D. from “Joe Felso: Ruminations” wrote an entertaining post on the strengths great writers need. (Entertaining because he started the post with some history of how memes came about and what they are, and along the way he managed to mention one of the so-called world’s sexiest men alive: Richard Dawson of Family Feud fame!)
At the end of the post, D. (aka Joe Felso) tagged us at red Ravine to list our five greatest strengths as writers (or the strengths we think great writers should possess).
Before QuoinMonkey and I divulge our respective lists, we wanted to take this opportunity to belatedly acknowledge bloggers who tagged us this past summer, not with memes but with awards:
- D. of Joe Felso gave us the Thinking Blogger Award.
- neath from Walking Turcot Yards bestowed the Creative Blogger Award.
- Ombudsben most recently called us a Blogging Star.
Our apologies for taking so long to acknowledge the awards and to thank all three of you for honoring us this way. Each of you inspires us, makes us think, and provides the kind of community we hoped to find through blogging.
Part of the reason we took so long to “accept” these awards was because we struggled with the customary passing-of-the-torch to other bloggers. There are many superb blogs; in part we feared excluding some when what we’re trying to do is build community.
In the end we landed on the notion that the way we esteem other bloggers is by adding them to our Blogroll, which we update every couple of months, and by regularly reading and commenting on their blogs.
That doesn’t mean we don’t love receiving awards. We do! And it doesn’t mean we don’t want to participate in memes. We enjoy that, too, although it usually takes us a while to pull together a joint response.
Toward that end, here are our respective five greatest strengths as writers:
QuoinMonkey’s Five
- Perseverence — Even though I sometimes feel like it, I don’t give up. I’m in it for the long haul.
- Sensuality — I write from the details of the senses. I can’t help it; I’m a Cancer. I want the whole package. I want to taste, touch, smell, hear, think, feel, and see. I want it all.
- Curiosity — I’ve always been naturally curious about everything. I am NEVER bored. I love learning. I ask a lot of questions. It drives my friends and lovers (and now my partner) crazy. But I see this as a most valuable trait for a writer.
- Slowness & Deliberation — I am slowmoving and deliberate in most everything I do. I take my time. I am thorough and detailed. I don’t give up until something is done and done well. These qualities are also my greatest weaknesses. Isn’t that just life?
- Gratitude — I am extremely grateful for everything around me that supports my life and my writing. Friends, family, partner, old lovers, teachers, mentors, bloggers, other artists and writers. I sense them around me every day. This feeling that I am supported keeps me going. And I want to give it back to other writers. I think #5 circles around to feed #1. And the cycle continues.
ybonesy’s Five
- Honesty — I write what I feel and what I believe. I don’t divulge everything, but once I decide to divulge something, I take it as far as I can.
- Curiosity — Me and QM, two curious cats.
- Reverence & Irreverence — I am superficial almost as much as I am deep.
- Story-telling — My friends tell me I know how to tell a good story. I’m not sure that translates into writing a good story, but I suspect it does.
- Drugs. Just kidding. Voice. — I don’t know if it’s true, but I believe I have my own voice. I know when I fall into it, and I know when I don’t.
Many of our fellow bloggers have already listed their writing strengths, but if you haven’t or if you don’t have a blog on which to list yours, we’d love to hear what YOUR top five writing strengths are. And if you don’t write or you don’t want to talk about yourselves, go the “Joe Felso” route and list the strengths you believe great writers possess.
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