Is your MC (main character) high in openness or low in openness? Are they highly conscientious or not conscientious? Are they extroverted or introverted? Is your MC agreeable or not agreeable? Are they highly neurotic or only slightly neurotic (or not at all)?
These are the Big Five Personality traits that psychologist and psychiatrists and geeky people like me have been studying for decades. Evidence that supports these Big Five has been growing since 1949, starting with research by a D.W. Fiske.
Openness is about the imagination and insight a person has. Those who are high in openness have various interests and are very curious. Those low in openness dislike change and new ideas and dislike theoretical concepts.
Conscientiousness talks about how much a person thinks of others, sets goals and controls their own impulses. Those high in conscientiousness are organized and plan far ahead and understand (and live by) the idea of ‘delayed gratification’. Those low in conscientiousness dislike structure, sometimes procrastinate or don’t fulfill assignments and have lower impulse control. (This is…. me …. lol).
Extraversion vs Introversion is often talked about. It basically describes where a person draws their energy from. An extrovert draws energy from being with people, talking, being social and are typically pretty assertive people (my husband). Introverts can be social be need to be alone to regain their energy after an event (hello most writers!)
Agreeableness defines a person’s ability to trust, be kind, and show affection for the people around them. Those who are high in agreeableness are very interested in people, feel a great deal of empathy, and are always helping others out. Those who are low in agreeableness tend not like emotions, are competitive, and aren’t always seeing where they can help.
Neuroticism sounds weird, but I think of it as how a person responds to stress. It describes the depth of moodiness or changes in emotions. So those who are highly neurotic usually can swing hot and cold on their moods and emotions quickly and will be more freaked out in stressful situations. Those low in neuroticism are more emotionally stable and they might even thrive under stress.
Now, it takes more than a paragraph to really understand these traits. Some sound great and some sound terrible, but to be honest, there is a good and bad side to each high and low. It might sound great to be highly agreeable, but get too agreeable and you’ll be taken advantage of and manipulated. Maybe it sounds great to be highly conscientious, but swing it too far and a person can become too rigid to hang out with.
Which is why many people prefer looking into the Enneagram when it comes to personalities. I’ll post about that soon.
But I want to leave you with the questions I started with: what is your MC like?
Developing a character out of thin air is about more than knowing what they look like. In order to keep a character reacting throughout the story true to themselves and have an arc that makes sense, you should know their personality traits.
This is something we will talk about in the Character Development workshop on Tuesday, February 28. There are only openings left at the 12:30 EST workshop. I want to keep them small so that those who come can get the most out of the workshops. Those who sign up will receive the recording.