In a post on Writers in the Storm, Jenny Hansen says writers would be happier and possibly more productive if we focused on our strengths instead of our weaknesses. “I’ve noticed a worrisome trend in the writing world, and sometimes in my own psyche,” she says. “These creatives seem to think they have to be good at everything. Or that, because they have weak areas, they’re not good enough at their jobs.”
It’s entirely reasonable – and even predictable – that your first novel won’t be very good. The average person’s first attempt at riding a bike or playing a piano usually aren’t so hot either. Everything takes practice, but why do writers seem to beat themselves up more than other creatives?
That might be a good topic for another post, but Hansen says we can get over ourselves if we start focusing on what we do well when we write and celebrate our strengths.
“Society, starting with our schools and continuing through our workplace management teams, puts a mighty amount of focus on ‘improving our weaknesses,'” she notes. “They use words like shore them up, compensate for them, overcome them.” What if, instead, we focused our energies on developing our strengths? That doesn’t mean you don’t continue to learn and improve your craft, however. “I’m talking about making it a primary goal to discover your innate strengths and spend more time playing to them,” Hansen explains.
As an exercise, she suggests taking one minute to write a list of your strengths – things you’ve always been good at. Don’t think about it and don’t worry about how many you write down. This can be a general life list or writing specific.
When you’re done, consider how much time you focus on your talents. Be honest. “It’s interesting to me that most people don’t see their innate skills as anything nifty or unusual,” Hansen says. Instead, we’re culturally accustomed to improving our perceived weaknesses.
“Pay attention to the things that are easy for you and try to do them more often,” Hansen says. “I personally think the easiest way to bring your A Game to your writing life is to play to your strengths.” It’s still a good idea to know your weaknesses and work on them, but you don’t have to dwell on them. Hansen suggests finding critique partners whose strengths complement yours. “I want to know when the Writing Police decided that we have to be great at every single aspect of our writing,” she says. “The older I get, the more that notion seems full of the hooey to me.”
