I'm A Weakling - #MFRWauthor

Welcome back to another week of the #MFRWauthor blog hop. Last week's topic was all about our greatest strengths. This week we are on the flip side of that to talk about our weaknesses. This will be a much easier post for me.

Picture source: http://www.picshouse2.com/vb/showthre...
Yes sticking with the Spongebob theme. I spend a lot of time watching that show thanks to my boys.

So the things I struggle with, let me count the ways.

Grammar rules. I mean I know the basics, but the use of commas to semi-colons to colons not so much. Good thing there are editors for that sort of thing.

Making of pretty words. I am simplistic in my thinking. I like going from A to B in the most straight line possible. When I read other author's work their words are pretty, poetic. I guess prose would be the term. Their characters make sweeping declarations of love. The words flow so naturally that you can feel the emotion behind them. Now yes, the everyday person doesn't take in grand gestures, but the have an impact in writing, especially in writing romance. Grand gestures, deep love, it's what it's all about.

From there my next one is probably the biggest. Descriptions. I have the hardest time pulling in the world around my characters. The sights, sounds, smells that bring the scene to life. If my characters are a coffee shop then I'll just say they are at a coffee shop. I won't talk about the smell of the coffee or the background conversations around them. The focus is on them and whatever topic they are discussing. Letting readers know what my characters look like. I have a picture in my head, but I don't translate it. Maybe it's because I write in first person and people typically don't go around commenting on how they look or dress, but it needs to be in there. Readers (some at least) like to have a basic visual of what the characters look like.

These are things I don't actively think about so I tend to skip it. Like I said, I'm basic in my thinking. Just the other day I was working on a scene and I wanted to talk about my MMC's smell and could only come up with sexy, manly scent. Yes it sorta gets the point across, but it's seriously bland. Showed the scene to a friend and she instantly came up with four different ways I could go into more detail on that. I'm not aiming for the lyrical purple prose, just words that are a bit more jazzy and less boring textbook.

The pretty words and descriptions are what I work hardest at. I'm not trying to go overboard, but I do want to add a little extra pizzazz every now and the. The grammar, well I try but I don't waste too much time worrying about it since I know it'll get cleaned up before publication. Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing outright terrible, but I'm not stopping to Google participle phrases and things like that either.  

So there you have it. Now you know my weakness when it comes to writing. There are more, but I don't want to bore you with them all.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the other participants this week.

~Meka