I've never been able to draw. To the degree that I think there's actually something missing in my head. I have a hard time visualizing things in my mind. Do you start out knowing the final picture or do you add things along the way?

The thing about calligraphy is that the things that look impressive, some swashy gothic letters, they can be learned quite easily. The hardest part is the regular upper case latin alphabet, it requires a lot of pen angle finesse and since we are so used to seeing those letters, anything less than perfect stands out immediately. A common piece of advice to calligraphers is to let go of the idea that one is writing. My regular handwriting is hardly legible, the muscle memory is too ingrained. I think of it as drawing letters. Still, I can't draw actual things.