What are you proudest of in your own work?

[maxismerlin]

A lot of us here are writers, which may be part of the reason we criticize Paolini, Meyer, Tesch, Stanek, and others. We don't understand how publishers can accept the tripe they spew out. I imagine many of us are confident that we have them beat, at least in some areas. So, if you are one of those people, what areas of your work are you proud of?

Comments

[diamonte19]

I'm really proud that I've found my own special style that fits my vaguely sociopathic and certifiably crazy narrator. It usually involves lots of similes and verbs that invoke metaphors. Kind of difficult to explain, and it's not as purple-y as it sounds.

But I know that eventually I'll find some book that just blows my mind and I'll be back to realizing how terrible my writing actually is.

And I know I really need to work on my atmosphere and pacing. Sometimes I move too fast and don't really establish a sense of place. It leads to my novels staying on the low end of the word count quite often. (This draft of Redemption is going to finish out around 65,000 or so words). I think it's because I tend to be a very visual person when it comes to storytelling. I see everything playing out in a movie in my head, then I just have to let my character describe the movie and I write it down.

[maxismerlin]

I think I need to work on showing emotions, action scenes, and my sometimes-awkward prose.

[seraphania]

I....I don't know, I guess I'm proud of my imagination. I know that sounds weird, but every time I tell someone about one of my stories, their reaction is: "Wow, that's so original/imaginative." I'm just glad I'm not another Tolkien-clone. Not that those, are, uh, bad. *cheesy grin*

I guess the thing I'm proudest of, however, is my descriptions. I'm pretty good at describing things in offbeat ways without wandering into purple prose area. It's a fine balance, I suppose. That and natural dialogue.

The thing I want to work on the most is pacing. That's the area I'm weakest in. That and action/battle scenes...that's probably my weakest point, since I don't have a lot of practice with those, or real-life experience. It's just something that I'm working on.

[leterren]

I'd probably say the world-building, because for me it's a continual process that goes on in my head nearly CONSTANTLY, and I've have like 6 years to work on this one setting (granted it's like ten thousand years of rough history, but still),
but I think I need to work on showing the readers who the characters are. I mean, -I- know them, but nobody else does, and transmitting that effectively within the story has always been hard to show for me :/

[darth_gojira]

I'm proud of my characters. They're clearly defined, and I think both OC and canon characters come off as nuanced and complex.