This article is scheduled to appear on a friend-site next week as a guest post, but I thought I’d share it first with you, my readers and friends, who’ve been with me for a while now. It’s the backstory of the personality tests on this site, and of how they fuel my fiction.
While I am a writer of romantic suspense and mystery before anything else, I base my stories on accumulated knowledge of psychology and pharma (with which I have close contact through my work as a science translator). In my fiction I combine learned facts with imagination. My stories are mainly about talents becoming superpowers, and humans turning superhuman, but instead of going the beaten path of genetic engineering, my heroes go psych. What that means, exactly, and how is that related to the personality tests?
Well, the theory goes like this – humans are born with limitless potential; it’s the education we receive from family and society that limits us in time, that programs our minds; they teach us, for example, “we all have to die one day.” But do we? My fiction dares to question this universal truth, among other things. In my stories, unlocking the full human potential in order to make a character superhuman is a superpower in itself that requires great psychological finesse. But in real life I explore the human mind through personality tests that help readers discover who they are at the core, step by step. What is unique about you? What is your special talent (that may become a superpower, given the proper guidance)? Sure, you may be a wonderful but hopeless singer, thinking you share this talent with many others, but what you don’t know is that your voice has a unique vibration that no one else can produce. What does that vibration mean? And the questions can go on and on and on. Not to mention they can fuel countless stories.
While an in-depth personal profile or personal guidance is needed in order to answer the more exact questions, the personality tests on www.ana-calin.com will lead you step by step to discover the dark corners of your own mind. A while back I did a personal profile on a reader who became a close friend of mine, and I based my short story “Hyperion” on his alter ego – I’m waving at you, cuzz : ) The story is available here, if you’re ever curious. As for the personality tests, feel free to roam www.ana-calin.com for them, they’re free and some interactive. This is one of my favorites. Enjoy everything the site has to offer, and feel free to leave me a comment or write to me, if you like. You can find me on the blog, but also on Facebook and Twitter. If you have suggestions or would like to see personality tests with certain themes, by all means, I’d love to hear about it.
I’ve always loved your quizzes Ana and often find the results accurate and sometimes enlightening. I agree with you that we’re born perfect but are then moulded by family upbringing and society to become a different version of ourselves. You have so much to offer readers on your blog Ana. Keep up the great work.
Miriam, I hope you know how highly appreciated your words are 🙂 They are motivation and power to me. Thank you, and wish you a wonderful week!
It’s my pleasure Ana. I hope you have a wonderful week as well. 🙂
This is so captivating and I’ve always marveled at your ability to gently point to the key markers in the reader’s psych. I can attest to the results of giving your quizzes and personality profile a serious study. I have turned my life around by reconnecting with those key markers you illuminated. I was able to turn around and face forward instead of living the past. Now, I enjoy each step of each day. I do encourage everyone to give it a try with an open mind and see where it leads. Plus, your stories based on the psych power do drive deep and pull me into the story. That’s the best part of all 😊