Crafting realistic, believable characters is vital to any story. The last thing you want is a cardboard cut-out, right? Or to model them on yourself. You want complex, unique, interesting characters with their own strengths and weaknesses.
But how do you do travel inside the mind of a character in writing, making them realistic, unique, and complex, without any psychology knowledge or training?
One notable way of developing a character is by adopting the personality theories of Myers Briggs.
This helps us develop different characters by allowing us to find out:
- how different people perceive the world;
- what energizes and motivates them; and
- how they make decisions.
It all started with Carl Jung
Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist and disciple of the famous father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. He realised that behavior could be anticipated if one understood the attitudes that people preferred.
In 1921 he published his theory in a book called Psychological Types. In this, he posited that there were three personality preferences scales and eight personality types.
Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers adapted and expanded on the theoretical work done by Jung.
BEAUTIFUL WORD OF THE DAY: LASSITUDE. Meaning tiredness, weariness, indifference, can’t be bothered attitude.
They claimed, based on their many years of study, that there were four personality preference scales and sixteen personality types.
The four personality preference scales
Each scale is based on four different aspects of personality. These aspects are called dimensions because each one can be viewed as a continuum between opposite extremes. They show two personality types that are opposite in nature to one other.
The four personality preference scales are:
Extraversion ( E) and the opposite type, Introversion (I)
Sensing (S) and the opposite type, Intuition (N)
Thinking (T) and the opposite type, Feeling (F)
Judging (J) and the opposite type, Perceiving (P)
Now let’s examine how we can use this theory to develop our characters.
Decide: is your character an extravert (E) or an Introvert (I)?
This is where your energy is directed in the world. Extraverts are those who direct their energy to the outer world of people and things.
Introverts are those who direct their energy to their inner world of ideas and information. Introverts enjoy spending time alone and this is how they ‘recharge their batteries’.
Extraverts, on the other hand, get their batteries ‘charged up’ by being with other people.
Decide: is your character a sensor (S) or an intuitive (N)?
Sensors prefer facts and what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, or tasted. They like the real and the concrete and are orientated towards the present.
Intuitives look for the meaning behind things. They value their imagination and trust their inspirations.
They are good at interpreting facts and gleaning insights and are orientated towards the future.
Decide: is your character a thinker (T) or a feeler (F)?
Thinkers prefer logic and like being objective and analytical in their decision making.
Feelers prefer values and relationships in decision-making. They consider the effects of their actions on others and value empathy and harmony. They consider all feelings to be valid, whether they are logical or not.
I’ve always had a duck personality. Calm above water, feet going crazy below.
– K. Flay
Decide: is your character a Judger (J) or a Perceiver (P)?
Judgers like structure and derive satisfaction from completing tasks. They set goals and ensure they finish them on time.
Perceivers prefer a less structured lifestyle. They prefer to leave their options open and ‘go with the flow’. They change their goals as it suits them.
As beforementioned, there are sixteen personality types from the Myers-Briggs personality theory with their own personality type codes. They are:
ISTJ, ISFJ, INFJ, INTJ
ISTP, ISFP, INFP, INTP
ESTP, ESFP, ENFP, ENTP
ESTJ, ESFJ, ENFJ, ENTJ
No personality type is better or worse than the other and each of them has their own particular strengths and weaknesses. You can read more about it here.
Establish your character’s personality type code
Decide which personality styles your character prefers till you get a personality type code for them. You do this by putting the letters together in the order shown by the scales.
For example, an extravert (E), intuitive (N) feeler (F) judger (J) would be the personality type code ENFJ.
As well as helping to develop characters, Myers-Briggs personality theory can be used to fuel conflict in your story.
For example, an extraverted, sensor character would be more concerned with their outer world, and realistic facts and happenings.
An introverted, intuitive character would be more wrapped up in their internal world and would value their inspiration, imagination, and hunches.
Here we have the potential for conflict. These two characters see and react to the world rather differently and might have trouble understanding and respecting one another.
YOU SHOULD READ BEFORE YOU DIE: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Set in Kent and London in the early to mid-nineteenth century and with a diverse array of colourful characters. The book follows the journey of Pip, a young orphan boy who gets provided with money from an anonymous patron, thus allowing him to live in London and become a gentleman.
Be sure to reflect the different ways your characters see and react to the world in your story’s dialogue.
In the 1940s Katharine and Isabel began developing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test to measure psychological types, and it has been refined over the years.
Google ‘MBTI test’ and you’ll find several sites on the web where you can take the test to see what personality type you are.
So what personality type code do you think you are? I suspect I’m an ENFP.
P.S. Notes from the desk
I’ve been reading blogs from the popular writing website, thecreativepenn.com all week. It’s a fantastic resource for writers, and Joanna Penn is such an inspiration!
I’ve also been enjoying a free course called ‘self-publishing success’. It’s been interesting and informative and best of all, free. You can check it out here if you’re interested.
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