Reader Friday – Inkblots

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WHAT DO YOU SEE?

In 1921 Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach developed the Rorschach Ink Blot Test to evaluate subjects’ psychological functioning. It is often used to explore personality characteristics and emotional functioning. The original test had 10 ink blots. The picture above is inkblot #10.

This past Monday, Sue used ring tones to define characters. Tuesday, Kris discussed sound tracks and their correlation with tone and emotion. Let’s continue our inspection of our characters with the Rorschach test.

The original test used 10 inkblots. Today we’ll use one. Here is the assignment:

  1. Pick the MC from one of your books or a favorite book.
  2. Have your MC inspect the inkblot above and tell us what he or she sees.
  3. Explain what that reveals about the personality of your MC.

 Please be as wildly creative as you wish. And realize this is an opportunity to plug your character and your book.

56 thoughts on “Reader Friday – Inkblots”

  1. I asked Charles Claymore “Charlie” Task from Confessions of a Professional Psychopath to take a look. After a moment, he shook his head, a snide look on his face. “Two seahorses going to battle over whatever they’re holding between them. Is that SpongeBob, stretched to just short of the breaking point? And each has a blood-swollen, sword-wielding (and very large) tick in support.”

    Personality? The opening paragraph in Confessions is “Of the three wingback chairs in my library, only one is upholstered in human skin. There’s a reason for that.” That’s Charlie for ya.

    • Wow, Harvey, that’s an interesting interpretation. And Charlie sounds like a very interesting character. Great book cover, too. I’m adding it to my TBR list.

      Thanks for the peek inside a Charlie’s mind.

  2. My MC is a widow struggling to run a farm by herself. She sees needle-nose pliers, which reminds her that she’s left hers behind the washing machine, and needs to get back to fix it.

  3. Today I’m my own main character. This week has been brutal at eork and I have to be out the door in two minutes.

    I see the Eiffel Tower, Fu Manchu, and two
    seahorses.

    What does it say? Haven’t a clue.

    • I see a hard-working Cynthia, running as fast as she can away from the Eiffel Tower, with a large decorative scarf wrapped around her neck, yet reaching the ground. As she runs onto the stage, someone is shooting, with large blue puffs of smoke exploding behind her.

      Thanks for your participation, Cynthia. Hope you can grab that gun and string those antagonists up, hanging from the tower…

  4. I’m with Cynthia on the Eiffel Tower and seahorses. Additionally, I see spider chrysanthemums and goldfish.

    My MC Tawny Lindholm says, “I wish my thirty-something daughter would get a real job and quit tie-dying my t-shirts!”

    • Great. Debbie. I saw tie-died patterns, too. The older Rorschach blots are black and white. The last three are full color. So much more interesting with color, so many more possibilities.

      In which book (in your Tawny Lindholm series) is Tawny particularly dueling with her daughter? Which book should we read first?

      Thanks for your psychoanalysis.

  5. Angie Mead from my Mapleton series sees her apron after decorating a birthday cake for a customer at her diner, Daily Bread. She’s always trying to do the best she can for people, which often involves food. (She’s a good counterpoint to her police chief husband.)

    • Wonderful, Terry. All that beautiful colored icing, all over her apron. Or maybe all the color and chaos when the camera crew came to Mapleton, Deadly Production.

      Thanks, Terry!

  6. Good morning, Steve. I’m my main character this morning as well. I see a terrier wearing a jetpack, armed with twin confetti guns, swooping in on a target. Are you sorry you asked? It’s a terrific question, regardless.

    Have a great weekend, Steve!

      • Thanks, Joe. Yes, a futuristic attack dog, gunning for the MC while he is shoveling snow for neighbors and feeding the city snow-removal crews. Little does the terrier know, that the MC has an ally with the neighbor’s dog, who is loading his dog-biscuit canon to mount the counter attack. It’s going to get dog-gone interesting.

        Thanks for participating in our crazy game!

  7. I see seahorses exchanging wedding vows in Paris. Blue crabs serve as best man and maid of honor while other fish look on. The celebrant chose to wear a blue bra.
    Boxers sees elements if tonight’s appetizer.

    • Wonderful, John. I can see it. I wonder why Jonathan is thinking about weddings. And I don’t think those blue crabs will be enough for Boxers. He’ll need a boat load.

      Thanks for your analysis.

  8. Shawnee Daniels, my MC, sees a spine with two lungs at the top (from a body dump). The pink are seahorses sharing a blue meal, with sea urchins and smaller fish around them.

    Now I need to read the comments to see what everyone else saw. 😉

  9. Jager, the hero of my latest—El Norte—mainly sees the two red lungs. Because he’s a swimmer, and he’s going to need all his swim smarts and breath-holding skills to make it out of this alive. Kinda like me, also a swimmer, who’s preparing to go 75 meters underwater next summer on one big breath.

  10. Kama, high IQ computer hacker, sees the mathematical equations for mirrored fractals. She thinks it could be improved by creating it as a 3D motion graphic. Rafe, CEO and security professional who leans towards metaphors that reflect his penchant for magical thinking, sees a set of wings he could use to hang glide in the Alps. He rather be there than in another boring board meeting. Calculated Risk by K S Ferguson.

    • Thanks for your analysis, KS. You lost me in the mathematics, but Calculated Risk sounds interesting. I’m putting it on my TBR list. I like the wings for hang-gliding. At least Rafe isn’t planning to jump off the Eiffel Tower.

  11. One of my characters, Cece Goldman, is an actress who loves disguises. She says she sees the Eiffel Tower (she was in Paris for her eighteenth birthday). All the rest remind her of various costume decorations, including the red boa she wore in a play.

    • Great, Kay. Thanks for mentioning the red boa. I couldn’t remember what they were called.

      Yes, costume decorations. I can see them.

      And which book had Cece hiding in the costume jewelry while she eavesdropped on an important conversation? Was that <Dead Man's Watch?

      Great analysis!

  12. JG: So, Poet, what do you see here?
    TENIRAX: I see the piece of paper. With the smudges all over it.
    JG: The smudges, what do they look like to you?
    TENIRAX: Like the smudges of color.
    JG: Yes, but if they weren’t smudges, what would they be?
    TENIRAX: That is one very big IF. ¿What is the matter with you?
    JG: Nothing. Please, just play along.
    TENIRAX: Very well. They look like a painter has cleaned his brushes.
    JG: And…?
    TENIRAX: ¿And are you sure you are are all right?
    JG: I’m a little bit worried.
    TENIRAX: Tell me about it, por favor/
    JG: No. My friend Esteban wants to know what the smudges mean.
    TENIRAX: ¿This amigo, Señor Esteban, he is all right?
    JG: Of course he is.
    TENIRAX: Bueno. ¿Then what do they mean to you?
    JG: Okay. I see a blue-eyed fox with an odd hat and green legs…
    TENIRAX: Go on.
    JG: The hat looks like the Pope’s hat. With praying hands on top.
    TENIRAX: ¿And the Pope, what does he mean to you?
    JG: The Church.
    TENIRAX: ¿The Inquisition, perhaps?
    JG: Perhaps. But these questions are irrelevant!
    TENIRAX: It is you who started. This is your Inquisition….

    • Senor JG, thanks for defending me to TENIRAX. I will admit that I used to claim that there was a fine line between genius and insanity. Now, sadly, I must admit there is an overlap that is probably best described as madness.

      And tell TENIRAX that I thank him for getting you to answer the questions. At least there are no wrong answers in this inquisition, no punishment. Everyone is a winner. Everyone gets a trophy.

      And as for that blue-eyed fox: Are you certain that you were not looking in a mirror?

  13. Meg Booker, my MC, sees her actor brother Theo, heavily made up, wearing a mask, dressed in a very low budget performance of either the Mikado, or as Poseidon in The Trojan Women. Poseidon has a mohawk because this is 1985, and wears a feather boa representing coral while holding two blue crabs. Theo is always landing roles in local and regional theater, AKA “Off-Off-Off Broadway,” because he’ll take a chance on anything.

  14. Rikki Roselli is a psychologist in The Widow’s Circle by K.C. Riggs. She says Rorschach tests are nonsense, but if you insist: It looks like internal organs splayed out on pavement, after some richly deserving man got hit by a convenient bus. Did I mention that she hates men?
    I’m just about to finish the sequel and Rikki is up to her eyeballs in men who need a well-timed bus.
    What a fun test. Thanks for another good post. Now, back to the mayhem…

    • Thanks for taking time from the mayhem, Karen.

      I did get the slight hint that Rikki dislikes men. We could have laid the organs out on an autopsy table, but that would have missed the opportunity for a “convenient bus.”

      The Widow’s Circle sounds like an interesting book, though I am afraid to open the cover until I have donned my full-body armor.

      Great analysis and tone!

  15. Oh, boy, Steve! Didn’t have to think long about this one…my MC was shouting it at me.

    From my next novel . . . Annie Lee was raped on prom night when she was 16. That horrific experience is the bedrock of all her fears for herself, her marriage, and her four children. Everything she experiences now, good or bad, is filtered through that sickening few minutes decades earlier.

    Follow her through the novel to the catalyst that brings that one night into focus for her, and how she emerges from that tunnel she’s lived in most of her life.

    #shameless promotion 🙂

    • Good morning, Deb. Thanks for the analysis for your MC in your next novel. It sounds like the plot will be an extremely emotional journey.

      What is the title of the next novel, and any predictions for the publication date?

      In the meantime, should we read <The Master's Inn? Are the two books part of a series?

      And, yes, this post today, is supposed to set up some self-promotion. Thanks for participating!

  16. In EDEN’S BRIDE, my protagonist Uruna, a prescient Sumerian queen in 3,000 BCE, would see a man and a woman, separate in nature but colored alike to reflect the unity essential to attain the peak of human potential.

    In the prequel, EDEN’S PROMISE, her childhood self might see her cobra companion funneling wisdom from goddess Inanna on high. But she might also simply stare in wonder at all the pretty colors.

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