Weaknesses + Strengths

Novilia · Dec 4, 2005

Hi. I was just wondering what some of the weakness and strenghths of other writers are and how you cope with them.

I'd have to say my biggest problem is level of detail. If I put in too much I will be reading my own work and saying, "Wow, this really sucks." If I try to dumb it down too much, I know that a reader won't get the impression or feeling I want them to have. And then there is always the issue of detail in a an action scene. You'll be reading along and then suddenly there will be this speed bump of nessesary detail that disrupts the readers flow. I'm trying to figure out ways to have information that doesn't slow the passion involved with reading a good book. Oh, and I hate grammer. It is an evil thing.

Personally, I feel my strength is character developement,dialogue, and character names (they're weird, but I like them.) Once I get a passion for a character, it's really easy to write out their reactions and feelings, because you realy know them. That's why I find dialouge so much fun to write. Without really thinking I can type out exactly what my characters would actually say in such-and-such a situation when cofronted with such and such a person.

Any thoughts on my writting issues or ideas of your in. Major interested.

sandoz · Dec 4, 2005

If you can develop strong characters then you're 4/5ths of the way to wherever it is your going. And I'm envious. My characters tend to come out flat, even though I love writing dialogue. I think the detail thing just takes experience and an ear for gauging how much of a scene a reader can complete on his own. It's a difficult balance, and I'd imagine many writers struggle with good descriptive abilities and poor characterization.

As for weird character names, I find those more jarring than anything. I couldn't finish Catch-22 because I kept trying to pronounce the protagonist's name. Don't even rememeber it. Gravity's Rainbow is another that comes to mind, but that had other, larger problems in holding my interest (yeah, you Pynchon fans can suck my...). Make them weird if you must, but please make them Lolita-weird and pronounceable.

Sassenach · Dec 4, 2005

sandoz said:
As for weird character names, I find those more jarring than anything. I couldn't finish Catch-22 because I kept trying to pronounce the protagonist's name.

Yossarian. [YO-sarry-in].

What's so hard about that?

SusanR · Dec 4, 2005

My strengths (I think): Plotting. Description. Research. Writing emotionally true.

My weaknesses: Pace. Getting information in without infodumps. Grammar and punctuation.

SusanR

Linda Adams · Dec 4, 2005

My weak areas have been setting and story setup. Worse still, I didn't know these were weak areas until I started doing critiques in my writer's group. When I started co-writer, we both had weak areas that the other had strengths in--setting and story setup were weak areas for both of us.

Story setup was particularly painful, and we literally had to slog our way through it until everything worked the way it was supposed to (seven chapters came out--over 75 pages). We lost seven chapters because all the things we needed to do to make the problematic setup work disappeared when we fixed it. I think the next one will be a lot easier because of all the things I learned through this one: 1) Identify who the single primary character is (we have four main characters); 2) Identify the core premise with high enough stakes for the story (the second part of that was missing); and 3) Spend a lot of time making sure the first 100 pages really work and make sense--without trying to make things fit because somewhere else in the story needs it to fit that way.

Setting/reader orientation is likely to always be a weak area for me. I'm directionally dysfunctional, and I tend to visualize scenes without any sense of place. That makes it very hard to even do a scene in a room where a reader needs a character's interaction with his surroundings.

On your issue of details and action scenes ... if there's an important detail that needs to be in place for the action scene, get it in the story before you need it in the action scene. We have a big action scene where the good guys have the advantage because they have the new Spencer repeating carbines. Since the reader isn't going to get the importance of that unless they follow the Civil War, we bring the Spencers in again and again early on--shaking out the setup helped--to highlight why they are important. Every time we mention them, it's either repeating the same information or adding to it. By the time we get to the action scene we don't need to explain the details about the Spencer.

DamaNegra · Dec 4, 2005

My weaknesess?? Virtually everything, I have problems developing characters, developing stories, etc.

My main problem is that sometimes I don't know what to write, or how to write what comes next. Transition scenes are my nemesis.

I'm not really sure what my strenghts in writing are, that's a real good question. Maybe my only strenght is that I insist on writing even when time and a low-self esteem try to make me stop.

Novilia · Dec 4, 2005

Coolness! Thanks for the suggestion, Linda. Truth be told, I have had the same problem with many a setting. I don't know what the place my characters are in looks like and I have to actually think about it. I hate thinking about settings. I find it very annoying and half the time I have to rethink what I came up with until finally I decide to ignore the fact that the setting sucks and move on. Editing will be hell.

reph · Dec 4, 2005

Sassenach said:
Yossarian. [YO-sarry-in].

What's so hard about that?

I always thought it was "yaw-SAIR-ee-'n." I grew up around Armenians.

WerenCole · Dec 4, 2005

My weakness often are often tied up in getting to the point that I have set up through the story as a whole. . . or, well, the end. A lot of my work crashes when I have developed a well written thoughtful story and can't seem to finish it up, tie together what I have been weaving. . . I think that once I am able to conquer this ending demon is when I will start to flourish as a writer. . .

I think I have trouble with dramatic sequences in general though. . . I once tried to write a story of a college style date rape and found that when I got to the dramatic scene, I just did not know how to go about it. . .

My stratagem for fighting these problems of mine is quite simple: read, read a little more and for desert. . . a cup of coffee and a good book with a good ending and poignant drama. . . it is one thing to talk to other writers about your problems, but I have found that reading other writers is the best way to go. . . for me at least

-WC

Sage · Dec 4, 2005

Strengths: Coming up w/ plots, dialogue, romance (maybe? Heather says I do)

Weaknesses: DESCRIPTION, guaging how much information the audience needs to know, infodumps

blacbird · Dec 4, 2005

Strength: I can write good.

Weakness: Nobody else agrees with me.

caw.

Sassenach · Dec 4, 2005

reph said:
I always thought it was "yaw-SAIR-ee-'n." I grew up around Armenians.

So did I, but that's how it was pronounced in the movie, and by Joseph Heller.

SeanDSchaffer · Dec 5, 2005

My main weaknesses would be in making up bizarre names that are much harder to pronounce than Yossarian. (Try pronouncing 'Wyverinia' sometime, or maybe 'Tarlosia C,' then come talk to me about hard to pronounce....if you're still able to work your tongue.)

Another weakness I have is in the detail. I fear I'll either put in too much or too little.

My final weakness is story length. I can write an epic in under 50,000 words.

My strengths would be the basics of grammar, spelling and punctuation. Also, another strength would be character development.

My final strength would be that, though it takes me a long time to learn things, once I learn them I pick them up and run with them.

I would say those are my main weaknesses and strengths in a nutshell.

KTC · Dec 5, 2005

I'd say my biggest strength is dialogue...but that's all I will say about that because what I perceive as a strength might not actually be one!

My biggest weakness is SMELL! I do a SMELL test on my work. It's an edit to work in the sense of smell. I always seem to leave that very important sense out of my work so I have to work it in after I'm done. THE SMELL TEST...it works!

scarletpeaches · Dec 5, 2005

How true, KTC. I read through everything and see how many senses are stimulated in each chapter and SMELL is often the one I 'forget'.

My strengths are humour - whether it be writing about a funny situation or just giving the reader a sense of the absurd in an otherwise serious situation (be honest; how many people you know use black humour to lighten a depressing time?) - and, so I am told, my fluency.

Weaknesses...hmm...I would say my dialogue can sag at times, which is why I pay closest attention to this on the rewrites. Quite a few "Hmms..." and "Wells," get tippexed out. Extraneous comments get deleted and instead of having the more true to life brief comments we make in between other's sentences, I tighten it up so that my characters interrupt less than we would in RL.

SusanR · Dec 5, 2005

scarletpeaches. My strengths are humour - whether it be writing about a funny situation or just giving the reader a sense of the absurd in an otherwise serious situation (be honest; how many people you know use black humour to lighten a depressing time?) - and said:
I'd like to share a story with you.

I was in college the second time around, fulfulling premed requirements, and working weekends as a nurse to support myself. I met a woman at college, also a labor-and-delivery-room nurse, also aiming for med school. (She is now a radiologist.) She was older than I, married with two kids. Eventually, she got me a job at her hospital which paid much more than mine, so we were co-workers as well as dear friends.

Once, she invited me to dinner at her house, and served beef fondue: cubes of cooked beef that we dipped into a fondue pot of gravy. After w'd cleaned up, she looked at the fondue forks sticking points-up in the dishwasher and said, "Those are dangerous. I'd better turn them upside-down."

The next thing I knew, she was cradling her right hand, which now sported a long-handled metal sixth digit between her index and middle fingers, and crying, "Oh my God, it's stuck in there, what are we going to do?"

To which I replied, "Well, either we take you to the hospital, or we make some more gravy. Either way, we don't waste good meat."

Snort.

I still can't believe I said that. Can you imagine putting that into a story????

SusanR

thewritingbug · Dec 8, 2005

I'd say my biggest strength is dialogue and my weakness is description. I overthink too much and should just let it flow naturally.

Lisa

JerseyGirl1962 · Dec 8, 2005

SeanDSchaffer said:
Another weakness I have is in the detail. I fear I'll either put in too much or too little.

My final weakness is story length. I can write an epic in under 50,000 words.

My strengths would be the basics of grammar, spelling and punctuation. Also, another strength would be character development.

My final strength would be that, though it takes me a long time to learn things, once I learn them I pick them up and run with them.

OMG, Sean, I chuckled when I read your lists because it reminds me of...me!

Yes, details! I tend to write very barebones the first time out. Then I do a rewrite, add a little bit more, do another rewrite, add a little bit more - ack, sometimes to the point where these scenes are big, fat blobs. And sometimes, no matter how much tweaking I do - adding or subtracting - those scenes still seem a mess.

The WIP I was working on (which I will return to at some point in time) started out well, but then I did some research and had to stick in some details. Well, then, oh, how about this, and this, yadda yadda yadda. I felt it ended up being too padded for its own good.

Story length. Yes, I'm grappling with that right now. My book is at about 65,000 words (urban fantasy). But I can't shake the feeling that I've left out some stuff, and it should be longer. (I mean, it makes sense in my mind, but what good is that? I've just recently joined an online crit group, and I'm hoping to get an idea if my feelings are correct.)

Basics of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Yep, I'm with you there as a strength, too.

Story ideas is also a strength of mine; my problem usually is translating those ideas into written form! I can't tell you how many times I've started one particular short story (a humorous space travel story, set in the not-too-distant future, naturally), stopped, rewrote it from a different character's POV, stopped that, rewrote it...the story now sits in limbo, in separate documents, from those different POVs. I have no idea if I'll ever get back to it.

Oh well.

~Nancy

Weaknesses + Strengths

Novilia

sandoz

Sassenach

5 W's & an H

SusanR

Linda Adams

Soldier, Storyteller

DamaNegra

Mexican on the loose!

Novilia

reph

Fig of authority

WerenCole

Funny what? Do I amuse you?

Sage

Our Lady of Parentheticals

blacbird

Sassenach

5 W's & an H

SeanDSchaffer

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

scarletpeaches

SusanR

thewritingbug

JerseyGirl1962

I heart Malamutes! :-)