CHARACTERS, CONFLICT, AND THE MYERS-BRIGS TYPE INDICATOR® by Michael Rigg

King Neptune
Virginia Beach Oceanfront

Writers, and readers, know the importance of characters. In Characters & Viewpoint, Orson Scott Card reminds writers of something we should know almost instinctively: “… readers want your characters to seem like real people. Whole and alive, believable and worth caring about. Readers want to get to know your characters as well as they know their own friends, their own family. As well as they know themselves.” 

But having characters worth caring about isn’t enough, is it? There has to be more to keep readers turning pages and saving their pennies to buy the next installment in your series about a serial-killer-turned-nun who runs a detective agency out of a convent. That something else is conflict. As James Scott Bell tells us in Conflict & Suspense, “Conflict has long been recognized as the engine of story. Without conflict there is no drama. Without drama, there is no interest. Without interest there is no reader. And no writing career.”

Forgive my poor math skills, but I think this is the equation:

Characters + Conflict = New York Times Bestsellers List

Wow! Seems simple enough. How tough can it be? For some writers, it’s apparently “Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.” Interesting, relatable characters involved in all sorts of conflict leading to dramatic, page-turning novels flow effortlessly from their fingers to the keyboard. For me, and many others, it’s a struggle. Hmmm, a struggle. That’s a kind of conflict, isn’t it? Conflict, we learn, can be relatively minor, e.g., a small disagreement with emotion attached to it, or major, e.g., war. It can be internal (self-doubt, etc.) or external (person vs. person or person vs. environment, etc.).

In the four corners of a single blog entry, I can’t do justice to either of the components on the left side of the equation. However, many books and articles provide the necessary roadmap—a detailed discussion of how to combine characters and conflict into a successful, compelling narrative. Along with the two books noted earlier, David Corbett’s The Compass of Character is an excellent source of information and insight.     

Today’s blog deals with one technique for landing characters in conflict with one another by reference to their personality preferences as outlined in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® (MBTI^®). If you know what I mean when I say “I’m an ISTJ,” you have likely already been exposed to this way of looking at personality/character traits and may have even established your four-letter MBTI profile.  

The MBTI was developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers. According to Introduction to Type^®, published by CPP, Inc., the MBTI springs from the psychological type theory of personality developed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung to explain normal personality differences between healthy people.   

I can’t, and don’t intend to, make people experts in the MBTI or Jung’s psychological type theory. My goal is to tell you my understanding of the MBTI and how it might be used in developing characters and conflict.

Everyone has certain preferences for how they gather and interpret information, how they “recharge their batteries,” and how they deal with other people and the world around them. The MBTI lists four “dichotomies,” indicating each individual’s preferences. They four dichotomies and their single-letter identifiers are:

1. Introversion (I) vs. Extraversion (E);

2. Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N);

3. Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F); and

4. Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P).

 

Let’s drill down on the first dichotomy, Introversion (I) versus Extraversion (E), to see what these terms mean and how having one character whose preferences differ from another character can lead to conflict.

According to Introduction to Type^®, “People who prefer Introversion like to focus on their own inner world of ideas and experiences. They direct their energy and attention inward and receive energy from reflecting on their thoughts, memories, and feelings.”

On the other hand, “People who prefer Extraversion like to focus on the outer world of ideas of people and activity. They direct their energy and attention outward and receive energy from interacting with people and from taking action.” Note that it’s “Extraversion” and not “Extroversion.”

There are sixteen combinations of letters as shorthand for various “types.” The combinations reflect preferences resulting in various ways of interacting with others and events. Having an ISTJ interact with an ENFP, i.e., his or her polar opposite in the MBTI, can result in conflict if the differences are not surfaced, understood, and managed effectively. Subsequent blogs will look at the various dichotomies and combinations. Today, we’ll focus on Introversion (I) versus Extraversion (E).

Suppose you have a husband who’s an “I” and a wife who’s an “E.” They’ve both had a long, exhausting, and frustrating day at work. They both need to recharge their batteries—to energize themselves for another day at work tomorrow—according to their respective MBTI preferences. The husband (I) says, “What a day. I’m exhausted. I’m looking forward to a quiet night at home.” The wife (E) says “What a day. I’m exhausted. Let’s go dancing.”  

Consider the above scenario as a writing-prompt. You can likely see how, if the different preferences for gathering energy are not managed effectively, nasty, hurtful words will be spoken. The result? Conflict perhaps leading to irreparable damage to their relationship. “Why can’t you leave me alone for once?”; “Don’t you love me anymore? You used to enjoy dancing,”; “What, do these jeans make me look fat?”

Thoughts? Looking forward to a lively discussion. But remember. I’m an Introvert. Be kind.  

Mike