What are the strengths and weaknesses of a writer?

Hmm, good question.

You mean on Quora or in general?

I think (on both Quora and in general), I have a strong tendency to over-write things. A few months back, I got a couple of feedback forms from a company I do translation for and one of the issues was that they found my English unnecessarily complicated. Or more to the point, it contained a lot of redundancies. I would say things that could be said in five words in ten words. That type of thing.

In my head, it all read well, but for these reviewers, it sounded unnatural. They speculated (correctly) in the comments that I might be British 😂 so maybe it's just a cultural difference, but nevertheless I've taken what they said on board and have been trying to rein in my lyrical flourishes a bit. Keep it simple, stupid!

What else?

I'm rubbish at conclusions. The thing I struggle with on Quora the most is how to finish answers, which is why you'll find a lot of what I write finishing with some variation of:

Anyway, yeah, that's what I think of X.

The reason is that I tend just to start writing without any clear idea if what I'm going to write or what I want to say. I don't tend to structure my writing with introductions, hypotheses, theories and conclusions. This tends to lead to answers that go on a bit of a ramble round the countryside before arriving at some basic point.

It's a habit that's stuck with me since my school and university years. I've never written an essay that got north of 70% for that very reason. I'm just a bit all over the place.

As to my positives…

Well, I think I have quite a characteristic way of writing. My answers read like how I think I sound. I think a lot of you would be able to tell it's me writing in a lot of cases after only a few sentences because of my style. I don't think I read like other writers.

I'd like to think as well that I write in a fairly colloquially engaging way. As in, I write like I'm in the sweet spot of having had two and a half pints and I'm talking with a close friend down my favourite boozer about something that really animates me. That's how I try to write on Quora anyway.

But, anyway, yeah, that's what I think about my positives and negatives! 🤣👍

I'm sure some people think I'm a boring, unengaging and pretentious div, but, you know, you can't please everyone!