Creating characters with personality tests
When it comes to creating larger than life characters in our stories, some come to us naturally and some really feel like you’re making up a personality from scratch.
But even when we have characters that feel real to us right away, we should always ensure they ring true and that the choices they make later in the story make sense with their established personality. While it’d be easy to just say, “Well, they’re not real and they just exist on paper,” that’s not going to pave the way for a memorable story or cast of characters.
One way to help bring these characters to life is to match them to established personality types found on personality tests.
There are two major personality tests I’d recommend checking out as a writer to help flesh out your characters and make them as realistic and relatable as possible.
First up is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which breaks out personalities into 16 categories based on four main pillars: World, Information, Decisions, and Structure.
These four pillars then assign your answers a certain letter in each:
- World: Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)
- Information: Sensing (S) or Intuition (N)
- Decisions: Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
- Structure: Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)
From there, you put together your four-letter profile, like ENFJ, the most persuasive personality type. ENFJs are known for being charismatic, idealistic, avoids unpleasantness, and is compassionate. Whereas the exact opposite of this personality is the ISTP, who is the most pragmatic personality and tends to be observant, practical, and unpretentious.
A great website that builds on the MBTI test is 16Personalities.com that assigns names to each type that can help you sum up your character even better.
You can take the test as your character or you can simply explore the various profiles to see what fits the character you’re creating or understand what could drive their goals, what motivates them, what could cause conflict for them with other characters or situations, and how they interact with other personality types.
Not sure you want to comb through 16 profiles? I’ve found another great personality assessment in the Enneagram. There are 9 profiles in this one:
- Type 1: The Reformer – rational, perfectionist
- Type 2: The Helper – caring and interpersonal
- Type 3: The Achiever – success-oriented and drive
- Type 4: The Individualist – sensitive, dramatic
- Type 5: The Investigator – perceptive, innovative
- Type 6: The Loyalist – responsible, anxious
- Type 7: The Enthusiast – spontaneous, fun-loving
- Type 8: The Challenger – decisive, confrontational
- Type 9: The Peacemaker – easygoing, receptive
One great feature the Enneagram Institute website does in their profiles of the types is to provide the types’ fears, desires, motivations, and descriptions of how they behave and interact with others – key details for writers to bring their characters to life!
No matter which one you use, personality tests can be a valuable tool for writers when it comes to getting inside your characters’ heads, especially if they’re quite different from your own personality type.
I love using personality tests and profiles to help understand my characters better and even find ways to drive conflict between them or get ideas for new plot points based on who they are as a person. These tools can help your characters seem like real people and help readers understand them and their motivations better. You don’t necessarily have to spell out what personality type your characters have or make them a stereotype, but the more people recognize realistic traits and choices in your characters, the more they’ll want to understand them and follow them on their journey in your story.
Do you use personality tests to build your characters? Tell me if you have a recommendation for another one in the comments below!
