Comments on: Happy Flaw

By: Jim Harris

Jim Harris — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:52:19 +0000

I didn’t become a bookworm until I was sent to summer school between the third and fourth grade for poor reading skills. My report cards all had comments about me not wanting to pay attention.

All that happened in summer school was the teacher gave me some interesting books to read - Up Periscope, a WWII submarine book, books about dinosaurs, WWI, etc. I got no instruction. He also taught me about the library and how to find books.

All it took with me was something better to read than what they were reading in class.

Jim

By: D. Moonfire

D. Moonfire — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:32:02 +0000

Actually, I have one really good flaw that turns into an advantage. I got in trouble. A lot. Now, as a child, I would get the timeout but being thrown into a room filled with books and things to do really wasn’t that much of a punishment, so my mother came up with a good idea. Make me write an essay. Just a little 200 word essay of why I was in trouble and what I did wrong.

As I got in more trouble, it turned into 300, 400, 1000, or even a 2000 word essay as part of my punishment. As I said, I got in trouble a lot.

So, now I can write a 2000 page chapter in about an hour and do 50k word short novels in 16 days… all because I got in trouble.

By: Samantha Ling

Samantha Ling — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:26:38 +0000

I was in ESL from first to third grade and I had special tutoring sessions with older kids for spelling. You’d think that I’d become some spelling bee champion or something. But no, I just ended up reading a lot. =D

By: Bruce

Bruce — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:49:05 +0000

My father made me wrestle in grade school even though I hated it. I was the worst wrestler in the program. But despite how bad I was he wouldn’t let me quit. I don’t recommend that a parent use these exact tactics (though if it works…?), but over about a 8 year span of wrestling through grade school and junior high, I became one of the best wrestlers. I learned then that no matter how abysmally bad at something I am, with practice, I will get better. This is a lesson I’ve applied to many things in my life because I start out really bad at each new thing I try–no natural talent at all to draw upon. But I do trust that if I keep at it, I’ll improve. Thanks Dad.

By: Timmy Mac

Timmy Mac — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:47:28 +0000

Funny story. When I was in 4th grade, my teacher sent a note home saying that I was falling far behind in multiplication. My mother, being my mother, took it upon herself to drill me on my times tables every morning before school. It was a knock-down, drag-out brawl every time, but pretty soon, I was blowing through the daily timed tests in class and leaving my schoolmates in the dust.

At the end of the year, my teacher mentioned something about how good I was at math. My mom said, “Well, after you sent that note home about him doing poorly, we really started to work on it.” The teacher had no idea what she was talking about. Turns out, the note was supposed to go home with the girl who sat behind me and who never DID get any better at math.

By: Deb

Deb — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:23:43 +0000

Dogs (yes, I know people who know me will be so surprised).

My first Rottweiler was too much dog for me. And th training methods people used at the time Did Not Work. I felt as if I had made this huge moral commitment to this dog and I had to train her and she had to somehow not be a danger to me or other people or other dogs and if I failed it was her life on the line. I ended up learning massive amounts about not just animal behavior but people and how we learn and what differences there are between people and animals and how to teach (both people and animals) and what a punishment culture we live in and why that isn’t effective or useful.

It has also made me more patient, more physically confident, and more chaos-tolerant.

By: Barry Holmes

Barry Holmes — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:13:21 +0000

I was introduced to video games at a young age to assist my appalling hand-eye coordination. That experience probably sparked my interest in computers and today I’m a computer programmer.

By: Marie Brennan

Marie Brennan — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:32:58 +0000

Not as a writer — not that I can think of — but to this day, I still have “good feet” in the ballet sense, because my feet were *crap* when I came to my third studio. I rolled my ankles and sickled when I pointed, and then when a teacher pointed that out to me for the first time I went on a two-year crusade to fix it. Never became that great of a ballet dancer, but man, in coupe I can still wrap my foot around my ankle.

. . . that probably made NO sense to most people.

By: Laura E. Goodin

Laura E. Goodin — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:46:01 +0000

Martial arts. I was incredibly uncoordinated and had lousy lungs. But the fact that I struggled over so many mountains to finally achieve competence made me the best karate teacher you will ever have: I know how to fix all your mistakes, because I’ve made ‘em! AND had to fix ‘em! And yes, this mindset (including the thirst for detail it instilled, which I had lacked before) comes in very, very handy as a writer.

By: Karen Wester Newton

Karen Wester Newton — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:23:44 +0000

I went from being a librarian to a systems support manager because I couldn’t touch type. I had to produce a 4-page document every month and it took we hours and hours to do on a typewriter, so I learned word processing. Then I taught my staff word processing, and the next thing I knew I was in systems support.

Word processing sure came in handy when I decided I wanted to be a writer.