Don’t think for a second that the font a person uses is coincidental. It’s not 1983 anymore. We don’t just have, like, 12 fonts to choose from anymore. The font you select says a lot about you, if not everything. I’m serious.
In my MFA program, there’s this really nice guy who always brings in poems typed in Comic Sans. All the time. We first thought maybe it was an accident — maybe his hand just slipped and tragically clicked “Comic Sans.” But by the third workshop it became apparent that he very much identified with Comic Sans, and Comic Sans it would be. Since it was hard to concentrate on his poems, due to the atrocity of Comic Sans and the distraction it naturally lends, I made a small note on his page, “Maybe use a different font?” He either didn’t read my feedback (DICK), or didn’t really care about what other people thought of the font he used. Which I almost admire. If it were about anything but Comic Sans.
Finally, someone just couldn’t take the retched font any longer and outed him during a workshop session. It turned into an intervention. The guy did not want to lose his beloved font. And he didn’t — he kept using it. Bless his audacity, I guess.
Since it's NaNoWriMo, we've all had writing on the brain. But have we given a second thought about the font we use and what kind of message it sends out? What it says about your personal brand? These fonts are not merely just fonts — they're essentially extensions of ourselves. Without further ado, here they are:
Times New Roman
You are methodical. Some even call you a formalist. Your favorite novels are by Hemingway because you love his brevity. You have recently become obsessed with clarity and cubism, and you are currently writing a novel about WWII and one woman's lost love. It's going well because you're the type of person who set an alarm for 5 a.m. and writes until noon.
Cambria
You are either incredibly laid back, or you don't know how to use Word. Either way, you're the type who recycled stories in your MFA program because you were too creatively exhausted (read: lazy) to keep churning out new material. You enjoy writing about your love life and break-ups. You've probably compared your boyfriend to a rose with thorns.
Book Antiqua
If you don't have an Ivy League education, you might as well. You enjoy the Classics, and when you're not rereading Pride and Prejudice for the fifth time, you are reading poetry and sipping espresso on a park bench. Probably in Brooklyn, but dreaming of London.
Courier New
You might or might not be a screenwriting major, but either way, you enjoy using Courier New because it makes you feel like you're using a typewriter. Most of your stories are set in the '50s. You write mostly crime noir and all of your male protagonists wear fedoras.
Helvetica
You majored in PR and Marketing, but everyone told you that you need to write a book (so you say), so here you are. Writing an e-book. It will be about L.A. and the fashion industry, and how social media has changed the way we look at ourselves.
Arial
You writing aesthetic has been described as "choppy," and "desperately needing more imagery." Your literary heroes are Bella Swan and Katniss Everdeen. You're probably a copywriter.
Century Gothic
You write exciting YA novels or stories about magic and dragons and teen love and maybe even vampires! You hope that your book will one day become a movie, like The Fault in Our Stars.
Curlz
You are a children's book writer, and if you weren't doing that you would probably be a preschool teacher. If you had to choose a fictional character you relate to most, it would have to be Miss Honey from Matilda.
Futura
This person is most likely a blogger. You can follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Insta, Snapchat, Wordpress, Tumblr, YouTube, and Blogspot.
Images: Gina Vaynshteyn; Giphy
