This is not very clear. It sounds like you’re saying you first draw the left half of both the top and bottom loop (like a rounded capital E) from top to bottom, and then secondly draw the right half of both the top and bottom loop (like a number 3) from bottom to top, but surely that’s not what you really mean?
I’m not sure there’s any other way to read that. That’s what I understood. Sounds like one sensible way to do it.
Boy, all you people. Counter-clockwise?
How about if you’re Australian?
Yeah, that’s how I do it. I changed to that way three years ago when I started my current job, which entails writing 9-digit client numbers and 10-digit authorization numbers all day long. I found my previous method of a “figure eight” pattern, crossing over in the middle, wasn’t giving me a consistent shape.
I also changed my 9’s to drawing the top circle first, then a slightly curved stem from the bottom up.
Yes, I know it’s weird.
I mean, I can’t know for sure, but I went to a Montessori school where the teachers demonstrated and watched you individually as you initially learned to write. If I had drawn the O incorrectly, I’m pretty sure I would have been corrected. They were very exacting on learning it the right way.
There are some letters I intentionally changed from how I was taught, but they were all capitals (e.g. F, T, W, Q and L). I don’t remember ever changing a lowercase letter. I have no memory at all of ever reversing direction at the top of the o as shown in your example.
I do it that way too…I like how they look better that way. And yes, it can be tedious if you’re writing a lot of 8’s. 
Same. Dash on my Z’s, even though they look different than my 2’s. Used to do dash on 7’s too, but dropped doing it at some point…will do now and again though, if I’m feelin’ fancy.
And as for the O…counterclockwise. I was wondering if right-handed or left-handed made a difference on the O…I’m right handed. Edit to add: I see some lefties here say counter, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
4’s open or closed…depends on what my hand feels like doing. Mostly open though I think.
Counterclockwise starting at around eleven o’clock with a little curl outside where I started from the look of it.
I was taught that way, too.
Counter-clockwise, starting at 12 o’clock. Likely the way I was taught in writing classes in grade school.
Actually, on further experimentation, mine does start about 12 if I write it on its own. A little left of that if it has a preceding letter.
Mine are counterclockwise from about 11.
But Os can present all sorts of difficulties - from about 2:15 into this:
I’ve had the same habit, going back long before I met you.
I do a zero in one movement, starting at the lower left, make a clockwise circle, then, without lifting the pen, I do a stroke up and right to put the slash across it.
In many contexts, I also put serifs on ones and uppercase Is, to make them distinct. Also on lowercase Ls, on those rare occasions that I deign to write lowercase letters.
And to answer what you asked me last night, I just now noted that when I write an O, I go clockwise.
Counterclockwise, starting at the top, in the middle.
But understand that I apparently write weird. Students in classes where I write on the board are always commenting on where I start letters or (mostly) numbers and the direction in which I go.
I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. If I try to write one right now while I am thinking about I don’t think the observation would be reliable answer.
The trick I use in such situations is just to start writing some sentences, and then notice how I wrote something. That’s how I figured out that I write o’s differently in cursive.
O – counterclockwise
4 – closed
7 – generally without the crossing line, but once in a while with it if clarity is an issue
8 – start at top right corner, go left, then down left to right, then back up right to left
Glad you said this, because same.
O - anticlockwise
S - start from the bottom and go up - the opposite of what they wanted us to do at school.
8 - start at the bottom 9 o’clock, go down, round and up.
This is interesting. I’m left-handed and expected to be an outlier due to that, but like nearly everyone else I do write Os counter-clockwise.
But I am probably in the minority of writing Vs from right to left…
Lefthanded, counterclockwise.
My quirk is putting hats on the small “a”. I started doing this deliberately when I was 20. Now it’s automatic. I wanted to improve my penmanship, and it didn’t work but my "a"s do have hats.