Writing Tips, Character Development, MBTI® for Writers
Authors — Let the MBTI® Help You Create Better Characters
Use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® to give your characters depth and relatability
As authors, how can we breathe life into our characters on the page?
That’s the challenge. Character development is never easy, but it’s what makes great storytelling. It’s also what makes writing fun.
This was top of mind when I began my latest book, Black Dragon. I wanted my main characters to be real and believable — to be relatable and interesting. Moreover, their relationship had to sizzle.
I wanted readers to be drawn to them and care about them.
Full disclosure: I’ve self-published five historical novels and have two under publisher contract. So, this wasn’t my first effort, but I wanted it to be my best yet.
As I asked, “How can I do better?” the answer came in a blinding flash of the obvious.
Use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)
As a Ph.D. psychologist, I’d used it in business settings for years. Executives love it. It works. Why didn’t I think of it before?
With 16 well-documented personality types, the MBTI® was the ideal tool to help me know my characters, deep down, and to understand what drives them. It helped me see how they would react in different situations, step up to challenges, and relate to each other. In brief, it helped me create better, deeper, and more relatable characters.
What is the MBTI®?
Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® by extending the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. Neither was formally trained in psychometrics or psychology.
Learn more about the MBTI® and its development from the Myers & Briggs Foundation.
Since its introduction in 1962, millions of people around the world have used it to increase self-awareness and to appreciate the differences in others. It is widely used in counseling, education, and industry.
The Myers-Briggs® system assesses personality in terms of typology. Just as a person can be described as either right- or left-handed, they can be placed into one of sixteen distinct personality types.
These sixteen types are derived from four basic dichotomies.
Dichotomy 1: Extraversion (E) versus Introversion (I) — where a person derives their energy
EXTRAVERTS draw energy from their surroundings and the people around them. They prefer active, busy environments. They don’t like to be alone. They are outspoken and opinionated. Extraverts act first and think about it later. They are spontaneous and like variety. They are open, accessible, and sociable. They like to talk.
Extrovert: How am I supposed to know what I’m thinking? I haven’t said it yet.
INTROVERTS draw energy from their inner world. They learn by tuning in to their thoughts and feelings. They prefer quiet time alone or perhaps with a small group. Fast-paced, intense interpersonal environments drain them. They are thoughtful, reserved, and deliberate. They think deeply.
No one is entirely one thing or another. It’s a continuum. For example, no one is entirely introverted.
Dichotomy 2: Sensing (S) versus Intuition (N) — how a person processes information
SENSORS focus on hard data and information they can process with their five senses. They are active and practical. They like concrete tasks and defined procedures. They hate ambiguity. They prefer clear results and products. They take a commonsense approach, digging into the details. They are hard-headed realists.
INTUITIVES operate at a more abstract level; they prefer theoretical explanations and focus on the patterns in data. They can connect the dots. Intuitives take a high-level approach rather than diving into the details. Their communication style is roundabout, using figures of speech and leaps of association. They are idealists. They are future-oriented and are often characterized as “creative”.
Dichotomy 3: Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F) — how one makes decisions
THINKERS make decisions based on logic and data — with their heads, not their hearts. They need clear rules. They value fairness, truth, and justice. Achievement motivates them. Thinkers emphasize logic and rules over people and feelings. They prefer blunt and businesslike interactions. Sometimes they are perceived as unemotional and cold.
FEELERS are concerned with how a decision will impact others and whether it fits their own values; they make decisions with their hearts. They want to help and support people. Feelers are empathic and amiable. They dislike interpersonal conflict. They weigh the effects their actions have on others.
Dichotomy 4: Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P) — how a person organizes their world
JUDGERS prefer order and structure. They stick to plans and procedures. They take charge of their environment. Judgers are decisive and self-disciplined. They don’t like ambiguity, change, or open-ended plans. They can come across as inflexible or domineering.
PERCEIVERS prefer spontaneity and flexibility. Freewheeling, they are happy to leave things open-ended. They see no sense in abiding by the rules. They view deadlines as elastic. Perceivers explore all the options. They don’t like to make decisions. Sometimes they are viewed as flighty or unreliable.
Using the Myers-Briggs® for Character Creation
The four dichotomies make a reasonable starting point for defining a literary character. But you can go considerably deeper by seeing how the character falls under one of the sixteen combinations of the four dichotomies — the personality types.
In other words, we have ESTJ (Extravert, Sensor, Thinker, Judger), ENTP (Extravert, Intuitive, Thinker, Perceiver), INFP (Introvert, Intuitive, Feeler, Perceiver — the author’s type), and so forth.
How I Developed My Protagonist — Mariel Cleary, ENFP
In my tome, Black Dragon, Mariel Cleary is a reporter for the San Francisco News in 1930. She has a boyfriend named Jack Armstrong, an ex-cop (among other things) who lost his job in the Great Depression. They team up to battle Japanese espionage in the run-up to World War II.
I wanted Mariel and Jack to have certain traits that would help them drive the story. I also wanted them to be opposites in many ways so they would complement each other. This adds a spark to their relationship, as well.
I began with a broad intuitive picture (including what they looked like).
Appearance-wise, I pictured Mariel as actress Joan Bennett and Jack as cowboy star Charles Starrett.
Then I developed their backstories. After that, I determined which MBTI® personality types fit them based on my general ideas about their personalities.
Mariel fits the profile of an ENFP. Jack is an ESTJ. Except for Extraversion, which they share, he is Mariel’s opposite number.
The readily available information about their personality types helped me flesh them both out in detail as well as to understand how they would relate to each other.
See Truity for a good overview of the 16 types,
According to IDRlabs.com, Mariel shares ENFP characteristics with such notables as Walt Disney, Mark Twain, Sandra Bullock, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Dylan, Katie Couric, Carol Burnett, and Orson Welles.
As an ESTJ, Jack is in famous company, too, with Henry Ford, Margaret Thatcher, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Condoleezza Rice, Billy Graham, Tom Clancy, and Paul of Tarsus.
Comprehensive character sketch for Mariel
Mariel is vivacious and energetic. She stands out in a crowd. She’s effervescent, enthusiastic, playful, and lively. She pushes Jack into things he wouldn’t ordinarily consider.
She’s stubborn and won’t take no for an answer. She would never give up on something or someone she believes in. She has a powerful imagination that runs toward adventure. The rules don’t apply to her.
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. Invaluable to her as a reporter, she is talented at drawing people out.
She’s an imaginative problem solver and rejects the idea that old ways are always best. She sees roadblocks as 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 and assertive if that’s what it takes.
And some weaknesses
She’s impetuous. Sometimes she goes off half-cocked.
She can be hypersensitive. She tends to read things into Jack’s words and gets her feelings hurt over nothing.
She suffers from a 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 bring them to fruition.
Her emotional, bubbly style sometimes makes Jack feel like he’s being steamrolled.
Additional ENFP characteristics that define Mariel’s character
She is people centered. She focuses on possibilities and is excited about new ideas. She is energetic, warm and passionate. Her enthusiasm is boundless and contagious. She makes Jack want to join her cause.
She lives her life with intensity and flair. She is curious.
To her, rules are made to be broken.
Mariel focuses on ideas and concepts, not details. (She leaves the details to ESTJ Jack!) She loves creative possibilities and is deflated by dry facts or harsh reality.
She seeks emotional intensity, whereas Jack has trouble connecting with his feelings. She’s not shy about sharing — anything!
She is an idealist and values personal freedom and self-expression.
She sometimes comes across as scattered, maybe even a little quirky.
Mariel and Jack Together
ENFP Mariel’s relationship with ESTJ Jack helps her learn how to listen and not talk all the time, finish what she starts, and not worry so much about what others think. With Jack, her near opposite in type, she’s found a worthy partner to help her in her endeavors. Likewise, she complements him.
To learn more about Jack, see:
A Final Thought
As often happens, Mariel and Jack wrote themselves. Originally, I saw Jack as the main character, but Mariel quickly took over center stage.
Soon I’ll put Black Dragon on the market and start querying publishers. Please keep your fingers crossed.
*** H. Wayne Smith has written five historical novels and has two more under contract. (Besides Black Dragon, he has another work in progress that he hopes to finish one day.) Visit his website to learn more. ***
