Three character tests of 16personalities

So, in my previous post I offered to try out some personality tests online to see if any of them could help me flesh out my characters. To begin with I thought I would go for www.16personalities.com, and compose a trial run of three of the main characters from my current work.

A little about 16personalities before I get started. The test aims to take your true preferences (honesty is key when filling one of these things out) and categorise each one into five scales as listed below:

Extrovert -  - Introvert

Intuitive -  - Observant

Thinking -  - Feeling

Judging -  - Prospecting

Assertive -  - Turbulent

The first four are used to identify an individual's personality type, while the last is used to identify their strategy.

Of the three characters chosen for the test, I felt pretty certain that I knew two of them quite well, but that the third (Hector) still felt like a bit of a puzzle and kind of flat.

Quick note: I didn't intentionally choose gender specific avatars. These are the standards for these character types on the website.

I set out completing the questionnaire online, each time asking myself what the character in question would answer if they knew themselves fully and weren't going to hide anything from the test. Let's go through each one in detail, starting with my protagonist.

Tarreck

Tarreck's results and similar characters

Tarreck's results didn't really surprise me. He came out as a "Virtuoso" or ISTP-A personality. As I said, this is a character I know very well and at first glance the summary seemed to fit the individual. To add to this, the list of fictional characters that also fit this personality profile stacked up with my expectations. The most notable of all in my opinion being Jack Bauer, despite the gulf in genres between Tarreck's fantasy world and Jack's spy thriller and the fact that I hadn't really run the comparison, they did feel similar.

I say at first glance, because there were a few parts of the strengths and weaknesses that did have me puzzled. I won't list everything out here, but among the strengths were "Creative & Practical" as well as "Spontaneous & Rational": not terms I would have used to describe Tarreck before, but upon reflection they do match up with some of his actions throughout the book.

The real similarities were in his weaknesses: "Stubborn" and "Insensitive" would be obvious choices, but "Private & Reserved" is a perfect fit for him as a character.

Salena

Salena's results and similar characters

Salena's results were, again, no real surprise. She came out as a "Commander" or ENTJ-T personality type. Reading through the summary everything seemed to fit. The similar characters sparked some confusion for me though, as I never thought that my bold and troubled leading lady was anything like Gordon Ramsay or Margaret Thatcher. I do, however, concede a resemblance to a character from one of my favourite TV shows - River Tam. Much like River, Salena has had a hard time, adapted to live with it and is now immensely talented in spite of her difficult past and her continuing struggle to move on.

The real clincher here were that the strengths and weaknesses screamed Salena all over. Her self-confidence, strong will, strategic and efficient mind were all present and correct in her strengths. And her dominance, intolerance, impatience, arrogance and ruthlessness were all accounted for in her weaknesses. This is exactly the image I had for Salena, so I'm glad that both the test and my ability to fill it in were capable of reflecting her so well.

Hector

Hector's results and similar characters

As I said at the beginning, Hector has been the most difficult of these three to really flesh out into someone that feels real. I believe I've recently fixed some of this by tinkering (quite a lot) with his character arc. But his personality within that arc I think would still have given me some trouble, were it not for this test.

Hector came out as a "Consul" or ESFJ-T personality. At first, the summary didn't really sound right for him. For instance, the results suggested that in he might have been a quarterback at school. The juxtaposition of American football and a fantasy realm filled with magic aside, that didn't sound like him. But slowly the summary did start to make sense. Respect for established rules and laws, and a love to be of service all sounded like Hector all right.

Then I came on to the strengths and weaknesses and yet again, I was surprised. I already had in my head that Hector's loyalties and sense of duty would be crucial to his character arc, so seeing them in the strengths helped me to consider the others as well. Having "Strong practical skills" and being "Good at connecting with others" both started to sound like Hector, and the more I've thought about it the more they too can play a part in how he grows as a person throughout the book.

Given these strengths, I had already considered the obvious weakness of being "Too selfless". Others, however, had not even occurred to me. "Worrying about social status" or "Vulnerable to criticism" for example, hadn't entered my mind. But both of them make sense. With his history, he would be constantly worried that the status he had gained might be swept out from underneath him and his doubt in himself would make any criticism difficult to handle.

Conclusion

Though the business use is limited, I think this is a worthwhile exercise for fiction writers that I will take again with the rest of my main characters. Though it takes a little time, I think it is helpful with cementing characters into believable personalities. I'm going to keep exploring this through other personality websites too, so check back here soon to see how my cast get on with their next test.

Let's try a personality test

Following on from another great read (Crafting Unforgettable Characters by K.M. Weiland) and a day out of the office in project workshop my mind turned to personality. In the book, Weiland describes many of the facets that make great, unforgettable characters, and she ably describes the pains that many authors come to when crafting their own.

I've often wondered if there are ways to make my characters more interesting, less predictable, but most of all more lifelike. Writers often talk about one-dimensional characters. I've often found that description more abstract than useful. To me, one-dimension means that you have characters acting but you haven't given them reasons for doing so. So motives might give you something more, perhaps two dimensions. But even then, characters can still seem... off.

I think the issue with this is that we want our characters to be as real as actual people, and actual people don't simply have one motivation or one reaction to any of those motivations. Personality is a very complex thing, hence why some of the finest minds in history have dedicated themselves to the study of it. While we might not have direct access to those minds, and most writers don't even have access to a psychology undergrad, there are resources we can use.

The aforementioned project workshop was an opportunity to engage with co-workers, but also involved a personality test called working styles. I'll bet most of you are saying "my characters don't have office jobs", which is great, because the life behind a desk does not make for good reading. But in her book, Weiland does talk about character occupations - what is it that they do. It makes sense that if they have a job of some sort, then they will have a working style - that is a behaviour preference that can be used to describe how they work and interact with others.

I should say that I am definitely not counted as one of the people that believes in these tests as a useful business exercise, as I don't really agree with pigeon-holing people based on their preferences. I am, however, of the belief that they can help us get a better grasp of our characters. Over the next week or so I'm going to test that belief by using online personality tests, starting with www.16personalities.com, to see if they can help flesh out my characters. Check back here in a few days time for the first set of results.

If you've used personality tests in the past, either on your characters or on yourself (or someone else, if you're into unusual punishment), then please leave a link in the comments and I will add it to the list that I will be checking out.

A merry-go-round of characters

Following on from the advice I am slowly (and continuously) gleaning and incorporating into my fiction writing repertoire, I've spent some time considering Tarreck's story at a more summarised level. Each chapter considered as a whole, and then the parts within.

It isn't enough to have these changes enhance my plot. I know I need to work on the characters.

In my first ever book, about half way through Nanowrimo in 2008, I realised I had two characters the wrong way round. One should have been in place of the other and vice versa. So what did I do? I swapped them, in the very next scene, without explanation. If it had been sci-fi or fantasy, I might have been able to get away with it (Stephen Baxter does this in his book Time, although with slightly more explanation). Shame it was a spy thriller, really.

At my first attempt to edit Tarreck and his companions into something worth reading, I realised I had done the same. Before I had read anything on the subject of fiction writing, I knew it would be better to have these two characters swap places to up the ante for my protagonist and make his journey that much more difficult.

So I've re-read some of the book I wrote in Nanowrimo's coffee fuelled haze, and the further I've got through the messier it becomes. There's one point where (again) a character's location miraculously changes for no good reason. You'd have thought I'd have made a note, but I'll be damned if I can find it.

And now I find myself looking at two more characters and wanting to swap them round again, this time more to bring them out of their respective shells and fully blossom into the people I know they can be.

In the end I suppose I'm taking the necessary measures to improve my work like any other author, but I can constantly hear the advice of the pros in my head again - structure, outline, develop.

Maybe this November, I'll be better prepared.

Starting my journey...

...as always, from the middle. Truth be told I've been writing fiction for years, but only just started pursuing a publishing deal in earnest.

I've never been one for new year resolutions. The cynic in me - probably the loudest and most frequent voice in my head - rolls his eyes and shrugs at other people making their pledges once a year. Why should someone need that impetus to start eating right? Or to do more exercise? Or to learn a foreign language?

If there's one thing I've learned from writing fiction, it is the value of time. Underestimate it and it will swallow your ambitions with your youth and your pride. I write pretty much all my fiction in the month of November every year. If you're in fiction writing or publishing world you'll know all about Nanowrimo, and if you're not or you don't you should definitely check it out. The guys at The Office of Letters and Light bang the drum of the deadline's power but often overlook that of the kick-off, the starting pistol or project start date. No change can be meaningful without trying to accomplish it by a deadline, and what good is a deadline if you don't openly and actively commit to starting something.

That's the value of the new year resolution right there. The fact that you're committing to starting something.

My resolution wasn't made on January 1st. In fact, it didn't happen until I took the time to listen to a Nanowrimo webinar that featured Kami Garcia, James Scott Bell and K.M. Weiland. They spoke of structure and character, and something clicked. I always struggled with editing, but here were the experts passing on their knowledge and highlighting every one of my mistakes as they did.

(If you're in a similar position to me on the struggle against editing, I would strongly suggest checking out K.M. Weiland's Structuring Your Novel. I'll be reading one of James's in the near future too so I'll be sure to check in here afterwards.)

I found an energy for writing (and more importantly, editing) that I had not felt in years and it made me realise what I needed to do. I needed to edit one of my books to a quality good enough for publishing, but more than that -  I needed to make a resolution. So here it is: this is the year I will get published.

I set about looking through my back catalogue for my favourite story. Not my best work, or the one that would require the least polishing, just the story that held the most promise. The interesting characters and fully fledged plot ready to be nurtured into a publishable novel. I've settled on a book all about the redemption of a dark mage that I wrote a few years ago.

This blog is going to be where I keep track of the journey, the editing & the struggle to become a published author. I hope it makes good reading for you.