shakespearemom

Despite what you may believe, I am not perfect.

Yes, I know what you may be thinking: “It can’t be! I thought she was! What’s going on here?!?”

But even I, the center of the universe, have issues. For one thing–and perhaps this stems from my extreme Piscean tendencies–I am scatterbrained to the extreme. I have difficulty focusing for five minutes on a game of Mahjongg. I respond to medications as if I had ADD, for stuff that is supposed to make me sleep keeps me wide awake, and perhaps there is a reason for that. I can’t seem to focus on anything for any real length of time. When I teach, I tend to shift gears several times over in a single class session–not for my students, but for myself, so that I don’t get bored. Yet I still lose focus easily. As one of my novel readers figured out, I can also forget whole characters as a novel goes on (eeeek!).

I also tend to write really crappy first drafts (I could call them worse, but I don’t want this blog to get even a PG rating)… unlike so many authors who seem to have near perfection the first go around. Would it save me a great deal of time if my drafts were great? Yup. But they aren’t, and ignoring that fact would not be to my benefit, for my first drafts would never get me anywhere as a writer. Besides, if I didn’t learn to revise my stuff, I wouldn’t improve much as a writer, either.

I have a long list of other weaknesses, but this is not a whining blog (not today, anyway), and the list would take too long. Besides, I’m sure, as you read through my own self-effacement, you are thinking of the weaknesses in your own writing (at least, I hope you are… I don’t want to be alone in this)… 

Now switch gears for a moment. Instead of looking at the “hole in your doughnut,” so to speak, look at the doughnut itself. What do you do well? One of my strengths is dialogue. I manage to create all sorts of suggested meaning in a single conversation… and that’s a skill I’m really building on. Each novel and play gets better at it. My dialogue reveals a great deal about the characters without exposition, without spelling out much at all. 

I’m also great at revision, for two reasons: 1) I don’t take myself too seriously. Nothing is so precious that it can’t be tossed in the trash. In fact, when I revise, I pull out whole scenes that don’t fit, putting them into another document so that I don’t feel as if I’m deleting them. Once the revision is over, I toss the document… and never regret doing it, either. 2) I am brilliant at ripping stuff apart. I pick and pick and pick at things, pulling out the stray strings, restitching the action… and it’s the same with everything I do, from cleaning to sewing to piano. If there is one thing I ain’t, it’s lazy. I won’t quit on something until I think it’s where I want it to be, or I can’t think of what to do to fix it (if the latter, I send it off to readers or sit on it, sometimes for years, until I’m ready to tackle it again). 

Now, when I write, I can easily get discouraged when something I write stinks… OR I can play to my strengths, and use those strengths to keep me working on something until it’s better. 

So, I’ve shown some of mine… what are your strengths? How do you play to them?

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