Three Truths About Your Writing Weaknesses That May Surprise You
You’ve scheduled a block of time to write and you stick to it most days.
It’s red on your calendar so you can’t miss it. Or maybe you have a reminder set on your phone. However you’ve scheduled it, you’re doing it!
You have a clear idea of what you are writing about and whom you are writing to.
You are clear on your message. You’ve taken the time to create an avatar and you are writing to her.
You’ve developed a process that works for you.
Maybe you’re waking up at 5 am just to write like I did today.
Or maybe you grab an hour during the kids’ nap time.
Or you’re a night owl and you write at 10 pm. Whichever one is you, you’re doing it. You are putting words on paper and they are flowing out of you.
You’re writing without editing at the same time.
No matter how tempted you are, you aren’t stopping every five seconds to edit. You are letting thoughts and ideas flow.
You’re trying your best to be authentic.
You’ve developed a mindset of “What God has helped me with, I’ll use to help others.”
2 Corinthians 1:4, The Message
All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.
You’re continuing to educate yourself on the craft of writing.
You have a stack of books on the craft of writing on your bedside table and you are reading them.
You’ve found a podcast to encourage and equip you. You listen to it while you clean.
Maybe on your short breaks, you, like me, dance around the room. It’s such a great feeling, this writing. Being in the zone. Everything else fades away. You lose track of time.
You’re humming along in the development stage.
Then you go back and read what you have written and camp out in the desert of your weaknesses.
- You realize you just misspelled five words in one minute.
- Somebody asks to read your writing. You don’t want anyone to see it.
- You clutch it tightly to your chest because you don’t want to be rejected.
- You spent the last month writing a series of blog posts and you don’t hit publish for any of them because they aren’t perfect enough (raising my hand here).
- So your blog sits empty.
You have no readers because you have nothing to read.
You wallow in your weaknesses instead of celebrating your strengths. You live in the desert of guilt, shame, regret, perfectionism (procrastination), and imposter syndrome. Before you know it, all you can see is your weakness.
It’s at this point, I think – I shouldn’t be a writer. I can’t spell. I don’t know how to be concise or make a solid point. I stink at titles, bullet points, headings, subheadings, and I’m a perfectionist. So maybe I won’t publish this series or the book I have in the binder. I’ll just quit.
Hang on. I’m not quitting and neither should you. Before you click out of this article –
Let’s examine three truths about your writing weaknesses…
Writer’s Doubt
- Every writer has doubts.
- Every writer has fears.
- Every writer has weaknesses.
- No writer is perfect.
- We get tired. When we are tired, all of our weaknesses are magnified in our eyes.
Today I’m groggy because in my exuberance to get several writing projects edited, chores around the house finished including: taking apart both Robo Vacs, cleaning them and replacing parts, working out a bit too long and hard – I ended up working twelve hours. (YIKES!)
Today, I woke up at 5:30 am. I did my normal routine – Bible Study and then sat down to write. I added a quart of water with some hydrate powder in it to help me get going. I’ve had coffee. It doesn’t seem to be doing the trick. All that to say, sometimes we can push ourselves too hard. When we do, we have are overwhelmed with doubts and our weaknesses are magnified.
A Negative Mindset
The children of Israel escaped Egypt where they had been enslaved for 400 years. The Israelites walked through the parted Red Sea and then watched the Egyptians drown while in pursuit. With a memory full of miracles, they were camped in the wilderness- waiting for the promise of a land filled with milk and honey to be fulfilled. Moses sent out ten spies to check out the promised land. These spies came back – eight of them with a negative report.
“We scouted out the land from one end to the other—it’s a land that swallows people whole. Everybody we saw was huge. Why, we even saw the Nephilim giants (the Anak giants come from the Nephilim). Alongside them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.”
-Numbers 13: 33
Only two spies, Joshua and Caleb, returned with a positive report.
Camped Out in the Desert
The Israelites stayed in the desert for forty years before Joshua led them into the promised land. We can easily do the same in our writing journey. We can stay camped in the desert of our doubts, never pushing publish, or worse, never writing a word.
As I said, today I’m exhausted. I was tempted not to write. I had a friend scheduled to come for coffee and she asked to reschedule. I’m grateful because I know today, I need more rest. I know the words aren’t going to flow as well today. I know my weaknesses are highlighted in my mind right now. So instead of focusing on them, I am choosing to be consistent whether I write my normal 1,000 to 1500 words or just 400.
Writing is my job. And you are my “why.” I can’t encourage other writers if I can’t take my own advice. I’m working on development. I’m moving this chapter from an idea to a finished product to help other writers not stay camped in the wilderness.
Although my thoughts and ideas are flowing in a way I know I will need to reorganize (see my list of weaknesses), I’m putting them on paper. I’m misspelling words left and right. My desert mentality is saying –this article isn’t making sense. You are being way too wordy. Those thoughts may be true, but that’s what editing is for. You overshared. No one wants to know what you’ve been through, they just want the tips.
Why am I sharing all of my mind’s meanderings?
To help you. Maybe one day you are full of energy and excitement, you sit down to write and suddenly, negative thoughts are assaulting you.
- You’re not good enough.
- You’re an imposter.
- No one wants to read your stuff.
- You can’t write.
- This makes no sense.
- You’ll never help anyone.
So, you get up and put a load of laundry in. You forget about writing for the day, then a week, then months.
Do you know what’s sad about camping out in the desert of your weaknesses and negative thoughts?
- A group of readers needs to hear exactly what you have to say.
- You have a unique story and perspective that will resonate with them.
- No one else can tell your story.
- No one else has lived your life and overcome what you have.
- No one can write the way you do.
Writing Mentors Can Be Wrong
I had many writing mentors tell me I needed to simplify my writing. I was overly descriptive. Too many weedy words. Too expressive when I should have been less. Too wordy when I should have been concise. And then I went on this kick to root out all the weedy words in my students’ manuscripts. I had a compulsion to clean up the words in theirs because I felt unclean. While all of my writing mentors meant well, they were wrong – to a point. While I needed to become more concise. I didn’t need to change my writing style. It’s unique. It has a purpose. It’s me. It’s my style.
You have a unique style too.
When I read Ann Voskamp’s book – One Thousand Gifts, I got angry. Not at her. My high school teacher in advanced English. Plus those mentors tried to change how I wrote. Because Ann Voskamp writes in a similar style to the way I used to write. Someone decided her writing is beautiful and it is. So why is mine not? Just to be clear – I’m not Ann Voskamp. She is her own person with her own unique voice and writing.
I am Kathleen Guire. I have a unique story. A unique voice. A style I’m trying to recover. I’ve been so harsh with my own writing that I’ve lost the style I once had.
Your weakness may be your strength.
What am I trying to say? Maybe what others perceive as your weakness is actually your strength? Your gift. While we don’t want to have articles or books-
- Filled with misspelled words
- Lacking subject-verb agreement
- Not knowing what the direct object is,
- The verb to agree with the object of the prepositional phrase (watch out guys – Grammarly often does this and it is wrong).
*If all of the above is something you know nothing about or struggle with, don’t stress. Grammar and spelling are fixable. That’s what editing is for. And writing is not editing. Writing is writing.
With that said, what you perceive as your weakness, may actually be your strength. Remember when I said I have the unique ability to work on several projects at the same time? I used to think I was scatterbrained and not focused (plus a few people may have told me that). As long as I plan out my writing/editing in a manner that moves each project forward – this is my strength, not a weakness.
When I feel as if I am struggling with being too descriptive or wordy, I pull out some classics like Dickens –
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
This quote always encourages me. That’s one long sentence. So do portions of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and other descriptive writers. While I will still work on the ability to be concise, I won’t try to change my writing.
Every writer has weaknesses. Every writer has a desert. Don’t get stuck there. Every writer has doubts. Or get stuck in imposter syndrome. Don’t stay camped out in the desert. Reframe your thoughts. Replace limiting beliefs with a new script. Be kind to yourself.
Don’t let others tell you how to write (including me). Be your unique self because no one writes the way you do. You are unique. You have a story no one else can tell. A group of readers needs to hear exactly what you have to say. No one can write the way you do.
Your weakness may really be your strength. Take some time to think about what you think your writing weaknesses are. Then look at them again through the lens of strengths. Maybe like me, you thought you were scatterbrained. Instead, you’re a random organizer. Maybe you think your inability to spell means you are a weak writer. Instead, your strength is looking up words and using a dictionary and thesaurus which makes your writing stronger.
Journal It Out
- Are you stuck in the desert of your weakness?
- What’s one of your weaknesses?
- How can you look at it as a strength?
- Find a writer who has a similar style to yours and record some quotes.
Don’t stay stuck in the desert. Move forward to your “Destination”- a final product -whether that be an article, a series, nonfiction, or fiction book!
Would you like a free roadmap to point the way?
To help you move from fear to the final product?
Would you like to move from focusing on your weaknesses to seeing them through the lens of strengths?
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