world-building and other weaknesses

...or maybe i shouldn't say weaknesses so much as things i have to work at, because they don't come naturally.

not every writer is good at every element of storytelling. some writers can plant plot twists and revelations on the page with barely a thought. some can spin similes and metaphors so unique you don't even notice the device in use. personally, i like to think i don't suck at pace or voice, and occasionally i come up with an original concept or unique characters.

but there are important parts of storytelling that i have to work harder at - some very important parts.

world-building, for instance. as much as i love reading fantasy or dystopian stories, i shy away from writing them, because i find the world-building involved overwhelming. i have a hard enough time keeping track of world-building in my contemporary stories (like making sure my characters aren't having a whispered conversation, when i placed them a football field away from each other).

something else i struggle with? - plot.
yeah.
kind of important.

right now, i have two decent plots (beginning-middle-end) that i should be writing.
instead, the only words that are coming to me belong to two characters with no story. if i keep writing scenes for billy and dane, pretty soon i'm going to have an entire book of scenes strung together with no story. but i just can't bring myself to work on anything else... because i'm drawn more to my characters than to my story lines.

what about you?
do you rock at endings but suck at dialog? are you great at keeping up momentum through that murky middle, but terrible at creating emotion on the page? what are your strengths and weaknesses?