Becoming a writer: Why knowing your strengths and weaknesses MATTERS

Are you feeling discouraged and thinking of giving up?  Or maybe you’re thinking about writing something but you just can’t get started?  Maybe you figure it won’t come out right – so why even bother.  Does any of that sound like you?

Maybe you just don’t know what you’re good at.

I talk a lot on this site about not just writing a book (just one book?) but about becoming a writer – looking at writing as a career (even if you already have a career!).  And part of becoming a writer is figuring out what you’re great at doing… and what doesn’t come so easily for you.

I think I’m good at writing – but when it comes to marketing, which is a big part of being a writer today (like it or not), I don’t think that’s one of my strengths.  What about you?

What are you super-good at?  I bet you know already, but maybe you haven’t spent enough time basking in it.  This could be something you’ve heard from a whole bunch of people.  Maybe you’re secretly proud but don’t want to seem like you’re gloating.

Take the time to enjoy your strengths.  In the table below, you’ll find a bunch of different writing tasks and you’ll have a chance to see exactly how many things you are probably quite good at doing.

Unfortunately, unlike in many careers, you can’t just work on a sub-specialty and ignore the rest.  You will eventually have to deal with everything I’ve listed in the table below – and then some.  But there are some very good reasons to go into writing with your eyes open – with a keen awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses.

Why figure out your strengths?

Identifying your strengths makes you feel good about yourself!  I’m not big into self-esteem just for self-esteem’s sake.  But if you genuinely ARE good at something, you deserve

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Writing Style with Strunk & White: #1 and #2

Flipping through my vintage Strunk & White, rediscovered why I liked the book so much in the first place.  It’s as jarring and fun as anything written about writing today, especially the unassuming Approach to Style section near the back.

(This vintage edition is actually new to me – it arrived a few weeks ago after I ordered a newer edition from Better World Books; they refunded my money very quickly when I reported the mistake.)

So – I thought – why not bring it up-to-date, sharing these fabulous insights in a way that applies to children’s books?  Brilliant.  And then kick it up just a bit (unless you’re Emeril, don’t call it a notch) with a “Lazy-Day Takeaway” – an easy tip you can incorporate into your own writing, like, immediately, today.  Or whenever.

Why not, indeed???

So I did.  I am.  I will.  I must!

There are 21 points in the Approach to Style, and I’m going to take them on two at a time. 

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Three L words to quit using wrong, “less’n” you’re a redneck.

1.  Lay – You don’t LAY on a bed, and neither does your character or anyone else, though it might be true to say you LIE there (in which case, it’s not a lie).  You can LAY your teddy bear on a table.  That’s all.  Oh, well, a chicken can LAY an egg.  But that would make you a redneck, because you have a chicken.

2.  Loose – You didn’t LOOSE your teddy bear or wallet, you lost it.  Although you may LOOSE your pitbull on an unsuspecting victim, but I’d rather you didn’t.

3.  Less – You don’t have LESS marbles than I do, though yours may well be loose if you are using this word so wantonly.  You probably have FEWER marbles than I do, however, if you’re seriously thinking of comparing things that cannot be counted.  It would definitely make me LESS unhappy if you use FEWER redneck words in your writing.

And now, in return for tolerating my random grammar stickling…here are…

Three words I will allow you to use that most grammar sticklers wouldn’t!

1.  Decimate – Yeah, technically, originally, this meant one in ten.  Like back when everyone was Roman and spoke Latin and knew what deci meant.  It doesn’t any more and as my teenagers say, nobody cares.  Its main meaning nowadays is “kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of,” you redneck Roman relic, you.

2.  Literally – Yeah, technically, originally, this meant ACTUALLY or PRECISELY.  But we all know what you mean and we’re just being jerks if we interrupt with a “did you know????” if you’re just trying to use it the way everybody else in the world does.

3.  Nauseous – Yeah, technically, this means MAKE SOMEONE PUKE.  So if you say you’re feeling nauseous, ha ha, we literalists should just throw up right on you.  But I personally won’t, and indeed, I offer you my permission, as a stickler, to use this word any darn way you please.

What redneck words drive you crazy, in your writing or anybody else’s???

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This kid talks: mini-interview with reviewer Erik the Great

Hey, you know who ELSE reads kids books?  Kids!  And it turns out (surprise, surprise), that they have opinions… they won’t just read your book because it has colourful pictures or a thoughtful message (gack).

Are your books turning off the kids they’re supposed to appeal to? 

Just because you wrote it for them doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to love it.  According to Erik Weibel (aka Erik the Great, aka “this kid”), the 12-year-old lead blogger, head honcho and grand high poobah over at This Kid Reviews Books (A place for kids and grown-ups to discover books.), there are a few obvious turn-offs that you must avoid at all costs.  “There are a couple of things that will make me want to put a book down,” he says.

What are Erik’s Big Three No-no’s? 

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