Recognizing Your Strengths (and Weaknesses) as a Writer

I was a typical young girl, thriving on fairy tales that took me to faraway lands and soothed my desire to be something other than what I was: the very much ordinary daughter of a middle class family living in suburbia. The most exciting thing I could possibly hope for was for my sister to hide herself in the dryer (something she did rather frequently) and make my parents call the police to file a missing person's report.

So is it any wonder that with such a fascination with this idea of fantasy that I'd decide to write my own fantasy bestseller?

Yeah, that worked out real well for me.

What I found, when I sat down with my "How to Write a Bestselling Fantasy Novel" reference manual, was that I couldn't do it. When I realized that the only name I could come up with for my make believe land was Emerica, I had to face a humbling fact.

I. Have. No. Imagination. At all. Seriously.

I still don't. No matter how hard I try, I can't imagine my way out of a paper bag. It's my shameful little secret.

Why should you care, right?

All of us are like that as writers. We have to accept that certain things are beyond the scope of our ability to do them well. I'll never have a "Harry Potter" fantasy masterpiece on the shelves. But that's okay because along the way, I learned the specific things I do well.

I put my characters in situations that mirror real life so I don't have to give myself an ulcer trying to invent fantastical plot lines that no one will believe anyway. I use humor to entertain. I focus on the nuances of the turn of a phrase.

So when I write, I play to my strengths. And I quiet the nagging unease of not being perfect.

--Mandy