Thank you for the question!
What is you greatest strength as a writer?
This is one of the hardest questions ever as it’s so much easier to be self-deprecating. I suppose though if I had to name something it would be my imagination. I’ve never been lost for an idea and I can come up with ideas on demand. I never have a lack of anything to write. If I’m prompted, it might take me a day, but I’ll have an idea. Whether I then have the discipline to write all these ideas though is another matter…
What do you struggle the most with in your writing?
Everything. Ok no in all seriousness, while I do feel like I struggle with pretty much every aspect of the process it does all come back to the same thing – confidence. First drafts quite often suck which makes it a draining process because it feels like I’m writing rubbish. I need the confidence in myself to know I can fix it, I need faith so that I keep going and I finish the story.
This doesn’t just go for the first draft stage but for every stage because there’s a risk in every part of the process. Plus the closer the story gets to completion, it’s then ‘finishing’ things and I need the confidence to let it go, to think that I’ve done enough, that I’ve done my best. It’s confidence that is needed to put it out there in the world, but to be honest posting is easy, it’s dealing with what happens next that’s hard.
It’s posting something and then screaming into the void, getting no traction with it and resisting the temptation to take it down and pretend like it never happened. It’s posting something and getting negative reviews, and being able to move on from that and keep writing. That requires a level of confidence I’m not sure I have because yeah it’s just one persons opinion but I’m wired to believe the worst. The comments echo round in my mind and it makes me wonder who I’m kidding, and that I’m a terrible writer and I should just stop because I’m embarrassing myself.
Confidence. It all comes down to confidence. Self-faith really. That is by far the hardest thing of all.