Writer Strengths: What Are Your Top 8?

The lovely Elrena Evans, from As Yet Untitled, challenged me to a fantastic Meme this week. The task? To list my top writer strengths. It's a tough but wonderful challenge. So often we seem to focus our energy on our weaknesses. It is important to take the time to acknowledge and celebrate our strengths and accomplishments.

1. A voracious appetite for knowledge. I have a yearning for experience and an interest in pretty much everything. I'm a sponge when it comes to information. I want to know everything and have an insatiable curiosity.



2. A deep rooted love of written language and a desire to master it. English is beautiful and intricate. It's amazing the depth of communication words alone offer. Without body language or visual/audible cues we can create entire worlds and detailed characters though a connection to words.



3. The ability to see ideas, opportunities and inspiration in everything. I never struggle for something to write. In fact, it tends to be the other way around. I'm so overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of possible topics that it's often hard to narrow my focus and pick one thing to write about.



4. A general optimism, faith and sense of universal purpose and unity. I think this is a fantastic trait for writers. It's important to feel like our part in the universal scheme, while slight could be far reaching and intended.



5. A stubborn inability to ever imagine myself doing anything else with my life. I've tried. There are occasions when it is challenging to continue fighting for a voice or when I have so little confidence in my ability or when the novel just never seems to progress when I think there must be something else I could do. But, no matter how much I wrack my brain writing is the only thing I can ever imagine myself doing.



6. A sensitive and compassionate heart that allows me to see, appreciate and connect with the depths of people. People are a vital element in everything we write. Readers are people and being able to connect with them on an intimate level as a fellow compassionate human gives us an edge to offer what readers want to read.



7. A sense of existing out of time which fuels my passion for fantasy. I've always felt like I was born to the wrong era. I love history and the dark ages. I'm enchanted by Celtic mythology and Arthurian legend. This sense of connection with another age flames my interest in the high fantasy genre.



8. Gritty computer skills, the ability to touch type, the knowledge of web programming languages. I’m tech-savvy and interested in developing technologies that keep me 'with-the-times' when it comes to writing techniques, online marketing and modern promotion.

Ah Ha! It's not so difficult after all. Of course, I noticed none of mine really relate to my writing at all. I lack confidence when it comes to my actual abilities but it is wonderful to know these eight traits that aid my successes as a freelance writer.

I think this exercise could be expanded and I figured five just weren’t enough to really feel the positive buzz. So, I’ve listed eight and I encourage you to list at least eight but you’re welcome to have even more if you can think of them. The more you can list the better.

I'm not going to specifically tag anyone but I'd love to know your own response. Feel free to answer in comments or follow up with an entry on your own blog.

What are YOUR writer strengths?