One of my favorite things about reading is that fictional characters are every bit as individual as people in real life. When they’re written well, anyway. It’s fascinating to me that in a world of tropes, we may find similarities but never the same story, same heroine, same hero. It takes all types of authors to write these characters, but it takes all types of characters to keep readers devouring those books, am I right?!
In college, I was tied between career options. Much like Brynn, the heroine of my debut novel, I began pursuing a teaching degree but then freaked out and switched programs halfway through. Unlike her, I couldn’t decide what else to study, so I went to the career center and they signed me up for a little testing to help me pinpoint my strengths and potential careers. One of those tests was the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
I was fascinated by what I read about the different personality types and how creepily accurate the description for my type was (ENFP at the time, though now I get ESFP as often as I get ENFP, and both are freakishly accurate). If you have absolutely no clue what I’m jabbering on about, you can learn more at 16personalities.com.
Essentially, there are 16 basic personality types, 32 if you look at the subtypes Assertive vs Turbulent. Understanding personality types as an author helps me to gain insight into what makes my character tick. It’s funny, though, because I do very little character research before I begin writing. Some authors complete entire character worksheets, brainstorming everything from their favorite color, book, or movie to giving them a birthday. Some do full personality profiles with their MBTI, Enneagram, birth order, and even love languages. Which I think is really awesome, but—and maybe it’s my ADHD brain wiring—I simply can’t sit and focus long enough to do. I wait until my characters start talking to me at random times throughout the day as I’m going about my regular business. It can be a bit disconcerting at times, but I’ve learned to just roll with it and keep the Notes app handy on my phone. But it’s still fun to type them after the fact just to see if the results fit!
Some people don’t buy in to personality types or tests, and I totally respect that opinion. But an increasing number of employers and even churches are using tests like these to help people figure out how they work best and with whom.
My daughters, husband, and even mom have taken the MBTI recently for different reasons, so it’s been a frequent topic of conversation around here. Reading the various descriptions got me thinking about people I know, which of course got me thinking about my characters. So I went and asked a few of my author friends if they type their characters, and I found some surprising and fun responses.
Some of you long-term IR blog readers may remember Valerie Comer’s post from late 2021, in which she revealed the personality types of her Urban Farm Fresh heroines. It takes some serious wizardry to manage covering that many different personality types in one book series! LOL!
Liwen Y. Ho sent me the types of her hero and heroine from Love at Second Sight, one of the books in the Fab Forties rom-com series (which I LOVE and you should totally read if you haven’t yet). Movie star hero Brad is and ESFP-A, which totally explains why I related to him so well. He’s a total people person, and the way he makes Cassie feel good about herself is the best. Ironically, Cassie is an ISFJ-A, a defender who cares for people as well as Brad does only from an introverted perspective. My husband is an ISFJ-T, so it cracked me up to discover a fictional pairing that matched me and my husband so well!
Have you read Teresa Tysinger’s Laurel Cover series? You absolutely should!! She writes the most beautiful word pictures. Suddenly Forever‘s Cora and Luke are the same same as my hubby and me too! Remember how I said I’m and ENFP as often as ESFP (maybe more)? Well, here we have photojournalist Luke, a fellow ENFP-A, and Cora, an ISFJ-T. Cora is an inward processor, especially after a traumatic loss, but she’s quick to empathize and care for others who also ache. Luke is creative, curious, adaptive, and intuitive, which makes seeing and meeting Cora’s needs a natural part of who he is. The highest value we ENFP-As have is authenticity, and I can say from firsthand experience Teresa NAILED this with Luke.
I think I might have taken a version of this test once but i don’t remember what my result was (other than being introverted). I find personality traits and types fascinating and it’s interesting to see how authors incorporate them into their books.