Five writerly strengths

I was tagged on Saturday by Canterbury Soul with this meme, to list my five strengths as a writer. As if to ensure that "timeliness and punctuality" are off of that list, I was tagged twice more today, once by Sognatrice and once by Taffiny. I figured I should post now, before I get tagged again.

I guess I just tend to think of myself as a decent overall writer. I don't think I spend a lot of time analyzing my strengths and weaknesses. So this list is kind of hard to compile. This is more or less the five things I can most easily come up with at this instant in time, as they occur to me. Some of these may not even be strengths, or, being strengths, may not be ones I possess. But writing "I have no idea" seems like a cop-out, so...

1. I think I am good at providing an interesting perspective on what might otherwise be a common event. I seem to have a knack for either zooming in close on a detail that someone else might have overlooked or dismissed, or examining the whole thing from afar as an outsider. I can usually find a kernel of beauty in a random street encounter or an overheard conversation, and carry that kernel back home with me.

2. To whatever extent that my sense of humor carries over into my writing, I think that would qualify as a strength. I have found that it is usually fairly easy to make people laugh in person, where my inflection, body language, etc. can come to my aid, but that being funny on paper requires a different set of skills. So, yeah, that.

3. I tend to know when my writing is not working. I don't always know how to fix it, but I think I can read back something of mine and decide very quickly if it does what I wanted it to or not. Although being able to fix it would probably be a better strength. Still, recognizing when I am being clunky with words is something that I think I, uh... I should point out here that I sometimes just leave things clunky. Not everything that comes from my fingertips has to be good.

4. When someone has read something of mine for critique or input, I think I am pretty open to the ideas they present. Even though sometimes I do not take the suggestion, figuring out why exactly it feels wrong to me can be a tremendous aid in clarifying to myself what exactly I am hoping to accomplish with the piece. And then there are the nice moments when the suggestion is something that I might not have thought of that fits perfectly and opens a door in the writing. Those times are pretty great. But, wait. How is this a strength? Maybe it isn't, unless I count picking good people to read my stuff as a strength.

5. I have always been a voracious reader. There is nothing in the world that can better prepare you to pick up a pen. People go on and on about technique and craft, and some will tell you that doing this or that will make you a better writer. To my mind, the only things which can guarantee improvement in this area are reading a lot, and writing a lot. Any other method is, at best, subjective.

I tag no one, as usual, but if you have a whack, let me know in the comments and I'll gladly come have a look. Then I will steal your answers and update this post.

Also, as a side note: I have lots to tell you, gentle Blogreader. I am behind on my posting, but will probably be writing a lot this week to tell you of some developments and some future plans for this blog. So keep checking back...