Are People Like Their Writing ...

Try record what they are saying. If that fails, add a flute or violin...

I am not like my writing. Firstly I do not have text wrtten all over me and secondly I am better than my writing, better than anyone.

I like frying chips

I like eating chips.

i can tell from your writing

He-he. Full fat, eh? You might be wrong elsewhere, of course. I can tell you have a strong attraction to freemasonary from your writing. That and macramé.

full... strong... masonry... You have a predilection for strong men...

of course people cannot be like their writing ... take liana for example ... anyone would think from reading her that she was a sexy passionate woman wouldnt they??? *bitter hollow laugh (thanks to guardian column instructions on How To Be Deep*

hrmmm *plots revenge*

People are revealed through their writing to a fair extent i think. For a start, your choice of subject matter. if you think football is the most boring thing on Earth, you won't write about it, will you? (unless you're trying to point out how boring it is). But the problem is deciding which part of the story is the bit that reflect the author. If someone writes, say, a murder mystery plot with lots of extreme imagery, is it the imagery you should be taking notice of, or the plot, or the way characters respond to events and the attitudes they have...? If you know where to look, i think a person's writing inevitably discloses quite a lot about an author. But by the same token, different word associations between writer and reader and looking at the wrong part of the story can lead very much to the wrong idea. Did any of that make sense?

Just the first part. Oh, and some of the middle - well all of it, actually. That and the end. What you say is true, Phillip. But each of us is many, many people and there can be no simple correlation between the personality of the writer and what is written. It would be very boring if all of us were merely working out our hang-ups in public.

That sounded a bit snooty. Didn't mean it to.

"hrmmm" says liana... as long as we're using a sans serif type-face in our browser we will be able to deconstruct said utterance by pictographic exploration and make a valid character analysis of the personality behind the above post... h = high-back chair r = upside down heeled boot mmm = little row of bottoms in the air now WHAT conclusions might we draw from this?

I've heard of graphology, but not typographology... this is a new one for me Dogstar. As for the question - I bloody hope not.

Ah bless! There are some people on this site who aren't intellectual snobs after all! [Joke for f***' sake, before anyone gets pompous!]

*looks up 'intellectual' in dic*

i have been following this thread with interest and many people make very good points ... it is true ... meaning isnt fixed ... what i see something to mean is not the same as the next reader ... but i do think people USE writing differently for their own purposes ... i have taught creative writing for a few years and see students who a clearly using it as some type of therapy ... this can also be seen on this site ... look at the the last ten any day of the week and you are likely to find examples of people not just writing but apparently BLEEDING onto the page .... and this is a valid use of writing ... i have known a lot of people who turn to writing during times of trauma ... and i know that if i am having a hard time writing about does help ... but there are also many other reasons for writing ... some of the people here claim that their writing is not like them ... and are these people just further removed from the product? ... it seems it is not serving the therapeutic function in these cases ... so what is it? ... i am guilty of looking at people's writing and drawing conclusions about the person behind it ... in some cases i have been right ... on some occasions i have made a right tit of myself (*peers at stormy ruefully*) ... but ultimately the writer-reader bond connects us ... i have made relationships through the site that have kicked off from an email in either direction that has been prompted by some connection or resonance made through the writing ... and i have found more often than not - if i like someones WORK i end up liking them ... it isnt ALWAYS the case of course ... and i suppose there are worse ways of choosing your friends ...

is this one of those psycho-analysis things?!! If it is, I am off, as we are bound to start using Freud's findings.

All true.. meaning is relative of course.. but its not static.. I believe that new meaning is created too.. So the writing that I most admire is that, that is always stretching the boundaries.. exploratory and risk taking for the person in themselves.. sometimes by general conclusion it works.. most times it does not. But when it does it is a real treasure to add to that growing pile of experiences that we call our life.. The only thing that I wish from an author is that they operate in this mode.. truly and honestly searching for their unknown territory.. and for that I am grateful for sometimes they intoduce me to my untrodden paths.

fish/fox, The only impression I've ever truly had of you (despite previous postings under the influence of reality-warping drugs) has been of that of one FOXY lady. *prays to all the Saints of Forgiveness for this second chance*

hmmmm i think you can tell a lot of things from people's writing, but as much as i try i can never assess the author's foxiness...

*unscrews thermos* I have a disclaimer on my website, ever since receiving a mail from a man who promised to "make it all better for me" (or words to that effect) Not everything that you read is fact, and if you can make someone else believe that it is, then you are acheiving something in one way, I suppose....

I think this can vary all over the map. I recall a scene from "As Good As It Gets" in which the adoring fan finally meets her favorite writer (the Nicholson character). Well, let's just say, Jack's character was nothing at all like what this fan would have expected. Then again, that was a movie. Almost all of my writing is autobiographical, though it is often out of context. Hopefully, the piece works as a self-contained story/poem, but it could give a strange perspecitve on me, even though completely true by itself. Then again, I am frequently described as "a strange perspective out of context," so maybe the truth is closer than I think.

It depends upon how deep an author goes to reveal his/her feelings. Imagination does not have to say anything at all about an author or it could say everything. To really know, you'd have to query the author and get an honest answer.

Absolutely nothing, I hope.

I am very much like my writing. I just cannot silent the bloody trombones in my head... DAY AND NIGHT! NIGHT AND DAY! AARRRRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

i reckon that there is no way to reach anything like a truth in writing. because what words mean here and now are not what they will mean tomorrow. likewise, meaning varies even more so from person to person. for instance, the meaning of the word 'jam' for me brings to mind not just sticky fruity niceness in a jar, or a jolly time stuck in your car, but also paul weller et al giving it laldy and shouting hallo horray! and whatnot while tapping their feet in bowling shoes. there is a frightening percentage of the population who were actually born after these jam days, as implausible as it sounds... so, what i was getting at was... even if somone is TRYING to be honest (*shivers) in writing, it's absolute bollocks because words at best are life mediated, and people *choose* their words very very carefully to construct meaning and impression. this week i've tried storylines about a minister, a killer, a transexual bus driver, a teenager in a chip-shop... i have no real empthay with any of these occupations whatsoever, so why should i have any real empathy for all the adjectives, verbs and miscellany that string them together? words CAN say something about the writer, but more often than not it might just say that the writer has a jolly good imagination. or that he is essentially bible-thumping, sadistic, transexual, bus-driving, chip-frying scum... are people like their writing? no.

I am very much like my writing. I just cannot silence the bloody trombones in my head... DAY AND NIGHT! NIGHT AND DAY! AARRRRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

I am very much like my writing. I just cannot silence the bloody trombones in my head... DAY AND NIGHT! NIGHT AND DAY! AARRRRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... Yes.

well glad that's cleared up then dogalog ... ta

I am gonna look a complete prat for saying this but I think the forums have *moulded* my perceptions of many people on the site. I try and focus on the writing but more often than not I read certain peoples work and imagine the author behind it. Its pathetic I know as this site is not about that, but I can't help it sometimes. I wonder if we never *knew* the people via forums or emails, would we look at their work differently? I would love to meet you all in a different setting and just talk about anything but writing sometimes. I think Fishs' point about therapy writing is so true, I am quite guilty of doing that.

My writing - of which I've only so far posted one example of on here - is mostly dark, sinister, evil and menacing - quite unlike me, because my hair's fair!