May Monday Motivation - Character "Analysis"

Sometimes creating deeper characters requires the writer to practically become an amateur psychologist

when they study the different kinds of people there are in the world. While we often seek to understand those we love for the sake of relationship, we need to examine our characters in their environment for authenticity. Where can you find some tools?

A task-oriented leader.

A Greek physician and philosopher in the Roman Empire, Galen, used the four humors, or bodily fluids, to categorize temperaments, or personalities. To simplify greatly, the four were: choleric – tightly wound, type A and task-oriented; melancholy – introverted, deep thinker, focused; sanguine – playful, extroverted and enjoys being with people, giving energy to those around them; phlegmatic – laid back, slower to make decisions, steadfast and patient. Again, this is greatly simplified. Gary Smalley refers to the choleric as a “lion”, the sanguine as an “otter”, the melancholy as a “beaver” and the phlegmatic as a “golden retriever”.

Fun loving and friendly!

Steadfast and loyal friend.

While this is based on an older system, which developed over time, newer ways of discovering personality strengths and weaknesses, such as the Meyers-Briggs assessments, score four basic categories. However these are combined to make sixteen different types, depending on the scores in each category. This method is more exacting and can perhaps tell you more about a person.  They are based on these groups: 1) Extroversion or Introversion (E or I), 2) Sensing or Intuition (S or N), 3) Thinking or Feeling (T or F), 4) Judging or Perceiving (J or P).  Description summaries of all sixteen personality types can be found on the Meyer and Brigg Foundation website.

Focused worker.

If you have trouble bringing depth to your characters, you may find that understanding these different types may help you better decide how your character may think or act in a given situation. How will your characters relate to one another? Some more character-driven writers will perhaps have a natural intuition for this, but hard-core plotters may find help with analyzing characters by personality types, thus adding another layer to characterization.

For example, your social butterfly heroine, Gigi, is out shopping for an outfit. She’s wearing a fuchsia sweater with leopard print leggings and high-heeled boots. She wants to get the attention of your hero at an upcoming dinner party. Will she likely: a) Find a neutral colored business suit then go for coffee with a friend to discuss the merits of such a purchase? b) Find an outlandishly expensive, short red taffeta dress embellished with sequins, buy it impulsively and call her best friend on the way home to tell her about it? c) Put a smart, conservative black dress on lay away and tell her cat, Mr. Piddles, about it when she comes home, before she writes in her diary? d) None of the above.

Okay, if you chose b, this is what I had in mind for the quintessential fun loving otter, who in this case is perhaps a bit artsy and flighty. Her loud every day outfit, her desire to get the guy’s attention and “why not be the talk of the party while she’s at it?” attitude hopefully bring this out. And of course, she must call her best friend immediately. The other two choices are, well, probably too tame and unlikely for Gigi. You want to keep things consistent and authentic. Think what is my character like and what would she choose or do in each situation? This helps build the layers of an authentic, three dimensional character, a person your reader will want to know better.

If you’re in a pinch to match a hero and heroine you may find the book 45 Master Characters, Revised Edition: Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters helpful.  This book does a lot of groundwork for you by revealing basic male and female character archetypes. With learning more about the kinds of characters who have become classics throughout the ages, you can have a foundation for building your protagonist, antagonist and even supporting roles.

The Writer’s Journey, which I discussed in another post, is also helpful for building authentic characters and understanding the journey you want to set out for them in your story. How will your characters be influenced and affected by the world around them?

Just remember, if you’re going to be an amateur, armchair psychologist, please keep your practice to the people in your head!

Writing Prompt: I love Victorian or Edwardian settings! Take a few minutes, using this photograph of a parlor in a lighthouse to write about the people who may have sat upon this sofa together. Have fun!

Monday Motivation - Productivity and Personality

Productivity and the Personality . . . Disordered 

Recently I asked the Lord to show me why I struggle so much with procrastination when it comes to my fiction writing. I sit at the laptop and stare at the blank page. It’s all up in my brain, but I have a hard time getting it transferred through my fingertips. I can even relate to this in other areas of my life. Is there some kind of fear of failure torturing me? What is it? I mean, I love words, the process of creating a story and especially when I get in the zone, writing itself.

Last week, I watched a video talk given by author Susan May Warren from My Book Therapy on becoming an author and one of the subjects she addressed was the different ways the four basic personality types (sanguine, choleric, melancholy and phlegmatic) and how they affect writing productivity. I happen to be melancholy/phlegmatic. Melancholies, she said, tend to overanalyze while they’re writing, which slows them down. That’s how I am! Just throw in a little perfectionism to make the process more agonizing. As far as being phlegmatic, Susan mentioned that they don’t like putting their characters in difficult circumstances. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I do better with internal than external conflict. This makes for a difficult combination.

Understanding these things about myself, helps me bring order to the disorder of my writing habit. Since I am overanalyzing my writing before I even start, I need to find strategies to deal with it. Instead of feeling like I am looking over a dangerous cliff and unsure how I’m going to cross the chasm from the starting point to done, I need to build a bridge. I’ve been reading about writing productivity and trying to find what works for me. One tip I’ve found is writing a summary of what I will be writing that day. I don’t have to outline every little point, but at least I have a rough sketch to help me get started.

The important thing to remember is not comparing myself to the authors who write 10,000 words a day, but what works with my personality to help me become more productive. What is your personality type? What helps you become more productive?

Writing prompt for this Monday: The house on  . . .

Finish this sentence any way you like and continue writing for one to two paragraphs. Have fun with it!