If I pick just one, I'm gonna have to say plot. I feel that many of my stories have weak plotting, while many others have barely any. I guess I'm halfway decent at cause-consequence relationships, in terms of pure logic, but less so at maintaining a good pace, keeping it tight, and making it interesting. I suspect I sometimes seek refuge in quantity, i.e heaping on parallell plots and subplots. I don't think I'm very good at endings either. Definitely a weakness of mine. ETA: As for why this is... it could be because I don't outline. I'm definitely trying that for my next big project. What am I doing about it? Just practicing, and trying to think further ahead. That, and making efforts at outlining as stated above.
Greatest weaknesses related to writing (or lack thereof): Lack of momentum. Devoting hundreds of words to describing the way people are standing next to each other, the way the room looks, the way their roommate couldn’t stop snorting oxy, etc. without moving the plot forward, as though I’m writing a research report instead of a story. Switching between dialogue and “regular” writing. Describing faces and body language. Abandoning short stories and other easily-finished works because “I can tell they’re going to suck already”. Well, when you short-circuit everything before the first draft is even finished, what do you expect? Waiting until 9 or 10 PM to start writing, and staying up too late as a result.
I tend to spend a good week or two getting really excited about a story and planning it all out in my head, then I'll write excitedly for about a week, and then I lose interest in it altogether. So for me, I'd say giving up on a story too quickly
Sitting down and writing. Roleplaying has screwed me a bit because I love seeing what the other person writes, but I don't get that with my own writing. As a result, I have issues just writing. I'm working on getting over that because I have two novel ideas I think are really good.
You could co-write with someone, each writing every other chapter from the viewpoint of different characters. Not quite the same, but it might help.
Writing is my biggest weakness as a writer. That, and transitions, connective tissue to join an array of disparate scenes to arrive at a larger meaning.
My little sister believes all of us in the family have it. I told her that was rubbish, but sometimes I wonder if I'm trying desperately to prove her right.
The issue would be finding someone to cowrite with for the type of genre I enjoy, and I get pretty possessive about any character I view as my own. I wouldn't mind writing roleplay style and then converting to novel style, though. I'm in the process of doing that at the moment.
The main thing about describing architecture is getting inside the head of the character observing it, and noticing what he would notice and using the terms he would use. An important part of this is the feeling or impression the structure makes on that particular viewer. An architect might say a particular Modernist building is clean and streamlined, while a nurse or a truck driver might say it's stark or boring.
That's a good point. Nonetheless, I have a hard time coming up with the right words to describe architecture, and not even looking up Wikipedia articles on different styles help at times. I can have a crystal-clear image of an important building in my head, but will not know how to describe it. Sometimes I won't even know what kinds of words I'm looking for because I don't know what to search for online. I like having the reader see what I see, especially since architectural style, art, even what colors and food and fashion my fictional societies use is really important in making the culture what it is. And all the while trying to do it with the "show don't tell" method, which is easier said than done.
I hate using the typical writing style, I always find it lacking. 3rd person is surely good for some things, but it never suits my writing. Because of this if I try to for writing in the typical 3rd it sounds incredibly clunky and I get tons more review notes. At best I would have end up writing something in third that looks like interview with the vampire or it's almost unreadable. It makes me not wanna get better because I'm so bad it feels like a huge loss of skill and gets demoralizing. I also tend to like relying on the limited view of the MC and unreliability and don't know how to make up for that loss of impact in 3rd.
I have two major weaknesses that I've noticed about my writing: I tend to write very "flowery," and I tend to overuse commas. To be blunt, I have no idea where the first one comes from. I haven't read much older writing, aside from Lovecraft, so I don't know where I picked up this writing style. It's something I want to break, as I my stories tend to be written in present day, so that language isn't really appropriate. As for the over-usage of commas, that comes from my mother. She was a grammar Nazi, so I learned at an early age how and where any given punctuation mark should/could be used. Because of this, in order to quell her grammatical fury, I would often lean towards overdoing it rather than underdoing it. Unfortunately, it's followed me into my writing! ETA: What am I doing about these? Well, I tend to catch a lot of this stuff in editing, so it's not a huge concern. Just ends up taking longer when I'm editing.
Coming up with too many scenarios, which lead to indecision and some grammatical or vocab errors here and there, but not anything major. Starting many projects simultaneously. Not being able to stick to a program due to external reasons. An internal reason is that deep down inside I'm afraid that if I get too excited and caught up with what I'm doing (expectations), the results are going to destroy my delicate psyche. Yep. It's all or nothing for me, although I know it's not a particularly smart approach, I just can't help it. Lastly, I think I could edit forever. If I ever finish a novel I'm sure I'm gonna tear up and then head to therapy.
I'm struggling with getting started. Properly started, I mean. All I have at the moment is a blog post introducing myself (not even as a writer). I have 3 maybe 4 notes open on my iPhone with a few ideas, started stories and book titles and a brand new laptop mostly used to read this forum and stare at Facebook. I don't have a lot of free time and I have never used it wisely so I know what I need to change but it's doing it. I love writing when i'm in the zone, it just always comes at awkward times, like at work. I totally get the confusion thing too, it's so frustrating having to flick back through pages. My rule of thumb is to never leave a book unread once I've started it in the hope it'll get better or at least give me something to learn from. Your book will be awesome if you can overcome confusing your readers and i'd be interested to read it.
Descriptions. Once upon a time I was good at it, and then I switched genres and it all went down the canal when my writing voice changed. Humour. I'm almost completely humourless (apart from a real black humour that most people don't even understand) and it makes writing supposed-to-be-banter-scenes excrutiating. I would do something about it, because it sucks not being able to laugh when everyone else laughs, but... le sigh.
My obsession with detail is what is making the writing process lengthy and strenuous for me (and I cannot objectively conceive quitting obsessing about detail). I doubt every other word. At each re-read I debate which of the two or three I could use to say this or that is the one I should pick, and at each re-read I tend to change my mind about which is the right one. It takes an enormous amount of my time to put the ideas in my head into words that I think are just right for them. And as I keep looking for the right words I am finding that the ideas themselves develop, so... It's never ending.
Description of characters. It's okay enough when I describe the environment or a room, but it goes up in smoke if I try to describe a character's appearance, even if I do have a reference of my character's art. Admittedly, I'm poor at it because, before, I didn't worry about it. That changed, though, because I had heard of the concept of "white as default". Just hearing about readers assuming that a character is white until proven otherwise drove me crazy, considering that my earliest works involved mixed race characters leaving behind supposed comfortable small villages, never to return. (Which admittedly reflects my own desire to do so from since the time I was a kid.) I would never want to make that mistake! Of course, I also have a hard time not giving into perfection, and tearing up old works.
It’s either perfect the first time, or it doesn’t get written at all. That’s my biggest weakness. On the upside, no editing! On the downside, no book.
