(no subject)

[pantryslut]

I was answering a question posed by misia when I realized something odd.

I'm not entirely sure what my strengths are as a writer.

That is to say, I know what I do servicably. I don't always know what I do well.* I can guess, from other people's reactions, but that's different.

This is not fishing for praise (although, y'know, I'm not going to turn it away...). In fact, I thought I'd turn the question around. Lots of you reading this are writers: do you know your own strengths? What are they? How did you find out?

There will be follow-up questions, I suspect.



* Except for the disarming humor descending into pathos thing. I know I got that.

Comments

[claudelemonde.livejournal.com]

I usually think of what things come easily but are commented on by others--I use a lot of heavy description because I'm comfortable wielding a wide range of language, but many people are "thrown" or "impressed" by it. That sort of thing.

and of course, a cursory Google found a wretched meme, done in Comic Sans, my favorite MOST HATED font.

http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu/karyn.hollis/prof_academic/Courses/common_files/personality_types/personality_and_writing.htm

[black-pearl-10.livejournal.com]

My biggest strength is that I write for myself.
Damn, I've got good taste.






Oh yeah, and not to take myself too seriously.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

To actually be serious for a moment, one thing I've learned is that I can't write just for myself. It doesn't get done. Keeping a private journal of any substance, for example, quickly becomes a chore.

[badgerbag.livejournal.com]

I don't know your work well enough to comment on it! But I'd like to.

I've kept a private journal for over 20 years now. The public journal is way more fun. Even the private journal can be a way to get out of my own head, out of talking just to myself - instead i'm talking to my imaginary future self.

At the risk of sounding pompous... I think my strengths are mixing-up, obfuscation, digression, a baroque intertwining of the real & imaginary, and building up a head of steam. In poetry, heavier on the leaping, mixing-up, dislocating, and breaking; in prose, heavier on the digression, eddying off into many directions but, I always hope, taken as a whole by someone with patience to tolerate that level of endless waffle & purl, it becomes a mighty river.

For people who like very clear bones in their writing, I suck, and I'm okay with that, though it's not like I give up (on trying to improve my ability to code-switch between clarity/formality & informality.)

[nnaloh.livejournal.com]

I'd rather not think about it too much, in case they vanish upon too close contemplation.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I hear ya.