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All writers, whether you’ve written one story or one hundred, have strengths. We also have our weaknesses.
Think about superheroes: even the strongest, most badass heroes have their weaknesses, whether it’s a secret identity or a hunk of space rock. As a writer, your weaknesses might be anything, from backstory, to description, to perspective (all Core Concepts you can practice writing during our Writer’s Games!). In time, you can adapt to these weaknesses, and even overcome them. It all starts, though, with simple awareness.
To help you better understand your writing strengths and weaknesses, we’re going to walk through three common stages most writers will occupy when learning and improving their craft:
Stage 1 – Unconsciously unskilled
Stage 2 – Consciously unskilled
Stage 3 – Consciously skilled
Instead of simply explaining each stage, though, I want to explore how to move through them effectively. Let’s pull back the mask, build up that kryptonite tolerance, and strengthen our writing, one step at a time.
Step 1: Just write (and read)
Whenever you decide to learn something new, you start out as unconsciously unskilled. You don’t know what’s good or bad, so you won’t know what you’re good or bad at.
Writing is a unique skill to build: we’re all taught to write in school (academically, at least), and have been assigned to read books by writers who have mastered their craft. But writing is an act of constant discovery; there will always be aspects you’re unfamiliar with, or skills you can’t articulate. That is, until you start writing with the intention to learn.
This is the experimental stage, when you write freely to simply find out what you can do. You won’t know what aspects of writing come naturally to you or what is (currently) out of your reach if you don’t actually write, and write a lot. Write anything.
Remember that scene where Spider-Man jumps off a roof to test his new powers? It’s like that (but without the web-slinging abilities, unfortunately).
In addition to writing, reading can help you better understand what skills to build and how. Read with a writer’s mind; ask yourself why an author chose to include that image of a sunset, or why they described it as shocking instead of peaceful. Consider also reading:
Writing craft books – Craft books sometimes get a bad rap as they can cause writers to procrastinate writing by thinking about writing. But when you’re first learning, these books can teach you the essential elements of story writing, like plot, structure, character development, and more. Remember, crafts books are guidelines, starting points—don’t let them replace the act of actually writing.
A single author’s bibliography – Tracing a writer’s development from their early work to their latest can give you a unique look at the learning process. Remember, though, that every writer’s learning journey will differ. Follow your path where it takes you.
Books you’ve already read – Not everyone likes to reread books (me included). But you can pick out and analyze important writing elements with more acuity than on the first read. For example, I’ve read The Turn of the Screw three times now, and I still find new details that I never noticed before. Let yourself become an expert; memorize every turn (ha ha).
If you write and read consistently, it won’t take long to gain skill consciousness. That’s step one.
Step 2: Identifying (and accepting) your writing strengths and weaknesses
When you first started writing, did you ever feel like your skills actually got worse the more consistently you wrote? You almost certainly weren’t writing any worse than before, but as you wrote more, you became more aware of your writing weaknesses. Despite how it seems, this is a sign of improvement.
At this stage of learning to write, you’re what’s known as consciously unskilled. By writing more, you can now better identify your weak spots and areas for improvement. This is arguably the most frustrating part of building up your writing skills—you know what you need to improve on, but you’re not there yet.
This concept blew my mind when I first learned about it. Because yeah, I kind of thought the speculative fiction stories I wrote in middle and high school were going to make me the savior of writing. But then, my junior year, I attended a three-day young writer's conference, and I had a realization that most writers have early on in their practice: I’m not the best writer ever.
It’s not that I wasn’t good—I wouldn’t have gotten into the conference otherwise—but I was surrounded by other students, either my age or even younger, who were even better than I was. Suddenly, I could see the flaws in my writing: my sentences were unvaried, and most began with a subject; I avoided writing plot like I was swerving around potholes in the road; my imagery was detailed but lacked deeper meaning. I had a lot to work on.
Accepting your writing weaknesses is not accepting defeat—it’s just acknowledging where you’re currently at in your writing practice. Once you know your weaknesses and accept them for what they are, you can take action to improve on them, instead of ignoring or avoiding them.
That writer’s conference pushed me to confront my weaknesses—and it motivated me to improve unlike anything ever had.
Step 3: Learn—and practice
After you become aware of your skills, you can start playing to your strengths and overcoming your weaknesses to become consciously skilled. We’ve already discussed the power of reading and writing, but there’s another resource you can tap into to strengthen your skills: a strong writing community.
It’s a common misconception that all writers are introverted and wholly independent. In reality, I believe we crave meaningful conversations and connections with other writers. Writing communities are valuable for a variety of reasons; you can:
Bounce potential plot points, character arcs, and other ideas off of writers with different strengths
Connect with beta readers that can point out weaknesses in your work and help you improve them
Find people offering editing services that can help you shape your work during any stage off the writing process
Writers of all skill sets can benefit from joining a writing community, but new and developing writers often have the most to gain. And fortunately, writing communities are easier to find than ever. At the Writer’s Workout, you can join our Discord server which has several channels dedicated to helping you grow as a writer, including:
A feedback channel, where you can ask other writers for feedback (and offer your own)
A services channel, where you can find beta readers, editors, proofreaders, and more (or offer your own writing services!)
Several genre-specific channels for advice from fellow genre writers
In the end, it all comes back to writing. You will always improve by writing freely, but if you want a more direct approach to strengthening your skills, try practicing intentionally. Think of it as your superhero training montage.
Here are a few common practice strategies:
Do writing exercises – You can find exercises online, or you can design your own and tailor them to the specific skills you want to improve. If you struggle with non-visual descriptions, write a scene with your characters in a completely dark room. Or write a complete story using only dialogue. While the writing from these exercises won’t necessarily make it into your actual work, you’ll be surprised by how much they can enhance it. You might even discover an idea for a new story or character!
Try rewriting old work – As cringey or painful as it might be to read your old work, you can learn a lot from it. Refresh your memory on the characters and plot points, then tuck the story away and rewrite it from scratch, using your new skills. Who knows, you might fall in love with it once more.
Participate in writing contests and competitions – Writing competitions put your skills to the test—and they’re a lot of fun, too. The Writer’s Games are intentionally designed to help you improve your skills by offering you detailed feedback on your entries. Find a long list of contests here!
Achieving conscious skill takes time, energy, and drive. Luckily, here at The Writer’s Workout, you have a whole community of fellow writers cheering you on.
Step 4: Stay conscious of your weaknesses—and share your strengths
There’s technically a 4th stage of learning to write: unconsciously skilled. That’s when writing comes so naturally to you that you don’t realize just how strong you are.
While this might sound like winning the writer’s lottery, I think there’s value in staying conscious of your writing skills.
For one, the stages of learning aren’t always linear. You may move between feeling consciously skilled and unskilled, or you might feel consciously skilled at one aspect of writing—dialogue, for example—but still be unconsciously unskilled at others, like foreshadowing. By actively considering both your strengths and your weaknesses, you can continue to improve. (And yes, you can still make your strengths even stronger!)
Staying conscious of your skills also makes you a better community member. You’ll be able to more effectively share your writing strengths with others to help them improve and perfect their work, just like the writing mentors in your community did for you.
Remember—the world grows a little brighter with each amazing piece of writing it gains. Make it shine.
About the author:
Lindsey has a BA in English and creative writing from Brandeis University and recently completed the Columbia Publishing Course, nicknamed the "West Point of publishing." She loves writing short stories and has more recently taken an interest in writing poetry. For three years she was an Editor-in-Chief for her school literary magazine, Laurel Moon. You can usually find her reading, crocheting, or bothering her cat, Sister. She hopes to be a writer and an editor in the future to continue to help others improve their work.