Using Myers-Briggs as a Tool for Character Development

First, let me acknowledge that it's been a while since I've posted.  My life has taken a sharp turn and I really haven't had the time for writing lately.  However, I am back, at least for now.
One of the writer's groups I'm involved with is conducting a special exercise this week.  Each of us is to complete a character profile for a character in our WIP.  The template we are using is from "Break into Fiction" by Mary Buckham and Dianna Love. As I started jotting down adjectives to describe my character, I was reminded of my experiences with Myers-Briggs Type Indicators, or MBTI.  In short, MBTI draws on the Jungian idea of archetypes and sorts personalities into one of 16 types -- with four major archetypes.  Now, I don't like the idea of sorting personalities into defined categories, and there is definite overlap in some personality types, but I've seen this theory in action and it does work.  For more on the MBTI and the 4/16 personality types, check out the Myers and Briggs Foundation website here.  A summary of the theory surrounding their work and the different personality types can be found here.

One of my biggest pet peeves in fiction is when a character takes an action inconsistent with their background/character.  This is why I think it's very important for fiction writers to take the time and flush out a detailed character background prior to writing their story -- family history, experiences, education, likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc.  But developing a believable character is so much more than what they like and don't like, it's how they behave, or how they simply "be."  An old anthropology professor of mine used to describe people in all cultures as consisting of two parts: "being" and "doing."  I think that writer's often nail the "doing" but forget about the "being" and I really believe Myers-Briggs can help with that and will help unlock secrets of your character that he or she may not even know about themselves!

Here's what you can do:

1) Think about your character and "type" your character according to this brief (and free) assessment: Free MBTI Assessment.

2) Use this site to read more about your character's MBTI type.

While reading about your character's personality type, you should:

 

- Make sure your character's actions and life-story (past, present and future) fit his or her personality type.  If not, you either have to change your character's background or retake the test.  In essence, you are validating either the results of the survey or how you portray your character in the story.
 

- Get to know your character better.  Pay attention to career choices.  For example, you don't want an INTP working as a nurse, that's more for an ESFJ -- unless your character doesn't like working as a nurse and wants more.  Also, look at your character's ideal relationship type -- if your character is unhappy in his or her current relationship, use MBTI to develop the partner's personality types.  You don't want two people who should get along to be fighting with one another unless it's part of your story development.

 

Whatever you find out about your character, use it to develop a complete and consistent life story for that person.  You'll find your characters taking on a life of their own and it will be much easier to weave a narrative if you take the time to get to know your character.

Happy Writing!
Al

Building Better Characters

During the recent Missouri Writer's Guild (MWG) Conference, I attended the Sunday morning "master class" on "Building Believing Characters" presented by Elaine Viets. I liked her when she was in St. Louis and enjoyed what she had to say during the keynote address I also came to find out that she grew up not too far away from where I grew up, so her hometown stories really resonated with me. I found her very personable and she definitely brightened up the conference.

The reason I signed up for this class is (1) I wanted to hear what she had to say and to me, she was definitely the biggest name at the conference, and (2) I enjoy character-driven fiction and wanted to hear what she had to say about developing characters. In particular, I wanted to learn how to go beyond the flat characters that populate many of today's stories and develop characters that are, as the name of the session implies, believable and, more importantly to me, have depth.

Here are some of the tips she gave:

- Don't reveal too much about your character all at once...do it slowly. This simulates how we learn about others. We don't find out everything about them up front, it takes time, and readers like to know there is more to learn.

- Don't have characters reveal the information themselves, do it through the action of the character or actions of others around the character.

- Character sketches are important. Take the time to develop a background for your characters. As an aside, a college prof of mine has us "interview" our main characters, which I found to be a really effective tool to learn more about my character.

- Don't just describe the character, but discuss how the character feels about how they look. Pretty girls feel differently - some are happy, some don't think they are pretty enough. How a character reacts or feels about their physical characteristics reveals a lot about that character and adds depth and believability.

- Avoid generic terms like "middle aged" or "pretty" since those terms mean different things to different people. However, using them to describe how someone perceives the character, include the character them self, might be beneficial. For example, maybe a lot of people might think a girl is pretty, but she doesn't - or vice-versa.

- Introduce people in their natural habitat.

- How a character treats pets can tell a lot about that character.

- Characters should talk differently. As an aside, one of the writers in our group is very technical and his protagonist talks with precision using words not found in the ordinary person's vocabulary. Well, when he wrote his wife's dialogue, she spoke the exact same way! We, of course, corrected him.

- Shoes, hairstyle, clothes, are all important clues to a character's personality.

- Character may be more important than plot.

- Cultural setting of the character is important. Where did they grow up? What were the character's parents like? I have a book on character types that has been invaluable to me.

- Little things are important - what does the character eat? What does she like? Not like? How does she vote? Does she go to church? If so, what kind and for how long? A character that attends the same church her parents did is different than one who attends a different kind of church.

I asked about stereotypes. I have a character who is a professor that wears a tweed jacket and another writer-friend was blasted by a reviewer because she used a "white haired grizzled veteran" as a Major in one of her stories. Elaine said that stereotypes were okay since they allowed the reader to identify with the character. However, the character cannot be one-dimensional and must have characteristics that make him or her unique.

Some examples of how I am going to apply this knowledge to my own work:

- My protagonist is gay. I was going to reveal it early, but why hurry? Also, I'm not going to have him reveal it himself, but through dialogue, by having a colleague ask about a past relationship.

- I am going to keep the tweed-jacket wearing stereotype, but add some quirks - maybe a few pet-peeves, food likes and dislikes, and a unique religious view.

Overall, I thought it was a great presentation and well worth the time and money.