I ran 3 experiments: put in 7000 words from my cancer blog and 10000 words from my novel, and got wildly different results. I find truth in both - just like one finds truth in horoscopes no matter which one you decide to read for yourself? Does each reflect my frame of mind at the time of writing? Cancer blog: You are guarded. You are organized: you feel a strong need for structure in your life. You are empathetic: you feel what others feel and are compassionate towards them. And you are independent: you have a strong desire to have time to yourself. Your choices are driven by a desire for well-being. You are relatively unconcerned with tradition: you care more about making your own path than following what others have done. You consider helping others to guide a large part of what you do: you think it is important to take care of the people around you. Novel: You are generous, heartfelt and expressive. You are confident: you are hard to embarrass and are self-confident most of the time. You are laid-back: you appreciate a relaxed pace in life. And you are unstructured: you do not make a lot of time for organization in your daily life. Your choices are driven by a desire for well-being. You are relatively unconcerned with taking pleasure in life: you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment. You consider helping others to guide a large part of what you do: you think it is important to take care of the people around you.
I mean, with tools like this you have to take with a grain of salt, but the "guarded" element showing in your cancer blog is just so poignant and believable...empathy seems to be a theme either way. Do you agree that you moved towards a greater need for structure during your blog time? I mean...not that you necessarily had a choice to some extent?
Yes, the "guarded" part was interesting. Certainly writing details about a serious health problem in a semi-public forum made me guarded - cautious about what I wrote. I think I was pretty structured while writing the blog. Surprising to me was the part of "unconcerned with taking pleasure in life: you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment." At first I thought that was far off... but actually I take enjoyment from working on creative projects and producing things. I find it hard to sit and do nothing. So I think there's something to this - different states of mind while writing led to different results which matched my personality somewhat.
Ya. I feel ya. I got virtually the same response when I submitted posts I had made about my own serious medical condition. I submitted what I thought was the real me but, could not agree with some of the points made... I think you are very right - differents states of mind and different writing pieces like from my blog vs. forum posting will lead to very different results!