5 Ways to Identify Your Writing Weaknesses (and Become a Better Writer)

Let me ask you a question: If I ask you to identify your writing weaknesses for me, how does that make you feel about your writing right now?

If you’re in one of those rarefied states of supreme satisfaction, I congratulate you. But after two decades of pursuing my own writing and hearing from countless fellow writers, I know it’s more likely you’re experiencing at least a twinge of doubt. A full-blown existential crisis is also highly possible!

The great news is that identifying your writing weaknesses isn’t evidence you’re failing. It’s actually evidence of your own growing awareness around your writing.

I always like to tell writers, “There’s no such thing as a perfect story.” Therefore, there’s no such thing as a perfect writer.

Throwing that idea out the window as early as possible removes unnecessary pressure to judge yourself by your mistakes. Because you will make mistakes. Every writer does. In so complex an art form as narrative fiction, every writer will confront a never-ending stream of writing weaknesses.

What are common weaknesses in writing? The list is endless, but a few writing weaknesses you might relate to include:

• Unclear character motivation
• Weak story structure
• Uneven pacing
• Flat dialogue
• Vague description
• Inconsistent POVs
• Underdeveloped conflict
• Weak beginnings or endings

If you have identified any one of these writing weaknesses—or one of a million more—then what this recognition actually means is that you’ve graduated to a higher level as a writer.

Recognizing you have weaknesses as a writer is actually a good thing.

Years ago, I first encountered the following quote, attributed to popular radio personality Ira Glass, and instantly felt its deep resonance:

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. … But your taste—the thing that got you into the game—is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.

Writing is a journey of never-ending learning that can leave even experienced writers gasping and overwhelmed in the face of their own inadequacies.

Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg (affiliate link)

But as newspaper editor Verlyn Klinkenborg encourages in his pithy book Several Short Sentences About Writing:

Whenever you get a glimpse of your ignorance, don’t fear it or be embarrassed by it. Acknowledge it. What you don’t know and why you don’t know it is information too.

If you know your writing weaknesses, then you’re halfway down the road to overcoming them. The trick now is to learn how to move beyond the vague sense of “something’s wrong” to actually figuring out what your specific writing weaknesses are and how to leverage that information into true improvement.

What Are Writing Weaknesses?

A writing weakness is a recurring craft problem that appears across multiple stories or drafts. It’s not just a mistake or difficulty encountered in one manuscript.

Common weak areas can include:

• Lack of awareness around spelling, grammar, and punctuation norms.
• Struggles with crafting dynamic, interesting prose.
• Under- or over-utilization of techniques such as “show, don’t tell.”
• Lack of nuance or motivation in character development.
• Stilted dialogue that feels on-the-nose or lacking in realism
• Poor pacing or narrative arc due to lack of awareness around plot structure
• Slow beginnings
• Cardboard supporting characters

Really, the list can go on. However, it’s important to recognize that almost all of these things start out as weaknesses for every writer simply due to gaps in craft knowledge. If you’ve written more than one book, I’m sure you can look back to previous attempts and recognize how your skills have improved with experience.

It’s also true that sometimes writers deviate from the “rules” for purposeful stylistic effect. For example, understanding how to subvert grammar rules to achieve a certain dialect can, in fact, be a writing strength. The same can be true for writers who purposefully manipulate story arcs and plot structure to create an intentional effect. Even when the result is experimental and reader response is dubious, this doesn’t necessarily mean the writer exhibited a weakness. If the effect was executed on purpose, then it was something in the writer’s control.

Rather, what we’re talking about here today are habitual writing weaknesses. These are areas that, despite a certain degree of awareness and effort, persist—usually because you haven’t yet fully understood what’s happening, or even because the skill involved is something you simply don’t enjoy.

Sometimes this can indicate you’re writing the wrong kind of stories (e.g., if you hate sentimental scenes, romance might not be your genre of choice; if you hate complex magic systems, maybe don’t write hard fantasy). Inevitably, however, successful writing requires us to master skills that don’t come easily. The first step is learning to recognize writing weaknesses, and then figuring out how to leverage that information into better skills

5 Ways to Identify Your Writing Weaknesses

If you know the question, you know the answer.–Sue Grafton

Actually, the easiest part of addressing writing weaknesses is fixing them. The hard part is often identifying them in the first place. Over the last two decades, I’ve found the best approach to identifying writing weaknesses is a combination of instinct and logical analysis.

1. Pay Attention to Your Gut Feelings

A writer’s instinct is a powerful—almost infallible—thing. Once you learn to listen to it, your innate story sense will rarely steer you wrong. It knows when a story isn’t working, and it knows why it isn’t working. The trick is learning to interpret what it’s telling you. Whenever you have a nagging sense something’s wrong with a story, start by acknowledging it.

Now, I’m not talking about giving in to the snide whining of your inner critic. Negative generalities such as “this stinks!” or “you’re a horrible writer!” are not coming from your inner story sense.

What you’re looking for are specific diagnostics, such as:

• “This POV is out of place.”
• “The dialogue is stilted.”
• “The beginning is weak.”

Subconscious niggles telling you “something’s wrong” are always worth pursuing. No one knows your strengths and weaknesses better than you, so tap into the source right from the start.

2. Notice What You Avoid Writing

Writing weaknesses are usually the result of certain underdeveloped writing muscles. We’ve never gotten around to strengthening them for the same reason we’ve never used that treadmill we bought several Januaries ago—it’s just too hard and unappealing. When trying to narrow down your subconscious nigglings to identify your faults, take a moment to acknowledge those aspects of writing a story that you don’t really like.

Do you hate beginnings? In years past, I wrote many a post about how I found the first fifty pages torturous. Guess what? Beginnings were one of my writing weaknesses (and something I still have to consciously focus on more than other aspects of the story).

• Are your antagonists one-dimensional?
• Do you summarize all your fight scenes?
• Do you avoid setting descriptions whenever possible?

If so, then these aspects are very likely a sign of emaciated writing muscles.

3. Look for Problems That Repeat Across Multiple Stories

Every story presents its own challenges, so something you struggle with in any one story isn’t necessarily a personal writing weakness. But when the same problem starts cropping up in multiple stories, you know you’re probably looking at something that needs to be addressed on a larger scale.

1. Consider the last several stories you’ve written.
2. Write a list of everything about them you’re not quite satisfied with.
3. List the aspects that were difficult for you in each story.
4. Which part of each story did you spend the most time working on?
5. When you’re finished, analyze the lists. Are there any common elements from book to book?

Chances are good that what you’re left with are the weaknesses that belong to you as a writer and not just to any particular book.

4. Ask Beta Readers, Critique Partners, and Editors

We all know that objectivity about our own work is darn near unattainable. As important as your own story sense is, don’t rely on it exclusively. Call in backup. Analyze the critiques you’ve received from beta readers, critique partners, and editors—especially from people who have read more than one of your stories. Seeing any patterns?

I’ve always found it helpful to give beta readers a short questionnaire after they’ve finished a story, to help them remember their reactions to specific aspects of the story.

You can ask beta readers things like:

• Was the setting clear? Did you feel like you had a clear idea of what scenes looked like?
• Can you give me a brief opinion of the main characters?
• Did you understand who was who and what their problems/goals were?
• Were there any characters that felt extraneous?
• Any characters you felt you were supposed to like, but didn’t?
• Any characters you had a hard time keeping track of?
• Did the plot keep you engaged? Did the overall arc make sense?

It can be difficult to be objective even about someone else’s feedback on your stories, so don’t be afraid to ask them straight out. Their answers may surprise you and will certainly educate you. Again, you’re looking for patterns, so when more than one person tells you your characters’ motivations are weak, that’s the time to listen up.

5. Look for Patterns in Reader Reviews

Writing weaknesses don’t disappear just because you’re published. Award-winning YA author Laurie Halse Anderson noted in an interview with The Writer (“Boiling Down the Bones,” January 2015):

I know my weaknesses. Plot is still a challenge, but dialog comes easily. Character development is cake, but I sweat blood about describing setting and folding descriptions into action to move the story along. I’m a terrible speller and a bit inventive with grammar, so I have to spend extra time on those, too.

If you are published, especially early in your career, you can find extra insights into your writing weaknesses by paying attention to reader reviews. On the one hand, this is rich ground for unbiased feedback, since readers are known to be brutally honest. On the other, it’s still important for open-minded authors to initially hold all opinions loosely, since readers still bring their own subjective expectations. Just because one reader dislikes something about your story or wishes your writing were different does not mean they’ve actually zeroed in on a legitimate weakness (just take a look at the one-star reviews on some of your favorite books).

However, whenever you recognize a common thread in negative reviews, that’s when it may be time to consider where disgruntled readers are coming from. My own rule of thumb is that “two people have to agree.” One of those people can be me—which means that if I immediately see where someone is coming from (i.e., my own story sense agrees), then I will take their criticism on board. But even if I initially disagree, I’ll take another look if a second person later voices the same thoughts.

How to Tell Whether Something Is Really a Writing Weakness

Although the underlying pattern of story theory shows us a consistent narrative shape that we can mimic to achieve optimal resonance–and although modern storytelling offers many conventions that are often touted as rules—not all deviance automatically signals a writing weakness.

Think about some of your favorite authors. Some of their stories are great in spite of their weaknesses, and some are great because they transformed a quirky “mistake” into a signature style. Think about Kurt Vonnegut’s herky-jerky interrupted timeline in Slaughterhouse-5 or William Faulkner’s sometimes-confusing stream-of-consciousness narration in most of his stories or Cormac McCarthy’s disdain for dialogue tags.

Unconventional writing techniques aren’t necessarily writing weaknesses. Kurt Vonnegut, William Faulkner, and Cormac McCarthy all developed distinctive styles by making choices that sometimes broke accepted writing rules.

The reason these techniques are not considered weaknesses is that these authors utilize them as conscious choices. (It’s also worth noting that they do so with varied results. These stories are, on the whole, considered comparatively difficult reads. Readers are willing to engage with their stylistic difficulties precisely because the authors’ overall technique is not weak, but exceptionally strong.)

Not everything unusual about your writing needs fixing. Both writers and beta readers can sometimes push back against things that are less a “weakness” and more a “style.” Writing advice, in general, encourages homogeneity. There are reasons for this. The study of storytelling and narrative techniques is largely the study of “patterns that work.” Particularly in an age that will likely begin increasingly prizing individuality, it’s important for authors not to be so intent on perfection that they lose their natural voice.

However, there is a balance here. The ultimate litmus test for whether something in your writing is a true weakness versus a charming or effective quirk is how effectively it communicates your intent. Published storytelling is ultimately a conversation between writer and reader; if your work is to gain an audience, readers must engage with and embrace your style and even your weaknesses.

The goal here isn’t to eliminate everything distinctive from your writing, just to identify those places where poor execution keeps readers from fully engaging or understanding.

How to Turn Writing Weaknesses Into Strengths

Once you’ve identified some gaps in your craft, how can you work with them to eventually turn them into solidly honed strengths?

Here are some do’s and don’ts when you’re identifying your writing weaknesses:

• Don’t be ashamed of or embarrassed by your writing weaknesses.

• Don’t run from or ignore your weaknesses.

• Don’t try to write your way through the hard scenes as quickly as possible just to get back to what you’re good at.

• 

  How to Make a Living as a Writer by James Scott Bell (affiliate link)

  Do take James Scott Bell’s advice in How to Make a Living as a Writer:

…systematically study the craft of writing with special concentration on [your] weak areas.

• Do consciously approach your weak areas, instead of just trying to “wing it” when the time comes.

• Do create a battle plan for attacking your weaknesses by sitting down with paper and pen and deliberately figuring out how to strengthen these areas in your next story.

Identifying your writing weaknesses can actually be an incredibly exciting process. Instead of floundering in the dark, blindly suspecting “something” is wrong, you can take control of your writing. And once you’ve conquered one layer of writing weaknesses, your good taste will be rewarded with still more opportunities for leveling up your skills as a storyteller!

Note: This article has been revised and expanded from an earlier version.

Want More?

If character arcs are a writing skill you’d like to understand more deeply, my new class Flat Character Arcs: From Transformation to Integration takes a deep dive into one of the most misunderstood types of character arc.

One of the reasons I wanted to teach this class is that truly understanding character arcs is about understanding why these patterns work—and what they’re really doing within the larger context of plot, theme, and character development. The better you understand the principles underneath story, the less you have to rely on memorized “rules.” You can begin internalizing those principles until they become part of your own storytelling instincts.

If character arcs are an area of your writing you’re currently working to strengthen—or maybe just an area of the craft you’re ready to understand on a deeper level—I hope you’ll join me for Flat Character Arcs: From Transformation to Integration.

The class will go live September 22. It’s pre-recorded, so I can join you live in the chat for the whole thing!

(I’m also teaching another class two weeks later on “Negative Character Arcs: The Hidden Pattern of Self-Deception.” If you’d like to go ahead and grab both classes, I’m offering a 15% discount for the bundle.)

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! What writing weaknesses have you identified in your stories, and what are you doing to strengthen them? Tell me in the comments!

Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or Spotify).

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