by Jill Williamson
On Tuesday I talked about labeling your characters. I had labeled my Captives character Mason as an analyst. And I sometimes compared him in my mind to Mr. Spock from Star Trek or Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory to help me write his analytical side. These comparisons also helped me identify Mason’s true Myers Briggs personality type. I had thought he was one type, but after this exercise, I came to learn that Mason is an INTJ.
Here’s the thing. I’m not an INTJ. I’m a fairly logical person, but I’m big on feelings. Maybe it’s my being a girl. Who knows. One thing I knew as I worked through the last rewrite of Captives: I was not doing a grand job at writing an INTJ. These guys are smarter than Einstein! (Einstein was considered to be an INTP, by the way.)
Besides thinking of Mr. Spock and Sheldon Cooper as I wrote Mason, two other things helped me immensely.
 |
| Isaac Newton: INTJ |
1. http://www.celebritytypes.com
Susie May Warren suggested figuring out what celebrities had the same personality as Mason, and when I got home, I found this amazing site. It lists famous people under personality type. So I was able to look up Mason’s personality type and see others like him. Not only did that give me more people to compare him to, it gave me quotes. Words spoken by these highly intellectual people. I was so excited. I copied down many of the quotes and studied them, knowing that Mason might have similar thoughts about himself and the world. Check out the other INTJs out there like Mr. Spock and Sheldon Cooper and Mason: http://www.celebritytypes.com/intj.php
2. I Googled INTJ forums.
Unlike Mr. Spock and Sheldon Cooper, Mason is attracted to women. So I had a good time Googling things like: “How do you know if an INTJ likes you.” This was a lot of fun. Mason also has faith in God, which is not popular among INTJs, so I Googled “Argument for INTJ and Christianity.” Now that was some amusing reading. INTJs love to debate. For fun! And reading words that real INTJ people wrote really helped me find Mason’s voice. And it was a hoot.
Both these exercises gave me much stronger visual examples than reading the Myers Briggs sites and books ever did. I found it super helpful.
Check out some of those links and tell me what you think. How might knowing some celebrity matches in your character’s personality type help you as you write?