Writing Tips, Character Development, MBTI® for Writers
Create Stong Characters with MBTI®
Myers-Briggs® helped me. It can help you, too.
This article describes how I used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) to develop the main characters — and especially the relationship between them — in the book I’m writing (first draft completed — hooray!).
I offer up the approach to anyone who’s in the process of developing characters in their writing. Hopefully you might find one or two helpful ideas.
A little background is necessary.
My tome is set in 1930, in the early days of the Great Depression. Mariel Cleary is a struggling reporter for the San Francisco News. Jack Armstrong is cop who, because of budget cuts, has been furloughed by the department. In terms of personality and point of view, they are almost polar opposites. After a rocky start, they team up to solve a series of mysterious deaths and battle Japanese espionage in the run-up to World War II. Along the way — and despite all the obstacles — romance blooms.
After all, there’s got to be a happy ending. Right?
The problem: How to develop the two characters so they behave consistently and have sufficient spark — and tension — in their relationship?
*** Many readers are already familiar with the MBTI®, developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Cook Briggs in the 1960's. For an overview, refer to the last section. ***
First — A General Picture. Then What?
From the start, I saw Mariel as enthusiastic, imaginative, energetic and not bound by rules. Jack, on the other hand, would be a by-the-numbers cop, firmly grounded in logic and reason. They’d see the world very differently and ought to mix like oil and water.
But as often happens in real life, opposites are attracted to each other, and this is what I envisioned for them. I wanted their differences to add both spark and tension to their relationship.
Early on, it dawned on me that the MBTI® would be a good resource for fleshing out their individual characteristics and the overall dynamics of their relationship. It turns out I was right.
In Myers-Briggs terms, I envisioned Mariel to be an ENFP and Jack to be an ESTJ. Thus, they are polar opposites, with the exception of Extroversion.
I couldn’t picture either as an Introvert. I thought they would be too boring. (As a certified Introvert, I’m allowed to say this.)
Mariel Cleary, ENFP
Mariel is energized by interactions with other people (Extroverted) and tends to focus on concepts and ideas (iNtuitive) rather than data and details. She makes decisions based on values, feelings and how they affect others (Feeling) and prefers open-endedness and spontaneity to planning and organization (Perceiving).
She is vivacious, energetic and stands out in a crowd. She’s effervescent, playful and lively. Her enthusiasm is contagious. She pushes Jack into things he wouldn’t ordinarily consider.
She’s stubborn and won’t take no for an answer. She’d never give up on something or someone she believed in, no matter what. She has a powerful imagination that runs toward adventure. Rules simply don’t apply to her.
She focuses on the big picture — ideas and concepts — and leaves the details to ESTJ Jack. She loves creative possibilities and thrives on challenge.
To a person like Jack (Sensing, Judging, Thinking) she comes across as a little scattered, maybe even a bit quirky.
As an ENFP, Mariel has considerable strengths.
She displays courage, practicality, imagination, creativity, and spontaneity.
She’s an excellent communicator and knows how to use her skills.
She’s an imaginative problem solver and rejects the idea that old ways are always best. To her, roadblocks are nothing more than opportunities.
She’s a natural leader — a “can do” person — who patiently listens to Jack’s ideas and suggestions before she tells him what they’re really going to do.
She has a strong social conscience and stands up for what she believes in. She can be loud, stubborn and assertive if that’s what it takes.
She also has weaknesses.
She’s impetuous and has a tendency to go off half-cocked. Sometimes she lets her imagination get the best of her.
She can be hypersensitive and read things into Jack’s words that are not really there. Then she gets her feelings hurt over nothing and they have a fight.
She suffers from lack of focus and follow-through. Mariel has a thousand ideas, but she needs somebody with a strong sense of closure (i.e., someone like Jack) to help her bring them to fruition.
Her emotional, bubbly style sometimes makes Jack feel like he’s being steamrolled.
In my mind’s eye, I have an idea of what Mariel and Jack look like (drawn from movie actors contemporary to the story). For Mariel, it’s Joan Bennett, a longtime star of film, stage and television. Among her memorable pictures were Man Hunt, The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street.
Jack Armstrong, ESTJ
Jack is energized by relationships (Extroverted). He focuses on details and facts, rather than concepts and ideas (Sensing) and makes decisions based on reason and logic (Thinking). Jack prefers planning and organization over spontaneity and flexibility (Judging). He likes to see things done right.
Jack is a hardworking traditionalist, orderly, precise and conscientious. He’s systematic and methodical, grounded in reality. He’s a by-the book cop and follows the rules and regulations. His closet is organized. He prefers logic, structure and predictability. He’s a take-charge kind of guy who can bring order out of chaos.
He is confident, tough minded and used to being in charge. He’s highly task-oriented and puts work before play. He respects authority.
As an ESTJ, Jack has many strengths.
He’s organized and efficient. Others see him as reliable, dependable and rock-steady.
He is dedicated and committed. This holds true both for professional situations and personal relationships.
When he sets out to do something, he does it all the way and gives it everything he’s got.
When he makes a commitment, he follows through.
He has high integrity and expects the same from others.
He has a strong sense of stewardship, of what’s right and what’s wrong. This is what led him into law enforcement.
He has some weaknesses, too.
He can be judgmental. His logical approach can sometimes lead to tunnel vision. He fails to see the possibilities that Mariel dreams up (and wonders where they even came from).
He’s not always comfortable with his emotions. This is fundamentally at odds with Mariel’s need for romance and intimacy.
Jack is not always open-minded to new things or to ideas that don’t fit his logical framework.
I see Jack Armstrong as someone who resembles actor Charles Starrett. Once a Dartmouth University football player, Starrett made 115 western movies for Columbia Pictures, notably as the Durango Kid. As it happens, this fits petty well with Jack’s back story.
Next — Where Did Mariel and Jack Come From? What are Their Back Stories?
I believe it’s important to know where a character came from in order to understand where they are today.
Where did they grow up? Who are their parents? Do they have siblings? How did they get along with their family? What shaped them as adults? What makes them tick? What makes them unique?
I spent considerable time developing back stories for both Mariel and Jack. This helped me know them better when I started writing. Here’s a condensed version.
Mariel grew up in San Francisco in a working-class Irish family. One brother is a bricklayer; the other is in the Navy. Her sister married an electrician, has two kids and lives in Los Angeles. Mariel is a bit of a rebel and left home when she was sixteen (not so unusual at the time of the story). She has a domineering father and a mother who’s not afraid to stand up to him. She likes detective magazines. A reporter, she’s the first person in her family to hold a white-collar job and the first woman to be other than a homemaker and mother.
Jack is from Montana. He grew up on his family’s Double Bar A ranch, just south of the Sweet Grass Hills, and learned to sit a horse about the same time he learned to walk. He spent his days chasing cows in the coolies and — when he found the time — skirts in Great Falls and Missoula. When the Great Depression hit, the bank foreclosed on the ranch. With no work prospects in sight, Jack hopped a freight train and headed for San Francisco, where he joined the police force. The Depression found him there, too, and he was furloughed from the department.
Finally — Mariel (ENFP) and Jack (ESTJ) Together
Do Opposites Attract?
Mariel and Jack have fundamental differences in the way they see things. This is especially apparent in their tempestuous first meeting when Jack (who at this point is still on the police force) tosses the ever inquisitive and inventive Mariel out of a crime scene.
Mariel is an Intuitive Feeling type, concerned with people, values and relationships. She is idealistic and empathetic. She is unconventional and imaginative. She lives in a world of possibilities and potentialities. She sees the big picture and relies on intuition.
All of this drives Jack crazy — until he falls in love with her.
Jack, on the other hand, is a Sensing Thinking type and relies on logic and hard facts. He is systematic and ordered. He takes things stepwise and follows through to a rational conclusion. He has no patience with flights of fancy.
Mariel simply cannot comprehend Jack’s insistence on doing things by the book.
Mariel doesn’t understand why Jack can’t see the world the same way she does, why he can’t share her perspective. For his part, Jack thinks Mariel needs to knuckle down and stick to the facts.
As their relationship progresses, Mariel is able to impart some of her boundless enthusiasm to Jack. He begins to buy into her vision, helping Mariel in her quest by applying his own strengths and abilities.
By the same token, Mariel comes to rely on Jack’s logical approach and problem-solving skills. Reluctantly, at first, she finds that she has to tap into his “cop brain” to understand the facts behind the series of mysterious deaths she’s covering as a reporter.
As an NF, Mariel is much more attuned to her feelings than is ST Jack. She wants and expects romance, whereas Jack often fails to get the concept altogether. She also misreads some of Jack’s words and actions. She gets her feelings hurt, and Jack can’t figure out what he did wrong.
Despite the obstacles, these near opposites ultimately get together. They have to if they’re to solve the mystery, defeat the villain and make the world safe for democracy.
*** MBTI® BASICS — A Quick Overview ***
The MBTI® is based on typology. That is, just as people can be classified as blue-eyed or brown-eyed, they can also be categorized by personality type.
The idea stems from the work of psychoanalyst Carl Jung, who first described the idea in 1921. Later, the non-psychologist, mother-daughter team of Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers developed Jung’s concepts into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®. Today the MBTI® is one of the most popular personality instruments in the world.
Every year, millions of people use it to gain self-awareness and appreciation of the differences in others. For decades it’s been a mainstay in industry, education and counseling. Legal professionals employ it to gain a better understanding of jury members.
Though many research studies have supported both the validity (does it measure what it says it does?) and reliability (are the results consistent?) of the MBTI®, not everyone is a fan, including many psychologists. One reason is that there are also a number of contrary studies.
In the end, it comes down to whether or not you believe that typology is the best approach for the study of personality. To an extent, it also depends on whether or not you can buy into Carl Jung’s ideas, which are intriguing but sometimes pretty far out there.
As with any system of personality, the MBTI® does not provide an absolute picture. That is, a person may fall under one of the defined types, yet still have preferences and exhibit behaviors common to other types. It’s all a matter of degree.
All that aside, I personally have found the MBTI® to be quite useful in the corporate sector as a tool for executive education. It is an excellent vehicle for team building; and in my experience, people generally relate positively to what they learn about their own personality type and the personality types of the people they work with.
That’s what led me to draw on it when developing the fictional characters of Mariel and Jack. From that experience, I’ve come to believe that MBTI® concepts can be as valuable for writers as they are for other professionals.
When a writer uses the MBTI® to develop fictional characters, the academic arguments don’t really matter.
The Four Dichotomies
In the Myers-Briggs approach, personality types are derived from four basic dichotomies. These are based on individual preferences. For example, Extroverts prefer groups and the companionship of others. Introverts, on the other hand, would just as soon be left alone.
Where a person falls along any of these four dimensions is a matter of degree. As an example, some Extroverts are more extroverted than other Extroverts.
Personality Types
The MBTI®’s 16 personality types are derived from the different combinations possible with the four dichotomies.
In other words, we have ESTJ (Extrovert, Sensor, Thinker, Judger), ENTP (Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeler, Perceiver), INFP (Introvert, Intuitive, Feeler, Perceiver — my own type) and so on.
Many sources give detailed descriptions and explain how the different types relate with each other. The psychological assessment firm Truity, for example, provides a comprehensive overview. Additional information is available on the Myers & Briggs Foundation website.
Bottom line
For writers, the bountiful available information about MBTI® personality types can be an excellent resource for in depth development of fictional characters and for fleshing out the relationship dynamics between them.
They can make our task considerably easier.
