developed from years and years of slowly perfecting your craft a little bit at a time. But, putting in the effort necessary to develop your craft is absolutely impossible if you don't have the passion for it. You have to absolutely love writing to an almost unhealthy level and make it the thing that consumes your free time, and keep coming back to it time after time.

So, yes, passion is the #1 most important point to becoming a writer. The number 2 and number 3 most important things are discipline and heartiness. You need the discipline to set a routine and keep going back to it, and heartiness to be Ok with the fact that you ARE going to suck at the beginning. And, later on, even after you get good you will need the heartiness to not get discouraged when readers criticize your work. Both of these will happen, especially near the beginning.

Writing is an incredibly hard process, and passion really is the most important part. If you are talking about passion here, I take that to mean you have it. In that case, well... you should write. Just write for the sake of the craft and for yourself. Posting your work publicly on sites like this is actually a good thing too, even if your work is complete trash. It helps you to develop the mind-set for public writing, and if you are fortunate enough to get comments from your readers then it also tells you a bit about what audiences in your genre are looking for.

The comments on your work WILL be harsh, but the trick is using their abrasiveness like sandpaper to polish your craft further and become better for it. Eventually, through all of this, you become good enough to finally start producing impressive works.

 

[theInmara]

There's probably a lot of details and subtleties. Small strengths and weaknesses.

Our biggest strength is we're fantastic pansters. We can write a moderate length novel off the cuff in two weeks, and thoroughly enjoy doing it.

Our biggest weakness is that we're terrible at writing any kind of story that requires meticulous planning, whether we sit down to plan it or not.

Our second biggest weakness is romance. We knew we were ace to begin with, but our failures to be able to just sit down and write romance have us considering that we might be on the aromantic spectrum as well.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

My strength is my combat scenes. People have always told me that reading my fight scenes is like reading a comic, they're so well detailed and vivid.


My weakness is that I have no subtlety. Mysteries and plot twists are almost impossible for me to write because the best twists are foreshadowed, and my foreshadowing is practically a big blinking neon arrow with "THIS IS FORESHADOWING A PLOT TWIST!!!" written on it.

 

[Bartun]

I've been writing for more than 5 years. I don't think of myself as a good writer, my prose still needs work and I'm not posting consistently to gain and keep an audience. I've been told to just quit it countless times but if I could name just one strength it would be I just won't quit.

 

[Deleted member 128077]

I've been writing for more than 5 years. I don't think of myself as a good writer, my prose still needs work and I'm not posting consistently to gain and keep an audience. I've been told to just quit it countless times but if I could name just one strength it would be I just won't quit.

Sometimes, that's all you need.

 

[QuercusMalus]

There's probably a lot of details and subtleties. Small strengths and weaknesses.

Our biggest strength is we're fantastic pansters. We can write a moderate length novel off the cuff in two weeks, and thoroughly enjoy doing it.

Our biggest weakness is that we're terrible at writing any kind of story that requires meticulous planning, whether we sit down to plan it or not.

Our second biggest weakness is romance. We knew we were ace to begin with, but our failures to be able to just sit down and write romance have us considering that we might be on the aromantic spectrum as well.

How many personalities do you have? Maybe you just need to find and tap a few more to fill in the gaps?

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

I'm weak with descriptions in setting an ambiance.

Everything else, Perfection.

 

[Rhaps]

I yap too much about things readers won't care about. There's so much chaff sometimes in my story that the main plot disappears. I reread my manuscripts and sometimes I forget what my overarching plot even was. Oh, right. MC entered the academy to outshine his older brother. Why did I yap on for 7k words about his daily life there again?

Simple solution, make everything a Chehkov's Gun, so much so you will have Chehkov's Army.