Different Temperaments, Different Fears

The heroine of the mystery novel I am working on needs certain qualities to be a good sleuth. Things like nosiness, an outgoing personality, the ability to talk people into helping her, and the willingness to risk dangerous situations in order to get the information she needs.

In other words, her temperament needs to be very different than mine. I am a reserved, logical, non-assertive person who doesn’t like taking risks and stays out of other people’s business. (Most of the time, anyway.)

Therefore, I cannot rely solely on my own instincts to predict how my character will react. No writer can, because we all need a variety of characters who think and act in different ways. That’s where utilizing temperament classifications can be useful. (See below for information on three different temperament classification systems. You can also search for free assessment tools online.)

Temperaments as a writing tool

Understanding temperaments is especially important when writers are considering the deep inner issues that their characters must face, because one person’s worst fear is something another personality type might take in stride. For example, some people hate being in the spotlight while others thrive in it. Some people find their purpose upholding rules, while others consider rules stifling.

Identifying a character’s temperament type can guide us to the issues that would most challenge their personality. (And it might be something very different from what would most challenge you or me.) Alternately, if you know the kind of trauma and embarrassment you have planned for your hero, you might find that a particular temperament’s worst nightmare or most significant fear fits your concept. Voila, you have identified the perfect temperament.

Browsing through some of the other posts on best/worst ___ for each temperament type can give you additional useful insights. For example, I stumbled across the advice that a pet would be the worst kind of gift for my heroine, because her personality doesn’t do well at long-term relationship maintenance, so a pet would end up either being ignored or becoming a hindrance. (Hmm, strike the pet cat.)

WWJD – What Would Jane Do?

If you are like me, all this temperament info is fascinating, but difficult to put into practice when writing. What are we poor writers who never took a Psych class to do?

You might try assigning a person you know as a temperament model for your character. This does not mean you are basing your whole character on this person, only that your model’s temperament fits nicely into one of the standard types, which helps you understand what that kind of personality would do in a given situation. A temperament model can help you avoid inadvertently overlaying your own personality on your character.

How else have you found temperament classifications to be helpful? I’d love to hear your advice.

Information on three common temperament classification systems:

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator divides temperaments into sixteen types with four-letter designations like INFP or ESTJ.

The Kiersey Temperament Sorter, which basically uses the same sixteen types as the Myers- Briggs but approaches them in a different way that might make more sense to some writers.

The Enneagram System, which takes a different approach to understanding temperaments and divides people into nine personality types. If you feel like you never fit into any of the Myers-Briggs types, the Enneagram system might make more sense.