The clues in a character’s handwriting

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Every wondered what you can read into a person’s handwriting? In today’s guestpost, Hana Rehman examines the loops and curves of graphology and shares her findings on assorted renowned artists. Can you use the insights to invent your own believably brilliant but flawed creative character?

The act of putting pen to paper is something special for most writers—we untangle thoughts, pour out memories, and make art out of words. But do these etchings on paper reveal more about ourselves than we might think?

Leonardo da Vinci

It has been debated whether or not the analysis of handwriting, or graphology, can be considered an actual science. But there might be something to it if we can uncover unique and unexpected traits by examining the characteristics of our letters.

Below are some emotions and personality traits that graphology claims our handwriting can reveal about us. Whether or not it’s entirely true is for us to decide, but it can always make for a fun, and perhaps insightful, exercise, to analyse handwritten pages.

Confidence

Supposedly, we can gauge one’s level of confidence by the size of their letters. Large letters indicate an upbeat, larger-than-life personality. Medium-sized letters show modesty and a good self-image. Small letters display focus and introspection.

Miro

Generosity and Openness

In graphology, letter spacing indicates a person’s openness and level of generosity. For example, large spaces between letters supposedly mean one is happy and generous, and when there are no spaces between letters, it is indicative of intelligence. No spacing can also mean one is closed off from others.

Emotions

The angle of one’s handwriting is believed to show off their inner feelings. For example, straight letters apparently show feelings of stability, calm, and even pride. According to graphologists, right-slanting letters show affection and tendency to opposition, while left-slanting letters demonstrate frustration, and that someone may be having a hard time with decision-making.

Frida Kahlo

Pen pressure is also thought to exhibit emotions. Heavy pen pressure, indicated by dark letters, shows determination and strong-mindedness. Mixed pressure, where the handwriting alternates between dark and light letters, shows the writer is sensitive, and may have trouble concentrating. Finally, very light letters show that the writer may be feeling ungrounded.

Graphology goes far deeper and gets very detailed, all the way down to the millimeter of letter width. However, using the general principles above, this method of analysis might be able to reveal something interesting about your mindset when you’re writing.

For more interesting handwriting analysis, take a look at this historical infographic created by the editors at 1stDibs. They analysed the signatures of twelve famous artists from history to see what they could uncover.

How to create outstanding characters

Park on Park Street cr Judy DarleyWith her debut novel Someone Else’s Skin, Sarah Hilary has revealed a skill for creating characters you can really believe in. Here she shares her tip for the craft of inventing people.

Source the initial glimmers

I wait for the voice to come first. I’m with Val McDermid on this: we don’t choose our characters, they choose us. Very occasionally I’ll glimpse something in a character in a TV show, or (more rarely) in real life, which will give me the beginnings of an idea, but more usually it starts with a line of dialogue, or inner monologue.

With Marnie Rome, I wrote her first, then retro-fitted the research and fine-tuning. It was more important that she felt real to the reader than real as a police detective. But I did read a lot of first person CSI-type pieces to get a feel for how she might approach her work.

Someone Else's Skin by Sarah HilaryListen to your character

I don’t consciously devise patterns of speech. It’s character driven, always. Marnie tends to speak quite abruptly and plainly, because she doesn’t have a lot of time or patience for double-speak. But, at the same time, she can be very empathetic, especially to victims. I love writing dialogue, but I tend to do it instinctively; it’s the one part of my craft I’ve never really had to work at.

Get to know all the sides of your character

In my first drafts, Marnie tends to be angrier and tougher. She’s often on the defensive, physically and emotionally. I find I need to dig beneath that angry surface to find the layers of response needed for the reader sees her vulnerability as well as her strength, her compassion as well her determination.

Her traumatic backstory is an important part of who she is, as it drives the narrative arc of the series. Not just what she went through, but how she has coped with it in the past (by burying herself in work) and how she will cope with it in the future (by confronting what happened and what it did to her). It’s a classic rites of passage, in some ways, but it’s complicated because it’s not just Marnie’s journey. It’s Stephen’s, her foster brother’s, too. He’s both the cause of the trauma, and its potential resolution. One way or another, he’s going to lead the pair of them into new territory.

Seek out telling details (such as Marnie’s tattoos)

The tattoos are indelible proof of Marnie’s teenage rebellion, a thing that haunts her throughout the series. Few people have seen the tattoos, which is one of the reasons she acquired them (casual sex is not an option when you have writing all over intimate parts of your body). Stephen has seen the tattoos. Marnie is still learning exactly what that means.

Choose your supporting characters with care

Characters such as Noah, Ed and Stephen each bring out a different side to Marnie. Ed is the one with the hardest task, I think, as he’s trying to help her recover at the same time as respecting her privacy at the same time as being in love with her and wanting to make her happy. That’s a tough, tough gig. Noah is a little in awe of Marnie as his boss, and as an ace DI, but he’s earning her trust, which is good for both of them. Her relationship with Stephen is the most complex one, and it’s the one which will change the most over the course of the series.

In some ways, she’s at her most vulnerable when she’s with Stephen, because he has the power to keep hurting her, by reminding her of what he did and withholding the reason why he did it. Marnie knows she will be hurt, every time she goes to see him. His punishment (long-term incarceration) is her punishment, in that sense.

Likewise, for your periphery characters

For Marnie Rome, these are the women from the refuge, especially Ayana, Hope and Simone. Ed tells Marnie that these women are ‘not her kind of victim’. They ran, and hid. They had to. But Marnie comes to see the strength in the women, different in each one, and I think that helps her to put her own strength (and weakness) into perspective.

Use your settings to explore aspects of your character

In Someone Else’s Skin, the prison and the refuge are both essential for that: enclosed spaces where it’s hard to breathe, and harder to feel safe. It was interesting, also, to put Marnie into Hope’s ‘perfect home’ with its showroom furniture and its shiny surfaces, and to watch her reactions. And Ed’s flat, with its jumble of stuff and its comfy mess. Setting is great. London is an amazing backdrop to the series, and I’m looking forward to taking Marnie into Battersea Power Station in book three.

Relish the luxury of a recurring character

I found that with Marnie Rome, it gave me the great luxury of being able to uncover her secrets slowly. She’s still surprising me, which is great, as it means she’s surprising readers too.

Create compelling, believable characters

Set goals for your characters, and then put obstacles in the way of those goals. See how your characters react, physically and emotionally. Give them at least five senses, and show them experiencing the world through those senses (i.e. not just rely on dialogue and inner monologue; tell us how the world looks, sounds, smells, feels to them). Get right inside their head, and under their skin, so the reader is right there, too. Even the nasty characters. Never show your hand as the author; instead, wrap your readers up in the story and the cast, as if it’s happening to them and/or to people they know and care about. Make them wonder what happens to the characters even after they’ve stopped reading. That’s the holy grail.

Sarah Hilary1About the author

Sarah Hilary lives in Bath with her husband and daughter, where she writes quirky copy for a well-loved travel publisher. She’s also worked as a bookseller, and with the Royal Navy. An award-winning short story writer, Sarah won the Cheshire Prize for Literature in 2012. SOMEONE ELSE’S SKIN is her first novel, published by Headline in the UK, Penguin in the US, and in six other countries worldwide. A second book in the series will be published in 2015. Set in London, the books feature Detective Inspector Marnie Rome, a woman with a tragic past and a unique insight into domestic violence.
NO OTHER DARKNESS, the second Marnie Rome book, will be published in spring 2015. Sarah is currently working on the third and fourth books in the series. Follow Sarah on Twitter at @Sarah_Hilary