Writing Strengths Meme

While catching up on my reading today, I ran across this exercise for writers at Sury’s At Home, Writing blog. I’ve written a number of memes where I was to list books or movies I enjoyed or list 10 things about myself that no one knows. They were fun, but when I saw this ‘Writing Strengths’ meme it caught my eye. Lately, I haven’t been writing much (at least not the type writing I want to write) so this may take me a while to come up with five strengths.

The guideline for the meme is as follows: Make a list of five strengths that you possess as a writer/artist. It’s not really bragging, it’s an honest assessment (forced upon you by this darn meme). Please resist the urge to enumerate your weaknesses, or even mention them in contrast to each strong point you list. Tag four other writers or artists whom you’d like to see share their strengths.
After much thought, this is what I came up with.

1) Truth: No matter what I write (essays, articles, short stories, or novels) my writing is filled with truth in one aspect or another. Essays of course are a brief expression of one’s past: an experience, or a thought of how that experience felt. Each and every essay I’ve ever written reflects a different part of my life, or someone else’s life. I suppose the expression; “the truth will set you free” might be how I look at my writing. Truth in words is important to me. When writing, I am free to voice whatever comes to mind and allow all my feelings to come out. That brings me to my next strength.

2) Feeling: Finding the proper words to express an emotion, scene, or thought is rewarding. Capturing a reader within your words in order to stimulate him or her to perceive those feelings is an honor. Nothing pleases me more than when I receive notes, e-mails, and personal messages from people who read my work. The number one feedback I hear is: “your writing placed me right there beside you.” There’s no better compliment than that!

3) Affect: In the terms of my writing having an effect upon someone. When my words induce an emotional or cognitive impact upon a person, then I’ve done my job well. That is what writing is all about; to leave an impact in some way, even if just for the moment. Thank you to all who have told me my writing affected you in some way.

4) Courage/Voice: I’d like to think that through writing I’ve shown the courage I’ve gained from this profession. I’m speaking not only of the courage in the sense of having the ability to write the truth, show my feelings, and affect those who read my work. But I’m also speaking of the courage in the sense that I may have voiced what so many others wished they could, but were afraid. Writing has given me the courage and the voice to express those things that often get swept under the rug and hidden.

5) Perseverance: No matter what life brings, or what joys, trials, or tribulations come my way, I have always persevered through my writing. Each of those joys and tribulations became a porthole of opportunity. It is because of all those experiences my writing has progressed through the years. Rejections come from all corners of life. Taking those rejections and turning them into joy takes a lot of hard work and perseverance. In a writer’s life, rejection is nothing new. If we learn from those rejections and push forward to make our writing speak out to the next editor or publisher, we have persevered.

May you all find truth, feeling, courage and voice as you write, and affect all your readers as you persevere in this wonderful world of words.

Oh yes, I tag: Ray, Nita, Unique, and Anne.

Seven Writing Questions: A Meme

Tagging Along

I wasn’t tagged with this, but when I read Bhaswati’s blog, I liked the premise so I decided to delve into my brain and jog a few memories.


1. What's the one book or writing project you haven't yet written but still hope to?

I hope to finish a series of children’s books based on my life growing up in the country. It wasn’t as boring as you may think. ;)

2. If you had one entire day in which to do nothing but read, what book would you start with?
The first book of Stephen King’s Drawing of the Three series. I have every one of his books and have yet to read this complete series.

3. What was your first writing "instrument" (besides pen and paper)?
My dad’s Smith Corona typewriter. (I still have it.) I used it to type my very first published story. In fact that old typewriter (along with lots of carbon paper) is what I used for years before I finally broke down and bought an IBM Selectric typewriter decades later. I have to admit, computers make the job so much easier.

4. What's your best guess as to how many books you read in a month?
At one time I would have answered 15. I read constantly and could finish a larger book within two days. Lately, I’m lucky if I have time to read one book a month.

5. What's your favorite writing "machine" you've ever owned?
Next to my laptop, the best machine was my top-of-the-line Hewlett Packard packed with every gadget imaginable back then, along with the HP All-in-One copier/fax/scanner/printer, which also reduced and enlarged copy.

6. Think historical fiction: what's your favorite time period in which to read?
Historical fiction is really not my favorite genre. With that said, I did read Louisa May Alcott’s series and loved the time period in which they were written.

7. What's the one book you remember most clearly from your youth (childhood or teens)?
Black Beauty. It was the first book I read as a child. I remember taking it to school with me and sitting on the sidewalk by the playground reading while others played on the swings and see-saw.


As for tagging, I’m not going to tag anyone, but if you so choose to play along please let me know so I can read your responses. :-)