Resources to Better Writing (ReOrganizing & Editing)

Characters Elements

What type of character are you trying to create? Good? Bad? Middle of the road type? Attractive? Ugly? Smart? Dumb?

There are many things to consider when creating your characters. We have to keep our readers in mind as we create them... they must be believable or our readers won't read. If you're looking to make a living out of writing, that would be disastrous!

Let's start with virtues. There are six known virtues for a healthy adult followed by their specific character traits:

  1. Wisdom and Knowledge - creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective

  2. Courage - bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality

  3. Humanity - love, kindness, social intelligence

  4. Justice - Citizenship, fairness, leadership

  5. Transcendence - forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation

  6. Temperance - appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

Does your character encompass all of these or are they missing one or more? What about the traits associated with each?

What about the characters personality type? This refers to their enduring experience and behavior. There are a total of 23 adult personality types, each with their own 'Internal' and 'Interpersonal' attributes.

  1. The Adventurer - The themes of the Adventurer are excitement and boldness. He/she may look and sound ordinary, but underlying most activities is the need to feel like a warrior, often unknowingly at the cost of others. More men are Adventurers than are women, because culture and socialization inhibit this type in growing girls; however, there have always been daring Adventurer women like Amelia Earhart.

Traits of the Adventurer usually appear in childhood as boldness or risk-taking and mature over a lifetime. On the positive side, the Adventurer type contains fun-loving, entertaining, and gregarious elements. Negatively, this adult may ignore rules, run roughshod over the feelings of others, and bark orders. Not surprisingly, the Adventurer is drawn to careers with excitement - pilot, stock trader, salesperson, or managerial positions - but in the extreme can become a con artist.

  2. The Boss - The Bossy person wants to be in the limelight, whether at home, work, or play. The themes that run through the life a Bossy are control (of self and others) and having things his/her own way.

As a youngster, the Bossy type can be seen in adherence to doing chores, watching younger siblings, leading activities, or keeping things organized. Later, that same aggressive energy can be positively channeled into leadership or turn insistent and relentless, cold, demanding, or humiliating. The Bossy gravitates to careers like hotel or restaurant management, campaign manager, advertising executive, or school superintendent - jobs that allow dominance but can become abusive. Mild traits are useful in sales, medical, and psychological or psychiatric fields. Often the Bossy is able to cloak negative traits in socially responsible work, such as business takeovers or the military.

  3. The Conformist - The Conformist is similar to the Conventional but has more of a flavor of compliance.

The Conformist child will never rock the boat, and neither will the adult. The goal is to live within the rules and the laws. This type runs into trouble when he/she goes beyond law-abiding citizen to intolerant, unthinking bully. The Conformist makes a fine assistant or second in command manager who implements the rules or a worker in a structured environment.

  4. The Conventional - A Conventional lives by the rules and prefers the established ways; the status quo is vastly preferable to change.

The Conventional is often created as a reaction to lack of consistency or stability in childhood. Chaos and strange experiences can be humiliating to a child, who may grow up to take great solace in predictability. Later in adulthood, distress will come from children or friends who challenge the Conventional's ideas. Careers that are traditional and secure - clergy or teaching - are satisfying.