Meme: Five Writing Strengths

Charlotte tagged me to answer the “five writing strengths” meme. To be honest, I don’t necessarily feel I have any writing strengths. I don’t call myself a writer, though I am passionate about writing and I have been writing regularly, if not daily, for the last thirty years. The only true blue strength I have as a writer is that I never run out of stories. The following, therefore, is a list of five attributes that feed the fuel of my writing endeavours:

1. I have an elephant memory for the narrative details of my friends and family members’ lives: this allows me to remember years later the details of who did what to whom. This is a useful talent when making up a character’s biography, or trying to understand the motives behind a character’s actions. I know the characters in my stories intimately because they are just some composite of someone I’ve known in my real life.
   
   
2. I have a face people talk to: it doesn’t matter if it is a taxi driver (just ordered a catalogue bride), waiter (mother was unfortunately found in her kitchen four days after she died), colleague (bizarre escapades at a bordello in Bangkok), or doctor (worrying about her anorexic daughter), people take one look at my face and tell me things I certainly wouldn’t tell me if I was them. Writing allows me to incorporate some of the more interesting narrative details without divulging the source. So, I can “tell”, yet still keep their secrets. It is quite therapeutic at time. Does that make any sense?
   
   
3. I have a deep empathy for the human dilemma: I used to question why people tell me their intimate stories: am I so nonthreatening, harmless that they have no qualms telling me their secrets? My homeopath told me it is because I have a sixth sense called empathy. I do hope this is right.
   
   
4. I find it easy to ask awkward questions: inwardly I might be screaming with shock and distress, but outwardly I calmly ask, “So who is the child’s biological father? Is it the paternal grandfather or the neighbour’s garden dwarf?”
   
   
5. I believe life is more curious than literature: there are always crises, events, circumstances in life that are farfar more bizarre and interesting than any story a writer could come up with. How often do we find ourselves in the middle of some trite sitcom, epic romance, or devastating tragedy?

Thanks, Charlotte, for giving me the opportunity to reflect upon this matter.