Graphology

Just received my handwriting analysis report, and boy it is one interesting and disturbing read.  I mean how can you tell that much about a person (unconscious stuff as well) just from putting pen to paper?

            Sure I realize the jury's still out on how scientific graphology is because like all personality profiling techniques an element of guesswork and personal interpretation is going to come in.  But it is a fascinating area of expertise all the same.

            The reason I got into this is that my friend has recently completed a diploma in graphology and is in the process of setting up her own online business.  She needed some willing volunteers to provide examples for her website, the bait was getting a full report for free.  I snapped this up, because being a writer, and therefore a hopeless megalomaniac, I couldn't wait to find out more about me!

            My friend asked me to send a piece of writing, just a few paragraphs with my signature at the end, written in a fairly normal situation, (i.e. not a shopping list when just about to fly out of the door).   She then completed the analysis in various parts which sounded quite technical, such as synthesis of signs, definition, characterology and so on.  I'll just give you a brief outline of the report as it was quite long, just the juicy bits as it were.

• The upright position of my letters shows that I am friendly and independent, but this is balanced against a firm lower script, so I also need to feel secure and have a firm home base from which to branch out from (so true). The rounded letter shapes mean I am interested and responsive to people.
• The speed of my writing is fast and flowing, which shows that I am lively and intelligent (thank goodness).
• My friend pointed out my 'n' shapes were almost in a cup, I never noticed this before, but this means I am generous, and respond well to spontaneous ideas.
• The lower zone (bottoms of 'g's and things) is fairly open, which shows a dislike of confrontation (again so true), and the shape of this zone shows a balanced rounded viewpoint, and the ability to see all sides of a story - essential for a writer!
• Oh dear - the open tops to my 'o's and 'a's show a tendency to be indiscreet and gossip, my friend underlined this sentence twice and put a smiley face next to this, so I guess she agrees!
• My writing also showed that I was warm and welcoming in social settings, but that I could use my natural charm in a calculating manner.  My husband laughed when he saw this bit as apparently I can go on charm offensives, especially when I want something.  I am a bit worried as this smacks of being manipulating so I may have to rein that in a bit.
• Lastly my signature, which graphologist seem to reckon say a lot about you.  Mine is much larger that the rest of the writing, and worrying words like 'egotistic' and 'unreliable' were banded around.  Surely not me, unreliable!  I would accept forgetful and absentminded maybe...

Oh well as you can see from the very brief extracts from the report, there are some good stuff and bad stuff, although thankfully mostly good.  The interesting thing was I never considered myself unreliable before, but now when I really sit down and think about it that's exactly what I am sometimes in my personal life.  At work I am as solid as a rock, meeting deadlines and setting high standards.  I guess that strain of this creates a backlash in at home as I must admit I quite often forget to ring people back or have to break lunch dates because of over commitment.  My new vow from now on - to take a bit more care over my personal business as well as my professional, and to stop being so careless!  Absentminded is kind of cute - unreliable is just a bad habit.

Writing is a circular inferno...

My site name has been simmering under the surface for sometime. 

For those that have never read Dante's 'The Divine Comedy', hell/inferno is talked about as being a place of ever decreasing circles of torment.  Anyone who pretends to be a writer like yours truly, naturally propels themselves into a similar state, and to be honest any creative endeavour in general has several levels of torture upon which one can grind oneself.    

The first circle of hell for Dante was Limbo.  The poor souls here were not punished exactly, more kind of lost in a strange sad state where they knew something had gone wrong with their lives but they were at a loss to fix it.  This is the place all writers find themselves when they have burningly brilliant ideas for their work, but sadly no time in their days to actually sit down and get them out onto paper.  Thank gods I have descended (in the inferno we always go down not up) from that horrible place, as now I MAKE time to write, at the expense of the overflowing washing basket and wilderness garden (its better for the bees anyway). 

No - I am past all that and currently abiding in the painful 5^th circle of writing hell, the pit for those tormented souls that are faced with the ordeal of multiple rewrites on a piece of work previously thought of as 'quite good', and now upon advice from others is revealed to be 'quite pants'.

There is no anguish like cutting and dumping large chunks of painstaking work - it's good, you know its good but it just isn't right.  I am currently trying to make myself cut and rewrite the first two chapters to a paranormal novel series I have going on but I can't bring myself to do it just yet.  It just took so long to get it down on paper the first time my brain goes numb in horror when I try and think about changing it.  Of course I can see it needs doing, that section no longer fits with how the book has developed, but golly it's hard going.

            Oh well at least I have the virtue of being one of those writers who has other projects going on as I can shy away from this for now and work on some feature articles and short stories I am submitting - also I am a keen painter and have some artwork in the pipeline - busy busy!

Will get back to you in a while with my first ramblings on a subject of my whimsy - an idea is forming about an article on Manuscript Critique, I did this professionally for a while and maybe if I am feeling generous some experience shall be imparted here for free. Maybe.