Friday, March 22, 2019

Going Mental With the Mentalist

This post first appeared in Seekerville in 2013 and was a result of binge watching back-to-back episodes of The Mentalist.

by Pam Hillman

Several conversations in writers groups, other authors, and here in Seekerville started me on a journey of discovery a few years ago. One author asked a group of us if we were analytical, and if we had trouble expressing thoughts, feelings, and emotion in general and in our novels. That really stuck with me, and I pondered it for about a week before emailing her and engaging in dialogue.

Here was my response, “I would have to say yes, although I'm much more open about sharing now than I used to be. Many years ago, a well-known author critiqued one of my stories and said I was ‘almost there’, but that she had the sense I was holding back. I've always contributed that ‘holding back’ to the fact that I'm very reserved, keeping my personal feelings, emotions, and thoughts to myself. I've never thought that it was also because I'm analytical.”

A few weeks later, another author made a similar observation on a writers' loop. On a whim, I emailed her and asked her if she would consider herself an analytical thinker, and she gave me a resounding yes. Hmmm, could analytical types have a hard time expressing emotions on the page? It was worth digging into just a bit more.

Now, while I was pondering all of this, another light-bulb moment occurred. Missy Tippens had a great post in Seekerville titled 3 Tips for Hooking Readers (Seekerville Archives, 4/15/13) where she discussed hooks, emotions, and connecting with readers. But of course, we, as authors have to connect with our characters first, who in turn connect with our readers.

In true Mentalist fashion, the purpose of my post came together from one sentence in the comments section of Missy’s post...

Readers are drawn to heroines that reflect themselves a lot of the time.” Ruth Logan Herne

Immediately, the analytical part of me started to wonder what the most common personality trait of women, who are our primary readers, would be. And there’s nothing like a personality test and Mr. Google to help me find the answer to that burning question. A hop, skip, and a jump across the internet and I found what I was looking for. The My Personality website. What a perfect place to go a little mental!

Feel free to go take the test if you haven't already. :)



So, now that everyone has taken the test and has their 4 letter personality type in hand, let’s get down to the meat of this blog post.

Are you ready?

Today's post is not about what we are at all...
...it's about what we are not.

Of the respondents who took the personality test, 94% did not fall into one of the two most common personality types for women. As you can see from the personality chart above, the two most common personality types for women are ESFJ “The Supporter” at 17% and ESFP “The Entertainer” at 14%. 

That’s a whopping 31% of all women.



The majority of authors (as high as 94% in an informal survey) of authors who took this personality test are not ESFJ or ESFP. That means many authors don't have the same personality traits as the majority of women.
  
The good news is that I’ve read books by almost all of the authors who responded to my survey, and they have no trouble writing heroines with personalities sprinkled all across the personality map, so most of us don't need to do a thing. This isn’t to make anyone think they need to change the way they write at all, but is just another tool to add to our tool kits if someone struggles with this.

Now, what to do about this conundrum?

One way to write outside of our personality zone is to think of people whose personalities are similar to the top two most popular categories, or watch movies with those characters. Study those personality traits on the My Personality site, and practice writing an ESFJ or an ESFP character.

"For the ESFP, the entire world is a stage. They love to be the center of attention and perform for people. They're constantly putting on a show for others to entertain them and make them happy. They enjoy stimulating other people's senses, and are extremely good at it. They would love nothing more than for life to be a continual party, in which they play the role of the fun-loving host."

It makes sense to study the different personality traits ... not to label or change ourselves ... but as a tool to help us write characters readers relate to on a more personal level.

The Spring Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt has ended and winners have been contacted.
BUT there's more. Pam Hillman is hosting a Post-Scavenger Hunt Giveaway
on Facebook. Click here to go to the discussion and comment for a chance to win.



CBA Bestselling author PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. www.pamhillman.com

29 comments:

  1. I'm ENFJ, which means I'm a visionary, which is only 5.5% of the population of women. Great post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There you go. I found it interesting that many author types were in the minority.

      Delete
  2. Pam, this is deep--and fascinating. Fortunately it's Friday and I have time to ponder this. I have been accused of "holding back." Part of it is my journalism background, I'm used to just getting the facts on the page, and part of it is probably a New England thing. In my early efforts I left too much up to the reader's imagination. Learning deep POV has helped me with that, and also tapping my own emotions.
    I have an ESFP character, Oona in my second Oregon Trail story. She's Irish and one of nine children, so she had to be loud to be heard. But even with a "showboat" character, there has to be something underneath. Under all the noise and laughter, she's a deeply damaged woman bearing the scars of life in Ireland, and going about all the wrong ways to heal them when her real healing must come from Christ. Of course I pitted her against a quiet man with his own scars...
    This is a good post. We should not write the same characters over and over again. But even in a character not like us (I am SO not Oona), we can tap our own feelings and emotions.
    I'm playing catch-up this week. NH had its small-town municipal elections and Town Meetings this week and I was out straight with election coverage. Going to catch up on the story I'm working on with my crit partner, do some prep for my pub date this fall, and plug away on research for my third Oregon Trail book. It is a foul day here, cold, wet and rainy, so there will also be a lot of hot tea and reading other people's books!
    Kathy Bailey
    Kaybee to the world
    Thanks Pam.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kathy, I agree... I left too much up to the reader's imagination. Then when I thought I was sharing enough, it tended to be just more descriptive words about the scenery or the weather. Finally, I figured out how to dig into the characters themselves and show that on the page.

      Not that I get it right every time, but I'm better at it than I used to be. :)

      Delete
  3. I definitely struggle with this type of thing as I'm very analytical and most in my group are male. I have to work hard to bring out the emotion of the characters because I'm all about what they are doing to accomplish something instead! Getting some of those E characters on paper is a real job, too! Thankfully I've studied those Es (fascinating creatures!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same here, Debra. My background is in computer programming. Analytical much? Um... yeah... :)

      Delete
  4. Thanks Pam for this post. A writer in residence at our local library suggested to profile your characters by using the Proust questionnaire, and I've heard of authors doing a Q&A type exercise before creating their characters. This is another post to bookmark as I think about an ideal heroine for another manuscript to Lord-willing someday be published. Blessings, Lee-Ann

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that's a great idea, Lee-Ann. Every thing we can throw in our toolbox to help us write true-to-life characters with depth and emotion is a good thing.

      Delete
  5. Pam, I'm so glad you shared this post again! I can't remember what I am for sure, but I think it was ISFJ. It's been years since I've taken the test so I should do it again.

    I love the idea of looking up characteristics of these types to use for my characters! It's tough to write characters who are so different from me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Missy, it was fun taking it.... I don't remember if I took this one last time, but it kind of nailed me. "Bossy Twit" :)

      Delete
  6. It will come as a surprise to no one that I'm a CHIEF.... (sigh....) which means bossy twit in normal speak.

    The good thing about all of this is that we're all a combo of this, that and the other thing so when we're writing characters, we can insert bits of this or that into the characters... so a part of them is reflective of us and parts aren't.

    I do find that bossy twits don't generally love the shy, introverted type heroine.... because we're more likely to want to slap her.

    BUT... if it's like a HIDDEN strong woman who is coming into her own (no whining) that's a whole different thing. Because a good writer can shade that inner strength so we don't want to slap that heroine!

    :)

    Character profiles are such a huge part of a story. And then staying in character throughout is another big part.

    Pam, I love this stuff!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ruthy, you did take the test and you were a CHIEF then as well as now. So... as you stated above, you are "staying in character throughout." Good for you! :)

      Delete
  7. Pam,
    Thanks for sharing this tool! Using the Meyers-Briggs has been one of my "go tos" to create characters. It helps a great deal in determining how a character might act or react to situations and other characters. It's also a great way to show internal struggle, especially when something contradicts their personality traits. Thanks again!
    Donna

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are very welcome, Donna. Glad to be of help.

      Delete
  8. Hi Pam:

    I don't believe I can say that in all my reading I've ever wondered about whether an author's universe of characters adequately represented the psychological distribution of personality types found in the general population. (Woo, that was a mouthful.)

    A good story probably does not have such a balance. Stories tend to be extra ordinary. That's what makes them interesting.

    What I do want to see, however, is for characters who, when speaking, are differentiated and recognizable from each other.

    I just read a very good historical romance except for one scene in which three characters were engaged in a 'politically correct' conversation about women's rights where they all sounded exactly alike and the verbiage used could have come right off a college campus today. It was very clear that these characters were really just the author speaking and that she was 'a preaching'!

    Such a scene is like finding a bug in your soup.

    Be kind to your reader. Keep you characters in character. And if you are going to preach, then at least do it with authenticity.

    Vince

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All great points, Vince, and ewww, please no bug soup for me!

      Interesting that you took from my post that the characters should represent the psychological distribution of personality types... by that I think you mean that any given novel would need to have the same percentage of people who are ESFJs or ESFP as the general population. Hmmm, that's an interesting thought, but it wasn't the gist of the post.

      I was attempting to show that authors (Christian female authors specifically) themselves tend to have a different psychological makeup than the most common traits for women, so that we're aware of the "other side of the coin" so to speak.

      Having this info at our fingertips might make one author write an ESFJ heroine so that many readers relate to her. But so much of this is innate, or at the very least, nurtured, that I would be hard-pressed to point to any one of my characters and say that I modeled him or her after very specific character traits.

      Delete
    2. Hi Pam:

      I think you clarified that very well if I understand correctly. The idea is that authors learn the personality types of their readers so they can craft characters that the readers can better relate to. That makes sense.

      I do believe, however, that for these different personality types there already exists 'stock' characters, or stereotypic 'central casting' types, that fill those diverse character needs. Of course, the good author will modify these personality traits to give them new life. (The same only different.)

      Also I think one of the best ways to get readers to relate to a character is to make a character especially sympathetic.

      For example: remember your first book, "Stealing Jake"? I could not tell you the heroine's personality type but I can say that she was a very sympathetic character who was becoming a very worthy individual after a bad past. So I related to her immediately. In Missy's "My Valentine Reunion" the heroine was painted so sympathetically in the first page and a half, that I virtually fell in love with her right then and there. I did not have to know anything about her personality type. Of course I read that book over 8 years ago and I still feel for that heroine.

      Anyway, it is fun to think about these things because you never know what info or fact will stimulate the creative juices to help lift your WIP to a higher level of excellence. :)

      Vince

      Delete
  9. Hello Villagers! I'm juggling three grandbabies today for a few hours, so y'all enjoy the discussion and I'll chime in when I'm free. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I took the personality test, and there were no surprises for me! I'm INSF, which I hope plays to my advantage as an author!

    When I'm in the midst of writing, though, I never really think about my characters' personality types. It would be fun to take the test as my character, though!

    Thanks for the fun Friday, Pam, and enjoy those grandbabies!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who has time to think about the personality types while writing??? Not me! lol

      Delete
  11. I love Meyers-Briggs. It can explain so much about how we act and react. Great to use it to create characters!

    Enjoy those babies! I'm envious! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I might not have to dig so hard to figure out my characters if I did this first. :)

      The babies were great today, but managing a 6 month old, an 11 month old and a 3 yo is tough! Thankfully, my mother came over and rocked the 6 month old for a long nap and that got us through. Normally, I don't have all three at once. Today was an exception.

      Delete
  12. Hi Pam:

    Just a suggestion: before you juggle three grand babies just consider that it might be safer to juggle three chainsaws. See for yourself here.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti3MkTt5qv4

    Be sure to film it.

    Vince

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Safer or saner? Or is that the same thing? lol

      Film it? Ha!! I had no extra hands to film anything and if there had been a set, I would have given them a baby, not a camera. :)

      Delete
  13. My results:
    ESFJ, Supporter, Protector, Extroverted, Sensing, Linguistic, Kinesthetic, Visual, Left-brained

    I like a variety of characters, but I prefer them to be strong, not whiny. They deal with issues, they feel deeply, but they handle it (with the support of others & their faith) and move on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Strong, not whiny. Yep. I watched a movie recently (the title escapes me) and the main character was so whiny. Actually, come to think of it, I don't think I finished the thing. I was like... grow up, already!

      Delete
  14. This is so interesting! Have you read about Enneagrams? I had a girl's week trip this summer and that was the book we read together. It was fascinating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dianna, I have heard the word, but hadn't seen the Enneagram "graphs". That looks fascinating and like something I as a visual learner would enjoy. I might have to look into it more. :) Thanks for the heads up! :)

      Delete

If you have trouble leaving a comment, please "clear your internet cache" and try again. You can find this in your browser settings under "clear history."