Monday, March 3, 2008

Character Development

Character development is an interesting process for the writer. And like so many other areas in writing craft, the new writer kind of has to work through several different methods to learn what works for them.

I'm taking an online writing course (well, lurking is probably the better description!) on writing the thriller. Before we introduced ourselves to the class, we were to take the Meier's-Briggs personality test in preparation to creating our own characters. The idea is that if you understand the complexities of your own personality it will be easier to create complex characters for our books. It's not new: Angie Hunt does this and recommends it in all her writing classes. Actually I first took the test after completing a Nangie clinic at the Colorado Christian Writers Conference a couple years back.

(I'll have more on CCWC and Nangie clinics on Thursday this week, so come back to visit then. in the meantime, check here to see a brochure and see the information for this year's excellent line-up.)

Both of the times I've taken the test, I've tested out as an ISTJ (Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging), very strong on the first and last elements, especially. Then I Googled ISTJ and found a description that totally blows me away with how accurate it is!

So I encourage you to check this out for yourself: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm

It doesn't take long. Then leave a comment telling us what your personality type is, according to the test, and how accurate the description is!

God is good to create each of us with unique personalities and character traits. This put me in awe of Him that much more when I finished the evaluation.

Daily Bible reading: Tuesday, March 4—Exodus 36–38; James 4

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I took the test twice and am either an ISTJ (with a very small amount of T) or an ISFJ (with a slightly larger amount of F). I read both profiles and can see parts of myself in both, so as usual I'm undecided even in something as basic as my personality. You're my sister. Maybe you can tell me what I am :).

Marjorie Vawter said...

Okay, big sister to the rescue :). Told you was a strong ISTJ! LOL

I see you in both, too, but stronger on the ISFJ part—you're much more of a nurturer than I ever was (or probably will ever hope to be!). Though it's definitely an area the Lord is working into me these days.

When I took the test yesterday the T factor wasn't as much as it was when I took it earlier. But the fact that I was still that even at 11:30 at night . . . well, I don't see much of myself in the ISFJ.

So did I call it right? Or should we ask Richard? Ask Kurt. I'll bet he could pin it down. After all, he's lived with you the last over twenty years now :).