Meme: Snowflake Challenge - Day 8

[argentum_ls]

In your own space, talk about a talent (or talents) you have. Everyone's got something they're good at. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I have a lot of things I can do, but I don't think of them as talents. I can transpose letters into a code quickly, so doing a simple substitution cypher (A -> K, B -> L, C -> M, etc.) is doable almost in real time. Not quite. I've slowed down a lot as I've aged and fallen out of practice. In high school I took my notes in substitution cypher, when I wasn't taking them in mirror handwriting, or an alphabet system that I invented because apparently English was too boring. I found a notebook from high school recently and only recognized that it was mine because of the cyphers in it--none of which I could still read. I'm also good at puzzles, both of the jigsaw variety and logic/analytical variety. But I suck at crosswords. Go figure.

The one thing I'd consider I'd actual talent is editing. I don't mean copy editing, with commas and spelling, though I can do that. I do a lot of that. I've always been really good at writing other people's stories--though, not in the sense of fanfic or plagiarism, but in the sense of being able to take a work-in-progress (fanfic included) that someone else is struggling with and identifying what the problem is. I can find that one line when the characterization slips or the author's voice intrudes too loudly and derails the story, the bit of description that doesn't work and is bogging down the story's flow, the scene that's tangled on itself such that the author is writing herself into a cramped corner. Unknotting stories, as long as they're someone else's, is my talent.

Comments

[thefrozenheart.livejournal.com]

You use to took your notes in substitution cypher?! That's pretty awesome and geeky ^_^

Unknotting stories
That's such a good talent, but it would be better if you could use it for yourself right? Have you ever thought about being a book publisher instead of a teacher?