A Writer on Pinterest

   You know that awful moment when it's a Saturday morning and you're expecting to sleep in after a really long, really emotional day yesterday that had you in tears as you crawl into bed, and then it's 7:30 in the morning and you never wake up this early, let alone on a Saturday, but you're awake now and it's just... Sigh.

   So, yes, it's 7:45 and while my headache from last night is gone, I really had wanted to sleep longer. Oh well.

   For the focus of this post, Pinterest.

   I believe that the majority of you already follow me on Pinterest, but I'm going to put this together for those who don't.

   As any good writer on Pinterest does, I have a variety of story and character related boards to which I pin a good deal of pictures pertaining to the board's title.

   I will provide a link to each board and a brief summary about what's entailed below. Please don't hesitate to follow through, even if you don't have Pinterest. (Though if you don't have Pinterest, you might consider it.)


   Story Inspiration
   I have three boards that all begin with "story". Story Inspiration is a collection of pins that provide me with inspiration for something to include in a story. That could be anything from a bunch of dragon pictures to a short quote that makes me go "Ooh, that'd be a fascinating line to spin a story off of."
  
   Story Setting
   As the title might suggest, Story Setting is all about the world in which a story might take place. The locations range from an artwork of an oriental palace in mountains to a digital rendering of a sci-fi style hotel room. Take your pick.

   Story Style
   This would be for those looking to outfit their heroes in anything from silver wire masquerade masks to a black bustle skirt from the Victorian era. This board is still a bit new and my eye is not particularly drawn to things of the accessory/clothing genre, so filling it is a work in progress.
  
   Faces to Remember
   When you're on Pinterest and going through people's story boards, you'll find that they have a penchant to save pictures of people who they find inspiring, and this is my take on that. All the faces to be found in this board are ones that I think would be interesting in a story, but have not yet found a home for. Ages range from adorable little Asian girls to an older woman with gray hair who has all the qualities of a mentor in her face.


   Now, for the more personal boards, involving the characters I already have.


   Characters
   This is a stashing spot for the pictures I find that remind me of my characters. It doesn't always have to be spot on. Maybe it's his hair, or her expression, but it's a little conglomerate of things that make up the people inside my head. (Hint: If you wanted to have an idea of what Vivian looks like, here's your chance.)

   Hints of Character
   This board is very similar to Characters, but it's in words, songs, and poses instead. This song lyrics remind me of those two characters at this given time; that Mustang is one that I could see my character's brother fixing and then the character driving. Little things that make up the characters on the inside, instead of on the outside.

   Profile: Sarris and Novarr Schaefe
   This is a specialized board for my characters, Sarris and Novarr. It's a big mish-mash of Characters and Hints of Characters, just for the two of them. I also enjoy doing MBTI for my characters, so Novarr has a fair deal of ENTP pins. Sarris, on the other hand, shares her type with several other of my characters, and I have stuffed them all in another board that I'll share at the end. (Warning: Sarris has had a tough background, and a couple of the pins in this board reflect that. One is of bloody hands, the other uses the word "h*ll", so if you're not comfortable with either, consider skipping this board.)

   Profile: Ruusan and Jaydn Schaefe
   Technically, Ruusan has been both an Armstrong and a Vhander, but calling her a Schaefe was easiest, so I went with that. Like Sarris and Novarr's board, this is just a collection of pictures and quotes that remind me of these two sisters, although now it's extended to encompass the Deviant, so if something doesn't make sense, see if it has a "Deviant Ruu/Jade" note attached. If not, it may have a "Kidnapped Ruu" note, and that means the same as the deviant.

   Profile: Ianthe and the Tribes
   I believe I already shared this board when I posted about Ianthe a while back, but I'll share it again for any newcomers or happen-byers. This board is a bit more expansive than the last world, extended to include Ianthe's world and all the people and places in it. So there'll be pictures that remind me of characters or images of real life Arabian palaces, all in an attempt to capture the feel of that world.

   Profile: Jasmine "Jaz" O'Haire
    Not one of my largest boards ever, but this is a smattering of things that make me think of Jaz, who I've posted a couple of scrawls about. The majority of this board's contents are her MBTI type, which is ESTJ, but there are a handful of others things included as well.

   MBTI Personality
   And last but not least, my MBTI Personality board. This has a mix of various types that either hold meaning to me via friends or characters, or just interested me enough to repin them. If they are connected to a character, there will be a note at the bottom saying who it is. For instance, there are several ISTJ pins that are marked with Sarris, Jaydn, and Cameron, and more still of ISFP, which is a new character of mine, Leo Argon.


   And with that, I think I've covered all my story-related boards on Pinterest. If you feel like delving into the bottomless pit that is the rest of my Pinterest, feel free, but don't expect to escape for some time.

   Hopefully, you all found this quite interesting, or some such. Thanks for your time and I pray you all will be sleeping on Saturday morning, not writing blog posts, as I am.

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

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.