MBTI for Characters

    Shock of all shocks. A post unrelated to writing.

   Alright, that may be stretching it. Characters are part of written fiction, after all. But at least it's a break from my rash of rambling scrawls, yes? Anyways, moving on.

    I might have explained MBTI in a previous post or on my ISFJ page, but I'll explain it again for you anyways.

    MBTI, or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, is a personality indicator. Similar to what you'd find in a personality test, except it is far more accurate than any I've ever seen. There are sixteen "types". I am, for example, an ISFJ. Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Judging. My best friend, Penny, is an ENFP. Extroverted, Intuition, Feeling, Perceiving. And then another friend is an INTJ. Introverted, Intuition, Thinking, Judging.

    You can find out your type at www.mypersonality.info and I recommend doing so. It really helps figure out how your head works.

    Now, onto the real purpose for this post.

   In addition to the MBTI test helping me find out about myself, it helped me organize my characters as well. As a writer who struggles with emotion, the MBTI results for a handful of my characters are excellent references to the basis of their characters.

   Also, it's a way to show who has 'taken after me', in a manner of speaking, as you will soon see. (Extra note: the "Multiple Intelligences" is part of MyPersonality's test, to show what areas you are strong in and which you aren't.)

 

 

    You might notice that Ruusan is an ESFJ, meaning that she is like me, except for extraverted. And a lot of other things, but we won't go into all of those.

    It was really quite odd though. Cameron Armstrong, Ruusan's first husband, turned out to be an ISTJ along with Sarris and Jaydn. I even ran him through the test twice, in case I had answered something incorrectly, but he turned out with the same result. It would make more sense if you knew how very different the three of them are, though Sarris and Jaydn are more similar while Cameron feels like he's in an entirely different field.

   The point of this post, though, is that, if you're having trouble connecting with your character or figuring them out or any number of issues a writer can have with their characters, maybe try putting them through one of these tests. Once you know what type they are, there are a lot of different websites out there (some listed on my ISFJ page) that detail the different nuances of that type.

   Granted, not all of the details of a given type will be accurate, but a great many of them will be, and once you can determine which relate to your character, it will help you figure out how they might respond in a given situation.

    Ad astra per aspera.
   To the stars, through difficulties.