But...but...but...

Hey everyone! *waves* I'd planned to be back in the beginning of May but somehow every year forget that May-early June is a span in which I barely have time to breathe let alone blog, Facebook, Twitter, and write. Among other stuff. I can't promise I will get around to commenting but will read blogs and reply to comments here.

I promised I'd follow up on my Self Lovin' Bloghop with a couple things that stood out to me in all the posts.

One was the commonality of what writers named as their strength. There were only about 3 things across the board: characterization, dialogue, and voice. There were one or two other things mentioned but, for the most part, those were the big ones. And all strengths to be proud of in writing. (A handful of folks participated but didn't sign up--you can find them in the comment section of the original linked post.)

The thing that stuck out (yes, like a sore thumb, y'all!) was that 90% of the posts also named what is was the person thought they did poorly. Or gave almost an apology before moving on to the strength. As in "I think I'm good at x, BUT..." I'm no innocent in this! I started to do the same thing before forcing myself to delete the preface.

Why is so darn hard to give oneself props? I know it isn't specific to the writing community but it sure seems to be prevalent here.




Comments

I think that's just human nature. Most people find it difficult to say just good things about themselves.
Hope you're doing well, Tara.
Zan Marie said…
So, you're saying we're all human, right? ;-)
S.P. Bowers said…
Sorry you've been so busy. Hope that things calm down soon.
Some of it is early conditioning (and it took very, very well in my case). We were brought up to with the idea that saying what you could do well was vain - and a terrible character defect.
And, that conditioning again, I would rather listen to self depreciation than self praise. Interestingly I will contradict the self depreciation and point out people's skills as I see them, but don't challenge vanity. I wonder why?
dolorah said…
It is easier to name faults than to be proud of yourself.

Try not to be too overwhelmed Tara.
Slamdunk said…
Welcome back.

Oh I would have been on the 90% as well. It is easier to notice and discuss faults--definitely not better though.
Misha Gerrick said…
I think it's been trained into us, this idea of being modest, of not wanting to rock the boat and not wanting to stand out too much because that might mean other people won't like/accept us.

And you know what? It's all nonsense.
Deniz Bevan said…
I hope it's not a gender thing. I would have thought apologising would have been a Canadian thing :-)