Memed by the delightful Lara to answer the following question:
“When it comes to writing, what do you know you’re good at, and what aspect of writing are you worst at? (Procrastination is not permitted as either part of the answer.)”
What do I know I’m good at? Nothing, for sure yet. I’m still moving through my apprenticeship here, so there’s lots of work to do in all areas.
But I’ve just spent the last half-hour or so going through various bits of feedback over the last couple of years, and the answer right now seems to be:
Good at: set-pieces, high concept, story.
Less good at: creating characters. (I’m fine working with other people’s, but I get notes on characterisation for those I’ve created from scratch.)
So I guess that’s what I’ll be trying to improve in 2009.
Passing on the question to Gallagher, Smith, Arnopp, and Perry.
2 responses to “Good and Bad”
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And happy 2009. Might chip in if I may as I had a meeting with a couple of producers last November about a writing gig (still waiting to hear/assuming I didn’t get it) and they asked me that very question.
I ummed and erred a bit before coming up with: good at humour, keeping the thing moving at a fair old pace (I’m a very impatient audience).
As for bad – I have a tendency to make my central characters too passive and just let the plot happen to them. This can work fine if you’re surounding them with a memorable rogue’s gallery (as you know, Dickens was a master of this) but not if they really need to drive the whole thing.
(Note: I deleted the first comment due to shameful typos. Honestly, it verged on txt spk).