It's important to know what they are, but it can be hard to assess them. I don't like thinking, man I should really work on X. It's much better to think, I'm really strong in Y and Z. Or the always grandiose and ever-popular, I'm good at everything. I don't know what these agents are talking about, it's not for them.

True, this business is very subjective. But also true, there's always room for improvement. It's a cliche because it's just--well--true. I once read a post by Laurie Halse Anderson in which she gave revision advice that's stuck with me ever since. To paraphrase: When revising a project, don't ask yourself, what's wrong with this? Because your answer will tend to (somewhat defensively) be: Nothing. It's perfect. Instead, ask yourself, how can I make this better? There's always a way you can do that.

One of those ways is to work on your weak areas. It's always fun to work on the things that you're good at for obvious reasons. However, it's important to cross-train, so to speak.

That's why I'm going to do a lot of reading, a little bit of soul-searching, and a ton of thinking about theme, symbolism, setting/description/world-building, and secondary characters. Secondary characters are starting to really come together for me, but I'm still not where I want to be with them yet. It's so easy to fall into the trap of stereotypes...

At least I'm starting to own up to those weak areas! Let's see how this goes.