The Stingray

 
An image created by Helen Sword for her Writing BASE diagnostic tool.
 
 

THE STINGRAY

Your Stingray profile, shared by only around 1% of academic and professional writers, shows that you have given yourself relatively high ratings (6 or above) for your Behavioral and Emotional habits but low or moderate ratings (5 or below) for your Artisanal and Social habits. This profile is called the Stingray because you move fluidly and with evident enjoyment through your writing practice, but may lack technical refinement and social connection.

Your strengths and challenges create a distinctive pattern:

  • You feel fairly productive as a writer, with effective routines and time management (Behavioral).

  • You generally enjoy writing and find the process emotionally rewarding (Emotional).

  • You lack confidence in your writing skills and technical abilities (Artisanal).

  • You seldom engage in fruitful conversations about your writing with others (Social).

This combination means you are consistently productive and take pleasure in the writing process, but you may question the quality of your own work and miss opportunities for growth through collaboration and feedback.

ACTION PLAN

To broaden the BASE upon which your writing practice is built, consider drawing on your strengths as a writer to develop a sense of craftsmanship and expand your social networks:

  1. Channel Your Productivity into Skill Development

    • Dedicate specific writing sessions to focus solely on improving particular techniques.

    • Create a systematic plan to develop your artisanal skills, applying your disciplined approach.

    • Use your consistency to gradually build technical expertise through deliberate practice.

  2. Use Your Enjoyment to Sustain Craft Development

    • Identify which specific aspects of writing bring you the most pleasure and connect these to skill building.

    • Draw on your positive emotional connection to writing to persist through the learning curve of new techniques.

    • Celebrate improvement in your craft to create a positive feedback loop between enjoyment and skill.

  3. Begin Building Selective Social Connections

    • Identify one or two trusted colleagues who could provide encouraging feedback on your work.

    • Consider joining writing communities focused on positive growth rather than criticism.

    • Explore how sharing your enjoyment of writing might create meaningful connections with others.

  4. Create an Integrated Writing Practice

    • Design writing sessions that preserve your enjoyment while gradually incorporating skill development.

    • Experiment with different types of social writing experiences to find what complements your style.

    • Reflect on how developing your craft and selective social connections enhances your writing satisfaction.

The WriteSPACE can help you with all of these things!

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

 
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