Characters and Meyer-Briggs Assessments

I live in Detroit, and whenever I start a new book I feel like I’m walking from here to California in the snow. The finished book is thousands of miles away, and if I think about it too hard I get discouraged. I also know that the new book will be harder to write than the last one, but that’s okay. All that means is that I’m learning more about writing and applying what I’ve learned to future work.

Here’s something I learned to do before writing Reckoning in Escobara. I apply a Meyer-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI to each of my characters. The MBTI measures sixteen personality types based on eight preferences. The preferences are:

E – Extroversion

I – Introversion

S – Sensing

N – iNtuition

T – Thinking

F – Feeling

J – Judging

P – Perceiving

These preferences are grouped into sixteen categories. I’ll provide the link to the Meyer-Briggs Foundation for useful and detailed information. Here are some of the categories:

ISTJ – Introverted, Sensing, Thinking Judging

INTP – Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceiving

ESTP – Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving

ENTJ – Extroverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging

You get the idea. There are dozens of websites that go into detail for each of these classifications, and you can take an assessment test yourself to see where you land. I did, and I fall in the INTJ category.

When I first develop characters I make a template using these classifications along with other character background data. When I write the book I make sure that each of the characters follow their MBTI type for the most part. If they react to a particular situation, I make sure they react with the proper behavior. If a character is a laid back, ESFJ type I’ll make sure their reaction falls into that classification’s predictive behavior. Same goes for an uptight INTP type. This lends consistency and credibility to the characters and guides me, as the writer, with a personality roadmap. I working on this right now for Thomas Edison: RESURRECTOR, developing MBTI profiles for Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and the fictional characters.

Here’s the link to the Meyer-Briggs Foundation: www.myersbriggs.org/

I read something in one of William C. Martell’s screenwriting bluebooks that really stuck with me. He said you should be able to cover the names in a screenplay and still know exactly who is talking. I believe that applying MBTI analysis to characters and using the classifications with consistency helps to achieve just that.