Shape hints from hell

Whenever I try to tweak a tween with shape hints the whole mess goes haywire. Somehow I haven’t got the knack, even though I try to stick to the common rule “start upper left and go around counter clockwise”.

Turning an A into an O sure won’t work that way. How can anyone guess where the right position is th stop all the sqiggling and squirming? A Macromedia example turns a poodle into a bicycle - I can barely turn an organic shape on its side and would be very grateful for a tip or two