Strengths and weaknesses

[Christa M. Miller]

What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer? And, because they are not always the same thing, what do you love to write - and hate?

I write really strong beginnings, and I love writing them because of the potential they represent. (I feel the same way about watching the beginnings of movies.) I also think I'm pretty good at pacing and plot.

However, I suck at endings. And transitions are hard.

In the middle are characters - I'm OK writing them but I often miss small personal details - they very often have to be based on real people for them to seem alive to me, though I'm getting better at not relying on that. And research. I love to research but all too often I go off on tangents and miss the obvious.

[Sandra Ruttan]

My beginnings suck.

But really, the two things I find more difficult than anything else? Naming characters and finding a title for the book.

I will now return to my character-naming, title-seeking hell.

[I. J. Parker]

Well, I have to admit, I don't much like this either. I also don't like having to find clever and appropriate quotations. Or finicky details, like what sort of uniform the local guard would have worn in a small, free city in the mid-18th century. (One knows there was a guard, and that they were para-military, and that their outfits would have resembled military uniforms of the period, but the town's too small to have accessible records on the matter. And the matter is too trivial to justify a research journey to Europe).

[Karen E. Olson]

I'm with you, Christa, on beginnings. My beginnings are definitely my strength, and my endings suck. It takes many many rewrites to get those endings to work, and I do very little tweaking of the very first pages of the book.

[Pepper Smith]

Well, I seem to do dialog and descriptions well. One of my weaknesses is a tendency to rely on pet words or phrases that I have to go back a weed out later. Plus, I tend to write short, and then have to go back and flesh things out a bit better later.

I usually have to begin a story three or four times before I find just the right place, which is an annoying time-waster. I love researching, and have to work hard to keep from putting more than what's necessary into the story.

[Karen J. Laubenstein]

I write best if I don't think about it. It's the thinking that makes it hard.

[Angie]

Amen to that! If I'm not careful I over-think and the writing gets bogged down.

I also have to second Pepper. I tend to writer broad stroke first, then go back to add in details, pull stuff into focus & check for the fav word/phrase overuse thang.

[Karyn J. Powers]

I love to write action scenes and dialog between my main characters. Transitions suck the life out of me. My first time through probably reads like those old fashion still-action flip books, where you thumb the corner of the pages and see the character dance the herky-jerky.

[Julie Morrigan]

Getting started tends to be a problem. I think perhaps when I have finished a tale, I should just bin the first two or three chapters. Also, since I write a lot of non-fiction, I have to be careful that the logical, linear, explanatory approach doesn't overwhelm a story. I agree with Karen - it all works best if I don't think too much about what I'm doing.

[Vincent Holland-Keen]

I like to think my strengths lie in dreaming up stories (I tend to plot in advance to save on the pain of re-writes), but my weakness is definitely get the buggers down in writing. But if you excel at procrastination, that can be considered a strength of sorts, right?