I just took the Myers-Briggs Personality test for my main characters in the novel I'm writing. (Yes, this is a blog about someone upstarting a freelance career, but the reality that this post can attest to is that my fiction writing is threatening to hedge in on those efforts--and I'm not sure which to give priority. That's something I guess I'll explore as I blog...)
Anyway, it was quite fun, and perhaps a bit schizophrenic. I love personality tests and the theories of typing, but it's also a very useful thing to do. I'm trying to make sure I have distinct characters who are themselves, not just reflections of me. I want to make sure my characters are also consistent with themselves--sometimes I'm not always clear on how a character should react to a given situation--that means I don't know them well enough. If you've never tried this for seeing how much you know about your character, you should try it. here, I'll put the link for a free Myers Briggs personality typing test. I was surprised that I really did know my characters well enough to answer all the questions--in fact the test made me see how intuitively I really do understand them. What's also nice is that at the end, there were two written descriptions about how this personality type generally operates with others, and at work, etc., and even in romance.
I recently attended a talk by novelist Joyce Magnin, author of The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow which is now the beginning of the Bright's Pond novel series. (She's being hailed the "Queen of Quirk" and that's something I really like about her work, as well as hearing her speak. She's very funny!) Anyway, she talked about how to get to know your characters. She talks about keeping a journal as if she were her main character. That's an awesome idea but I haven't the time. And I just don't know how to find it. But its' fabulous. But I've also go 4 main characters who take turns narrating. It's really tough to get to know 4 people so thoroughly that you can develop a distinct voice for each of them. I'm not writing in first person--I know that'd be so demanding. I can't really manage, at this point, the diction each would have, each distinct form all the others. So writing in 3rd person, I'm trying to still figure out how each POV can be distinct in voice... Knowing my characters really well as at the heart of so many aspects of writing the novel. I want to say "I'm just focusing on getting the plot down" as I tell my online critique group. But I'm finding it's hard, if not impossible, to figure out the plot when I don't know my characters well enough to know how they'd react to events that fuel the story!
In taking the personality tests tonight for my characters, I realize two are almost identical--father and son. I have often thought how their wives are quite similar, but they turned out, in test results, to be rather distinct--more than I thought. I am disappointed though that the Jung marriage test application isn't free anymore. I've used it before for free, but tonight I couldn't find it... You can plug in the percentage numbers of each person's type and it
I was surprised by a couple things (granted, I know typing descriptions aren't fool-proof--there are exceptions in real life, so there can be in my fictional characters too) that were dissonant with the character I created. For instance, the character who is my most unreliable narrator, Maizy, the mother in the story, was described as "more in touch with reality" than many of the other personality types. And yet, that's not true for her at all!
Anyway, it's a good exercise for a novelist. If I ever get around to the journaling idea, I'll print out these personality descriptions and put them in the journal for reference....
Nonfiction articles I published when I was being good about last year's goal:
Pregnancy Due Date: Why Do So Few Women Deliver That Day?
Fight Breast Cancer with Salmon, Not Pink Cupcakes (And Other Cancer- Fighting Tips)
Fire Retardants Found in Babies' Umbilical Cord Blood Associated with Developmental Delays
Is Lyme Disease Lurking in Your Unexplained Symptoms?
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