writing tips

Today I will talk about how you can use a widely accepted personality trait model in your writing to make your characters both interesting and believable.

A common challenge for writers is creating characters that are not only relatable but realistic, with multiple dimensions and strengths and weaknesses. How do you achieve such a daunting task, when you really don’t know what you’re doing? After all, you’re a writer, not a psychologist!

One great way is by adopting the Big Five Model (also known as the ‘Five-Factor Model’) of personality and applying this theory to your characters.

This model resulted from the contributions of many independent researchers and is a widely accepted personality theory today. It states that personality boils down to five core factors. They are:

Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

Take the first letter from each word and remember this theory using the acronym OCEAN. Or alternatively, organise the factors this way:

Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness
Extraversion

And remember it from the acronym CANOE!

This model ranks personality traits on a continuum. It recognises that most people are not on the extreme ends of the spectrum but lie somewhere in between.

Weird word of the day: DIGERATI. Meaning someone adept at computer technology.

For example, most individuals would not be classified as purely extroverted or introverted – but would be somewhere in between these extremes. Therefore, individuals are ranked by where they fall on the scale.

Now let’s explore these five core traits one by one because once you know these, you can rank where you think your characters would be on the trait spectrum.

Openness

This is how open an individual is to having new experiences and trying new things.

High scorers are curious, imaginative, and creative. They are open to trying and experiencing new things. They value their independence and enjoy learning. They love variety and are unconventional.

Low scorers are more practical and conventional. They prefer routine and the familiar and are more uncomfortable with change. They are more traditional and unimaginative in their thinking.

Conscientiousness

This is how an individual approaches duties and tasks.

High scorers like structure and have good self-control, allowing them to complete tasks and achieve their goals. They tend to be organised, self-disciplined, self-directed, and detail-oriented.

Low scorers dislike too much structure. They have poor self-control and self-discipline, which may lead to difficulty in completing tasks and achieving their goals. They procrastinate and are disorganised, careless, impulsive, and spontaneous.

Extraversion

This is how outgoing and sociable a person is.

High scorers are outgoing and enthusiastic. They are energised by being around others and enjoy being the centre of attention.

Low scorers are more reserved and quiet. They dislike being the centre of attention and get tired by too much social interaction. They enjoy solitude and reflection.

There is no birth of consciousness without pain.

– Carl Jung

Agreeableness

Agreeableness includes an individual’s attitude towards others, and how they interact with them.

High scorers enjoy helping and complying. They are sympathetic and show empathy towards others. They are trusting and forgiving.

Low scorers are uncooperative and hostile. They are unsympathetic and don’t care how others feel. They are insulting, belittling, and demanding.

Neuroticism

This includes how an individual sees the world and also their propensity to experience negative emotions.

High scorers are prone to anxiety, stress, and worry. They may be shy, irritable, and moody. They may also experience excessive sadness and low self-esteem.

Low scorers are emotionally resilient and stable. They rarely feel depressed. They are calm and confident and don’t worry too much.

The Big Five Model was expanded in the early 2000s by a team of psychologists from Canada called Kibeom Lee and Michael Ashton. They developed the HEXACO model, redefining some aspects and adding a sixth trait, honesty-humility. You can read more about it in their book, The H Factor of Personality.

Honesty-humility

This measures individual differences in sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance, and modesty.

As you would expect, high scorers in honesty-humility are sincere, fair, modest, and non-greedy.

Low scorers are sly, deceitful, greedy, pretentious, hypocritical, and boastful.

Now go ahead and create a great villain. Just add a touch of low honesty-humility with a dash of low agreeableness and a sprinkle of high neuroticism. Voila! You have a truly repugnant character with an anxiety problem, ha ha.

YOU SHOULD READ BEFORE YOU DIE: The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). In Wilde’s only novel, an artist named Basil Hallward paints a portrait of a young man named Dorian Gray. Dorian wishes that the portrait would age instead of himself. He sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty, and consequently suffers the effect of his evil and debauchery.

Where would your characters lie on the trait spectrums? I hope you have a few rogues in your story to make things interesting!

Using the ‘Big Five Model’ is a great way to explore how your characters differ, and how this could potentially bring even more conflict to your novel.

For example, a character high in conscientiousness would most likely find a character low in conscientiousness highly irritating to work with.

Have fun playing around with this theory, and happy writing.

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