Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello and welcome. I'm Jemma Jablonski, a writer in a blogger, And I'm here today to help you create realistic and three dimensional characters by using the Myers Briggs type indicator. Like all fiction writers, I love stories. But even the best laid plots fall flat. If the audience can't connect with the characters, my goal for you is to walk away from this class with the tools and experience creating characters that feel riel and relatable to your audience. I find that Myers Briggs is a great tool for creating characters that seem real. It is a commonly used psychological theory that is used by ordinary people in everyday life . Help them better understand themselves and others. So when it is applied to fictional characters, it can help develop a sense of depth as well as a level of consistency of character. The project for this class comes in four parts that we will work through together in each lesson. At the end, we will be putting our new skills to work. Actually, crafting was seen in which our characters demonstrate a key part of their signed personality. This class is for writers of all skill levels. It is simply an exercise or tool that anyone could use when crafting characters. So let's get to it
2. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: What Is It?: So what is the Myers Briggs type indicator? Um, I believe that the Myers Briggs Foundation summarized it pretty well when they said the purpose of the Myers Briggs type indicator personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by CD Young, understandable and useful in people's lives. The essence of the theory is that much of the seemingly random variation in behavior is actually quite orderly, inconsistent being due to basic differences in the way of individuals prefer to use their perception and their judgment, so the elements of a personality are broken down into four sections. The first section is extra version vs Introversion. This is where an individual's energy is most commonly directed and obtained. Some people are energized by spending time with people, and we'll get lonely faster. If they're isolated, they would gravitate towards the extroverted side of the spectrum. Um, an example of this would be on a from the popular Disney movie Frozen. She's outgoing, and a lot of her energy is directed outward towards the people she interacts with. An introvert, on the other hand, will spend a lot of their energy directed inward and often seek out alone time or time with one or two close friends. The classic example of this is Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She's introspective person who enjoys her own company and doesn't feel at home in the crowd . The second section would be sensing versus intuition. This is how someone will take in information, how they observe the world and how they interpret that information. Ah, sensor would taken information mainly through what they can perceive through their five senses. They gravitate more towards tangible evidence. They're more likely to see past experiences as part of this evidence. Ah, good example of this trait would be sure luck. He is hyper aware of his surroundings and disregards anything he cannot perceive for himself. Ah, those who lean more towards intuition are more likely to have gut feelings about future possibilities and what could be. Obviously, they're taking information through their senses as well, but they process that information differently. They tend to see the forest before the trees, and they focus on the big picture. An example of that would be Luke Skywalker fictional force. Powers aside, his character is very intuitive. He is a good judge of character, knowing that his droids, for example, are going to be troublesome. Or that Princess Leia is someone he should say, even if he doesn't have a lot of tangible evidence to point to to prove these sentiments. The third section is thinking vs Feeling, Uh, this is the decision making aspect of a personality. Thinkers tend to emotionally detach themselves from situations where decisions are being made. They will focus more on a logical approach and analyzed options and outcomes before coming to a decision. A classic example of this trait is Batman. He's often portrayed as almost cold as he analyzes any given situation. He is completely practical in his approach to different dilemmas, often indicating that feelings would just get in the way of making a wise decision. Feelers will make decisions based on emotions. They will try to empathize or get inside the situation and figure out best course of action . From that point of view, a good example of this would be Star Lord or Peter Quill from the guardians of the Galaxy. Any choice he makes is because it feels good or feels right. He saves his commanding Maura because he felt heroic before section is judging versus perceiving. This represents a lifestyle preference. A judge, er likes to have things structured and organized. They're people who keep a schedule and like to have a concrete plan. An example of this would be Woody from the Pixar classic Toy Story. Woody is in charge. He's gotta, certainly, of doing things. And he doesn't like to have that. His system mess with receivers are more go with the flow individuals. They tend to be more laid back and like to keep their options open when they make plans. Dori, from Pixar's Finding Nemo, is a good example of this. When something unexpected happens, she not only tolerates the change but seems to even enjoy the spontaneity. The theory is that every individual lean primarily one lane, but everyone is on a spectrum. Any given individual should be able to associate with either side of every section at least a little bit. An introvert, for example, will still crave company. Ah, feeler can still step back from situation and make a logical decision if they need to. The idea behind it is that we naturally gravitate one way or the other, so each of these sections is represented by the first letter, with the exception of the use of end for intuition. So e and I, s and and T and F and lastly J and P. So with that in mind, there are 16 different possible personality combinations. All of them are shown here. So at this time, what we're going to do is part one of our project. And that is simply to figure out what your character's Myers Briggs type is. Pick an existing character or create a new one for this project and go through all four segments. So think about what kind of person you character is and how you expect he or she will interact with the world, make decisions and live their life. For example, I have chosen a character from my current work in progress made on this character is veto. Vito, I have decided, is extroverted a sensor a feeler in the perceive er. So when I start my project, I would list my character's name and then list him as an E S f p d. Feel free to add any more details about your character that you like even a picture. If you have one, we will be flushing out our characters even more when we get to part three of our project. So be creative and have fun. I'll see you in the next video.
3. Discovering Character Quirks: and in the last class section we discussed what the Myers Briggs types are, and we picked a type out for our character. Now we're going to study this personality type more in depth. Different personality types combined in different ways, creating quirks that are common for that type. For example, an extroverted thinker is going to behave differently than an introverted thinker. A sensor judge er will respond to things differently than intuitive. Judge er, All of these different elements combine in unique ways, and the result is that there are patterns of behavior that often emerge among the various Myers Briggs types. Ah, lot of study has gone into these different pattern types, and we can use this to help us nail down. Certain quirks are characters may have. This is my character example Veto. I have him listed as an E S f. P. A quick Google search of E. S F peas will give me a lot of information that can help me figure out how my character might behave in certain situations. So those who have the E. S f. P. Myers Briggs type has some of the phone and character traits. They are charismatic entertainers who love the spotlight. They have great people skills, and they enjoy helping others have a good time. They are poor long term planners that tend to get distracted from their goals, and they're stubbornly optimistic. So for Part two of our class project, I want you to do a search online and look up some characteristics of your characters. Myers breaks Type in list at least four different traits that stand out to you. This is a helpful thing that you will be able to refer back to as you write to help keep your character's behaviour consistent. It helps you become more aware of how they think and what their motives might be. Here are a couple of websites I often visit when I'm looking up different Myers Brace types . There's the personality page dot com and then 16 personalities dot com. Go ahead and share some character quirks you found in your project. I look forward to seeing all the different characters. You all are created
4. Character Profile: Now that we know what our character's personality is, there are some other basic things that are good to have decided before jumping headlong into the writing process. This is the character profile. This is where we build the character from the foundation up. It's good to have a character profile so that, as you write, you could refer back to it and help maintain consistency throughout your writing. It will also help you nail down who your character is so that not only will you spend less time editing, but you will also know your character pretty well. Before you start writing Part three of our project will be to create a character profile and fell out as much information about our character as we can. We already have our name and our Myers Briggs type, but it's good to have all the other details down as well. So different details that we might want to have your character profile would be the name physical description such as hair color, eye color, height, weight, age, etcetera, ah, general background, how they grew up. Their family members have its hobbies, their personal goals and motives, their talents and things that they're particularly skilled with or particularly unskilled with. And because we have figured out there Myers Briggs type, we can also now down a few of their difficult behaviours, like how they struggle with other people and how they struggle internally and what their strengths and weaknesses might be. For example, Veto as an E S F P is a highly energetic individual who sees taking risks as a necessary part of life and, as a result, contract others into problematic situations. He might work hard to come up with an activity for all of his friends to do, but he's also sensitive, and rejection of these activities might cause him to feel hurt. He could be observant in practical but also easily bored and unfocused. As you write. Keep this character profile handy's that you can look back at it and help keep your character consistent and realistic. I have provided a list of the character traits in the your project section below. Share your character profiles in the class project section so we can support each other and provide constructive criticism. As always, be creative and have fun
5. Crafting A Scene: we have done all the groundwork building a multi faceted character, and now it's time to apply what we have learned and bring our characters to life. Using her character study and our knowledge of their Myers Briggs type indicator, we will choose one of the falling prompts and craft a scene in which these characteristics are portrayed. Part four of our project is to cracked a scene based on one of the following writing props . 1st 1 is your character realizes that they strongly disagree with someone that they respect . Depending on your character and the nature of the disagreement, they might lose respect for the person they disagree with or revel in a good argument or even lose their own self confidence. Your characters Myers Briggs, type of give you a good idea as to what you might expect. The other writing prompt. Your character is put in charge of a group of people in order to complete a project, or your character is attracted to someone. What do they do in order to go closer to that person? Like I said, different Myers Briggs types will respond differently into these situations, so give it some thought and figure out how your character would respond to these. A scene could be anywhere from a couple paragraphs to a couple pages. Don't limit yourself. This is a writing exercise. You don't need to worry about having good pros or being concise. This is about getting to know your character and figuring out how they would behave in this given situation. Once you have finished your scene, go ahead and share what you have written in the class Project section. I look forward to reading everyone scenes and meeting all of your characters, Heffron.
6. Conclusion: and there we have it. I hope that you enjoyed this class and that this writing exercise has proven to be useful for you. This is a great exercise to help you flush out your characters. But it could also lead to new story ideas and directions as well. Now that you have created these amazing characters on Lee, you can tell their story. Don't stop at your one written scene. Keep going. Writing is not an easy endeavor, but it is definitely worthwhile. Thank you for joining me in this class and happy writing.
Jemma Jablowski, Author and Blogger
