WHAT ‘S YOUR “TYPE?”
At my last local RWA chapter meeting, our invited speaker took us through the Myers-Briggs Personality Type evaluation. This tool, which helps you understand your personality traits or psychological type, is a fun way to understand your normal behavior and responses to everyday situations.
I discovered I am an INFJ: Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging. This means I think before acting, am imaginative and creative, seek consensus and popular opinions, and approach the outside world with a plan.
I can see these traits not only in my life but in my writing as well. As an introvert I can’t just sit down at the computer and dash off something—chapter or blog. I have to think about what I want to say, and make sure I am getting the correct message across before I commit it to the screen. And then I go back and revise at least twice before publishing it.
Imagination and creativity make perfect sense for a writer who is an intuitive person. It also means I look for overall patterns, symbols, and images and make connections from a very wide perspective. I’ve found this trait very prevalent in my writing, but not always in a good way. One profile says “What they see is so clear and obvious to them they are often surprised to find that others cannot see it as well.” This happens all the time when writing about my characters’ motivations. I consistently get the comment “Why is she/he doing/wanting this?” And I think “It’s so obvious.” But unfortunately only to me.
The Feeling part of me wants harmony—I find this also most notable when getting critiques: I have an overwhelming desire to make corrections for every crit I get in my work—a trait I’m working to break because I do understand I can’t please everyone. I still keep trying.
The Judging trait comes out in my work as the part of me that must work from a detailed outline. I can and do change the outline as I write, but I can’t start a work without some idea of where I’m headed in the end. Yes, I am a plotter to the Nth degree and can’t understand how pantsers exist. LOL (I actually applaud their creativity and ability to jump in feet first and just write.)
Our workshop also touched on the subject of using the Myers-Briggs typing in romance writing. Do your characters fit these personality traits? Can you write the characters with these traits in mind? I believe Myers-Briggs is a tool we can use to help define our characters and to make us perhaps understand them better and why they do what they do.
Most likely we, as writers, have observed these behavioral traits in their many combinations. We instinctively put them together in our characters because that is the way we see people act. I don’t think we go into a story saying, “This hero is going to be an ENTJ.” But we may think “My hero is going to love a challenge, is going to be direct and honest, and not have a tolerance for anything that gets in his way, but he will love justice and have a good sense of humor.” (Actually this describes the hero in my current WIP and I started that project long before knowing about Myers-Briggs.)
So will knowing that Rafe is an ENTJ change the way I write him? Perhaps not. But I think I will check out his personality type and maybe round him out a little using these traits—remember, anything that helps me make connections or patterns within the work makes me very, very happy.
If you would like to explore the Myers-Briggs Personality Test for yourself, see what your type is, the following link will be helpful.
http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html
If you’d like to explore the idea of writing characters based on the Myers-Briggs Personality Traits, this link gives you a lot of food for thought.
http://www.writing-world.com/sf/type.shtml
So what’s your type? Please share a comment about you or your characters. Do you think Myers-Briggs might have some value to you as a writer?
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 
I was at the same workshop. I don’t think I’d ever go so far as to type my characters with the Meyers-Briggs. I have difficulty deciding specific character traits, until after I’m nearly finished with the book!
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Hi, Andrea. Thanks for stopping by. So far I just write the characters as they come to me. But if I’m ever stuck in a “What would he do now?” moment, I might take a look at Myers-Briggs for inspiration. As long as it works, I’ll take all the help I can get!
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Great post. Very interesting.
The hero of my WIP is an introvert but the heroine is the same as me — an ENTP.
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That ought to make for a lively chase, Kary! But who will chase whom?
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Life experience can change type in that less developed traits can change. You’re not going to change all the letters in your type, though. Some people also straddle a certain trait, and that has more room for movement.
Not all heros are extroverts. I don’t see why there can’t be alpha males who are introverts. The man can still want to be head honcho without being an extrovert. Introversion and extroversion is basically just a scale of how we recharge ourselves. Extroverts are charged by socializing and being out in the crowd, introverts by having time to themselves in the privacy of their minds. But think of this as a sliding scale–everyone has different degrees of it–hence not all people fit nicely into one category at all times. Then we have nature vs. nuture to confound results in certain situations…
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Quite a lot more to consider than just four letters! I suppose the strong, silent type would be your introvert, but still alpha if he was the one in charge. I may have one or two of those out there in my outline folder. They will be a fun challenge to write. so far my others have been extroverts. Well, one may straddle the fence. Interesting way to think about heros. I usually just “see” them in my mind, know who they are and start writing.
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Exactly! I’ve looked at the US presidents. While many were extroverts, there were some introverts present also. So alphas come in all shapes and sizes. I can’t think of a more alpha position, can you?
As for personality, there are whole camps in the ‘nature vs. nature’ issue. I took a few personality courses while in college–from an actual personality psychologist, and I remember that so much was contested. Even though there were studies proving this or that. I forget the percentage he used to quote of how much our personalities were formed through nature, and how much true nuture. Ah, fascinating stuff!
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Great post, Jenna! I worked in mental health as a crisis worker and am quite familiar with Myers-Briggs. I’m an INFP myself, so plotting ahead is my downfall. But on the upside, I’m a supposed ‘visionary’ or ‘dreamer’. Lol, don’t think I agree with the visionary part! It’s such a serious sounding title. But you’re also a visionary, too!
According to this test, I’m in the right field–writer, and before that, counselor.
Months ago, I went through my WIP and have ‘typed’ all the main characters! It was quite fun, though some characters refused to fit nicely in that little box. Wouldn’t it be fun to write a novel with the intention of changing the character arc though the growth of a new type for that character? Types for some people do change in real life over the years.
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I was told that the type changes only after a life altering experience. Do you think finding you “one” would qualify as a life-changing experience? 🙂 I’m also afraid my characters won’t want to fit into their boxes. I haven’t looked at them that way yet, but I probably will, now that I’m really thinking about the types. I wonder if all heros are extroverts? Can you think of an alpha-male who’s not?
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