What aspect of writing have you grown most with as a writer?

What aspect of writing (characters, prose, theme, etc.) have you grown the most with as a writer?

For me the biggest part of writing that I’ve grown most in throughout the years, is learning how to not make a story contrived.

When I was younger I thought there had to be a set amount of events and plot points in my story for it to be a interesting and complete novel.

However, that lead to character decisions that didn’t make sense, forced conflict and antagonists that the story would have been better off without, and worst of all…*gasp* McGuffins.

But as I grew as a writer, I learned to differentiate between what is important for a story and what isn’t. This helped me learn how to not make my stories feel so forced to the point where anyone reading it could see my thought process as the author.

Instead of focusing on plot, I focused on characters. I focused on their desires, demons, passions, and fears and how the other characters’ desires, demons, passions and fears naturally clashed and harmonized with each other.

I focused on their life and their world, and how who they are and their good and bad decisions led them to where they are now and where they will go throughout the book.

So yeah, this ultimately made me grow so much in not only making my stories less contrived, but also in how I viewed and approached stories as a whole. And guess what? Turns out not focusing on plot actually makes your plot more interesting and impactful. So yeah, character driven stories makes everything better, haha.

But anyway, what about you? What aspect of writing, characters, prose, theme, etc. have you grown the most with as a writer?