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[honey]

We haven't talked about writing a whole lot lately, so I thought I'd ask you what you feel you are good at and where you think you could improve. For me I think I have a hard time balancing my dialog/action and description. (HAHA not physical description because I do hardly any of that, (oops!) but with getting into a characters head and talking about there feelings ad emotions.) It varies a little from story to story for me - I think it's worse when I write in third person - but I never have liked the way I balance things. Either I have too much or not enough. I think sometimes my stories feel choppy in that respect. I'll have paragraphs of inner thoughts and stuff and then it will come back to the scene at hand and then I'll have pages of dialogue. I'm getting better at this I think, But it's definitely an area I think I could improve.

My other big complaint about my writing is that it sounds very plain. I just don't have the greatest vocabulary to start with and my imagination is limited when it comes to the way I describe things. I feel like I'm repeating myself all the times with words or phrases, and I think all of my stories sound exactly the same. Not necessarily that they are the same story or that the same things are going on in them, just that they sound very similar. Like I have a very distinct voice, and it's just not all that colorful. I'm always falling in love with stories that sound beautiful. I think that's why Sarah is one of my favorites because she totally excels at this. Her stories always sound so pretty if that makes any sense. I wish I could be a lot more like that, but I'm not sure how.

Then, of course, there's the question of my spelling and grammar. I think I've come as far as I can without a proper English class. (I mostly slept through school the first time around) I have to work very hard to get it as good as I do now, and I'll still never get it quite right. It doesn't help that I hate grammar, but I know that I write well enough that it at least sounds decent, so then I think I slack off after a certain point, and make the same mistakes over and over again.

My strength, I would have to say, come in my character development and story structure. I'm fascinated with characters in general and I think that shows in my writing. I can't just make a one or even two dimensional character. I would be way to bored with them to write a whole story about them if they didn't have all sorts of layers and history. And I hate when there is no character arc throughout a story so I always work really hard to make sure I accomplish that.

I mean, to me character arc is the reason for telling a story. Why do I want to read what  a person goes through if it's not going to change them in some way? Why would I read a whole story about a character that I don't like? I'm kind of obsessed with characters actually.

Story arc is also another place I feel I do a good job. I've done a lot of research on this subject, even read some books about it. Act one, act two, mid point, act three...  The hero's journey... There is an actual formula to making a story, and it does wonders for writing. Sometimes people will have an idea or a concept, but they only ever get that far. There is a difference between a concept and a story. You have to know where the story starts, and where it will end and what it should accomplish. I'm fascinated by (and admittedly anal about) story structure.

I think I have my moments with decent dialog too, but there is still a LOT of room for improvement there. I think good dialog is one of the hardest things to master in writing. Those it comes naturally too, I bow down to you.

[RokofAges75]

These are always thought-provoking threads.

For me, I think one of my biggest weaknesses is just a lack of creativity.  Not a total lack; I mean, anyone who comes up with an idea and writes an original story has some level of creativity.  But I'm just not great at coming up with those really unique, outside-the-box kind of ideas.  And on the rare occasion that I do come up with something that seems out of the box, I immediately think, "Psh, how am I going to write that?"  So I usually take more basic, realistic ideas and try to take them to a new level and write them the best I can.

Another weakness is similar to Kelly's first one - I feel like sometimes my writing has that lack of balance between description, dialogue, and action too.  When I was a beginning writer, my stories were mostly dialogue with some basic action and not a whole lot of description or detail.  As I grew as a writer, I realized that and tried to work on being more descriptive, and I think I have gotten a lot better with that.  But now, sometimes I'm too wordy with my descriptions, and I have narrative parts that just go on and on with no dialogue and not much action, and I wonder if those parts kind of bog down the flow of my stories.

Strengths... one of them is definitely grammar.  Aside from the occasional typo, you won't find mistakes with spelling, grammar, or mechanics in my stories.  I learned early on that good writing in the technical sense makes up for a lack of good content LOL.  I BSed my way through many a paper in school and got an A, not because of what I actually wrote, but because of the way in which I wrote it.  Flowery writing and proper punctuation will get you far.

Another strength that I've honed over the last few years is that I do my research and try to make my stories seem as realistic as possible.  I look up everything I don't know about or am not sure about, from places to medical conditions, so that I can get things "right."  I've become kind of an obsessive perfectionist about it.

Last, I think I'm pretty good with dialogue.  I try to write lines that I can imagine people actually saying, the way they would say them.  I think my dialogue sounds natural, not stiff and robotic, even if it's a little more eloquent than I can usually sound in real life LOL.

[RokofAges75]

You know, it might be interesting to do another thread like this, but about each other.  On a volunteer only basis, of course.  It could be one of those threads where you write about the person who posted before you - in this case, you could list/explain what you see as one of their strengths and one of their weaknesses as a writer.  By posting about someone else, you've then volunteered to have someone else write about you.  Obviously, you would have to be familiar with someone's writing before you answered about them though.  It just might be interesting to see what other writers or readers consider to be your strengths and weaknesses.

[julilly]

This was a difficult one, for sure.

I think that one big weakness of mine is that I'm too to-the-point. I could never write an epic. Rarely my fics are more than 20 chapters because once I get into it I'm only thinking about getting out. I don't spend much time fluffing things up, and I think a lot of times it could have been warranted.

My absolute biggest weakness is updating. My creativity comes in bursts, and partially because of what I just mentioned, I can't just write a filler chapter and try to get things moving. Something has to move in the plot in every chapter and sometimes that just doesn't want to happen.

As far as strengths go I, like Julie, believe my grasp of the English language is solid. I pride myself on being a grammar nazi. Obviously I have times where I make mistakes but overall I'm pretty good at it. I do write for a living, after all. (which is where I waste a lot of my ambition)

Also like Julie I spend a lot of time researching topics if I'm not already familiar with them. The encyclopedia is my friend. I have spent hours tracking down little facts for one chapter because I can't stand reading something that is unrealistic if I know about it. So I imagine it's the same for others.

[Rose]

Okay, strengths.

I think I'm pretty original, my ideas are kind of out there, especially for BSB fanfiction. Because of that I like to imagine different worlds, futuristic ones, any type of place that is based almost purely upon my own imagination.

I also think I can be very descriptive, if I have an image in my head I try my best to make sure it comes across as vividly as I see it in my head. This comes along with the original/different worlds skill I feel I have.

With emotions, I feel like I can really dig in, whether it's in first or third person. I feel I can make readers really feel along with the characters the emotions of the moment of the story. This goes along with characters and I think I'm good at making them 3-dimmensional cause actually flat lead characters is a pet peeve of mine. I'm almost obsessed with characters and their backgrounds... just what makes them tick. AFter all, a story is just a series of events that makes a character evolve.

Weaknesses.

I'm not very technical. I try to be, I really do. I try to cover it up with pretty descriptions, and really fight to edit before posting, but stuff slips by. Not basic stuff like spelling or basic grammar that everyone should know. I have slight tense issues, that manage to escape me as I work on making myself better in that aspect.

I also feel there's times my wording comes off very awkward. A story can be very vivid or descriptive but with awkward wording it can kill the flow.

I'm also very ADD with my stories. I always have ideas bouncing around and sometimes I can't not do a story and end up with too many. So then my updates are spread out because I'm spreading myself too thin between stories. I'm also too big of a sucker for collabs cause I find them fun. Which gains another project to my list lol.

You know, it might be interesting to do another thread like this, but about each other.  On a volunteer only basis, of course.  It could be one of those threads where you write about the person who posted before you - in this case, you could list/explain what you see as one of their strengths and one of their weaknesses as a writer.  By posting about someone else, you've then volunteered to have someone else write about you.  Obviously, you would have to be familiar with someone's writing before you answered about them though.  It just might be interesting to see what other writers or readers consider to be your strengths and weaknesses.

I think that'd be a great idea