Wednesday Wanderings - September 13th

First Wandering ...

Some years ago I did a whole series on the Kierey Personality Sorter, so I found the following article interesting.

It compares genres with the sixteen personality types. Are you writing the right genre, according to yours?

Click here to find out.

As for me, they got it partly right. I test dead even between the ENFJ and ESFJ.

Me writing romance as an ESFJ fits. 

Me writing literary fiction as an ENFJ? 

Don't make me laugh! :D

Second Wandering ...

Hubby has been working hard to get the yard in. It's quite a large yard since it's for a twinhome. He worked like crazy to help his brother get his side done in time for their family reunion in July. It's tough for older people to do some of this stuff, and his brother's health is not good. He's having hip replacement surgery next month.

Anyway, hubby got our side's sprinkler system in and the sod laid, thanks to family and friends.

Before

After

Third Wandering ...

We saw the movie Dunkirk last weekend. It was ... different. It felt a little clunky in its execution, but I still found myself sitting on the edge of my seat most of the time.

Have you seen Dunkirk?

What have you been up to this week?

Do you have plans for the weekend?

Kiersey Combinatons

This is Part 6 of my series on personality types (character traits) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, and Part 5 here.

I've reviewed the basic, single personality attributes:
Extrovert (75% of the population)
Introvert (25% of the population)

Sensing (75% of the population)
Intuitive (25% of the population)

Thinking (50% of the population)
Feeling (50% of the population)

Judging (50% of the population)
Perceiving (50% of the population)

There are certain character traits that come from pairing just two of these.

SP - These people wish to be free to be spontaneous and act on a moment's notice. They believe life is to be enjoyed, should be fun and varied and full of excitement. They tend to live in the moment, are playful and light-hearted. With endurance and stamina, they are born adventurers and take risks, testing the limits of life. Routine jobs bore the SP but love tools and can see them as extensions of themselves. They're natural performers and can become frustrated when their current pursuits are blocked. In love, they look for shared activity and interests, wanting to explore new vacation spots or restaurants or way to keep the relationship fresh. They can be charming, witty, generous and warm.

SJ - These folks want the freedom to be responsible. Sensible, punctual, and practical, they believe in earning their way. They need to feel like they belong and can be unappreciated. Parental by nature, they like taking care of others and do well in fields like teaching, sales, business, and medicine. The bring stability and maintain the organization for smooth functionality. They tend to be rule-keepers. As for love, they are drawn to traditional and conservative views of marriage, expecting their mates to work with them. They tend to be loyal, faithful, and dependable. (I'm an SJ--the S because of my X--sounds like a dog to me.) 

NF - These guys need the freedom to seek out the significance and meaning of life. They want their lives to count for something. Honesty and integrity is important and they can be spiritual and idealistic. While wanting to authentic, they also desire unity with others. The NF makes commitments. Being communicative, creative, and people-oriented, they have the power to influence others. They often find work in "helping" professions, teaching, creative arts, and communication fields. In romance, they seek harmony. They are the true romantics, believing in the perfect love, and bring empathy, drama, and warmth to their relationship.

NT - The NTs desire freedom to use their intelligence, going after wisdom and knowledge. Life should make sense. They seek to control their environments by being able to predict them. Having a low tolerance for emotional or illogical  thinking (according to them), they can have a difficult time interacting with others. NTs have a drive for perfection and can deserve the title "workaholic". In love, they aren't looking for complex relationships, wanting the head to rule over the heart. They can be uncomfortable losing control to their emotions and don't like repetition. "I told you I loved you already. Why do I have to keep saying it?"

Remember when you took the Kiersey test? There were no right answers. It merely identifies how you view the world.

How often do your characters fit these descriptions? Are you consistent in your personality types? 

Judgers and Perceivers

This is Part 5 of my series on personality types (character traits) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here.

Remember, I'm an EXFJ. My "X" is special, so if you want to understand that, you'll need to read Part 3.

Today we're talking about the final pair, P and J.

Perceiving: These folks tend to prefer open-endedness, delaying judgement (decisions) in order to collect information. Because of this, deadlines are not their friends since they prefer flexibility and open options. They're frequently playful and are apt to put things off.

Judging: We judgers like closure. We want things to be tied down because things tend to be more orderly that way. Judging folks like deadlines and take them seriously, seeking decisions. The can believe work comes before anything else.

Um, I'm not that last statement.

Things to be wary of for each:

Perceivers can spend so much time gathering information that they miss out on opportunities (deadlines). I just need a little more time before I decide.

Judging types must be careful not to be in such a hurry to get  closure that they make a decision too soon, that they don't collect enough data.

Perceivers are big picture people. They like to look at the grand design. Judgers are detailed oriented--mix the J with and S, and you have really organized people.

Real life examples.

My husband is a P. He was a general contractor before he retired and had to balance things all the time between various jobs. Seriously, he would have five jobs going at once and when the weather was bad or supplies didn't arrive in time, no biggie. He'd work on one of his other jobs.

Hmm. That would absolutely drive me nuts. I'm a J. I start a project and finish it. Then I start another project. And finish it. Having several unfinished projects hanging over me would make me run screaming from the room.

Hubby's Perceiverness came into play when we first got married. His approach to bookkeeping (I used to be a bookkeeper) is very different from mine. Once again, he's a big picture guy. I'm into the details. When we were looking to pay our debt down, he was interested in things like interest rates overall. I just wanted to know if I could pay our bills that month. But don't mistake my concern for the current for being a long-range planner. Budget? That's me, right down to the day something's paid off and those funds then move to pay something else off.

Until I took the Kiersey the first time and found out the his approach was a legitimate way to view the world, I thought he was being irritating on purpose. Learning about his Kiersey results, took a lot of strain off our relationship. I know. Petty of me to assume he was doing it to bug me. I know. I suck.

Work example. I worked in a place that oversaw hundreds of building. The director (my boss) was a hands-on, detail guy. The finance guy prepared the initial budget proposal accordingly because the director was right in there all the way. However, he retired. I'm sure the new director was a P. Very big picture. The finance guy put the initial budget together just like he did for the old director. Finance guy made the observation after the first budget meeting with the new director: "I would have planned that very differently if I'd known."

What kind of potential conflict do you see in your WIPs with characters who view things so differently?

Thinkers and Feelers

This is Part 4 of my series on personality types (character traits, if you will) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Remember, I'm an EXFJ.

Today I'm talking about the T(hinking) and F(eeling). From mine, you can see that I'm a Feeler. And since I've always taken the paper copy of the Kiersey, I know how many of my answers are Ts and how many are Fs.

Um, I'm not just an Feeler, I'm a flaming Feeler.

So what does that even mean?

Source: PowerPoint

Thinking: These are the folks who make decisions based upon logic, going for impersonal findings. They tend to be objective when making decisions and evaluate their options based on laws, principles, and policies. Good at arguments, they try to influence people using logic rather than emotions. They experience emotion just as much as the Feelers do but are less likely to show their feelings.

Feeling: We tend to make our decisions based on subjective reasoning and choose in the context of how our decisions impact ourselves and others. We don't usually hide our emotions. Our evaluations are usually in terms of circumstances, values, and good or bad. We can be very persuasive and appeal to emotions.

If you want to convince someone to do something, it comes in handy if you know if this person is a Thinker or a Feeler. Make your case to a Thinker using emotions or subjective reasoning, what do you think will happen?

In the communications class where I first studied the Kiersey, we were required to make three speeches. The first one was extemporaneous. The second one was to persuade using logic, and the third was to persuade using emotion.

I did okay with the first one. And I got an A with the logic speech, but the Prof said I knocked her socks off with the third one. You gotta play to your strengths.

An interesting tidbit about Thinkers and Feelers is how they react to strife. A Thinker boss facing the need to fire an employee will "feel" just as bad as the Feeler boss does. However, the Thinker boss is much less likely to have a sleepless night the day before. The Feeler has a harder time letting that kind of thing go. General office or family conflict tends to bleed into other aspects of a Feeler's life, much more so than it does to a Thinker.

Once again, there are degrees to which we may be a Thinker or a Feeler (or any of the other character groups). Someone who scores closely between the two will be different from someone like me who tests very high on the Feeler side.

So what about the main characters in your current WIP? Do you think they're Thinkers or Feelers? How might that impact how they handle the mean evil things you keep doing to them?

Two Kinds of Awareness - Sensing and Intuition

It's 10 degrees here, and I needed tropical. Kaua'i.

This is Part 3 of my series on personality types (character traits, if you will) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

As a reminder, I'm an EXFJ. I'm an extrovert, a feeler (not with my hands--behave yourself), and a judger. So what does the X stand for? It means I tested dead even between the S(ensing) and iN(tuition). When I read my character descriptions, I look at both the ESFJ and the ENFJ.

So, what do the S and the N mean?

It's about how people perceive things, how they become aware.

Sensing: These folks are very much into what data they receive through their five senses. They're practical, trusting in facts and experience. As you would expect, they're grounded in reality and value what's real, practical, and sensible.

Intuition: These people are more likely to pick up on things less direct and they deal much more on the unconscious level, things that come from the outside. They would consider themselves innovative, trusting in hunches and inspiration. They love possibilities and esteem ingenuity and imagination.

When I read these two descriptions, I completely understand why I'm an X here. I feel equally strong about both of these. I'm very practical and organized. Yet, I've spend most of my life creating dreamworlds in my head. I go a lot by hunches.

In one office where I worked, one of my coworkers test X in three categories. THREE! So, was he just really flexible . . . or a flake?

And what about another coworker who asked me when I gave her the test if she should answer it like she would at home or at work? That really floored me. With me, what you see is what you get. I don't look at the world differently just because I walk in my office door. Obviously, some people do.

Now, remember. There are no right or wrong answers on the Kiersey. It's merely a way to identify people's viewpoints.

So, what about your characters? Are any of them torn between two equally valid views of the world?

Introverts and Extroverts, Again

Last week I took up my goal again of posting about personality types (character traits, if you will) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter.

Today I'm going to talk about introverts and extroverts. Frequently people think introverts are shy and extroverts are not. Sometimes that's true, but sometimes it isn't.

The way to think about the introvert / extrovert traits is in terms of energy.

An introvert isn't necessarily shy. An introvert is simply energized by solitude, while an extrovert is energized by being around people.

Real life examples.

#1
I have a friend who didn't marry until she was nearly 30. She lived on her own in an apartment, but she had a day job where she worked in a solitary office and almost never dealt with people face to face. She's an extrovert, and it really wore on her. In order to get her energy back up, she needed to be with real, live people.

So she got a roommate.

However, the roommate--an introvert--was an insurance person. She dealt with people all day. By the time she got home at night, all she wanted was to go to her bedroom and be alone.

My friend said she felt lonelier with this roommate than she had when she lived by herself.

#2
My professor who taught the class where we learned about the Kiersey shared this experience. She was a therapist for many years and spent her days interacting with people. She's an introvert. By now you know what she needed when she got home. Quiet. Solitude. Time to lay in the bathtub and contemplate the universe.

Enter her younger sister who wanted to share an apartment. Not just an extrovert, but a flaming extrovert.

Anybody see potential problems?

Professor would come home from work, needing time to rejuvenate. About the time she'd just get her stuff settled, her younger sister would arrive at the apartment after work and blast the radio, sing, and want to chat with Professor.

Guess what Professor wanted to do to younger sister?

Obviously, Professor was a mature, intelligent woman, and she didn't act on her impulse to silence kid sister forever. What she did was talk with her sibling about being quiet for an hour when she first got home, so Professor had some time to fill her batteries again. Then she'd be happy to talk.

What did younger sister do? Not chill in a silent apartment. She hung out with her friends a little longer before coming home. Win/win.

My score balance for the Kiersey for years was 7 extrovert and 3 introvert. As you can see, it's not like people must be all of one or all of the other. As you consider the description of yourself, you should keep that in mind. Someone who is an extrovert with a 9 / 1 score would view things a bit differently than an extrovert with a score of 6 / 4.

Does the energy concept make you look at any of your characters differently?

Personalities, Again

One of the goals I had for 2012 was to do a series of posts about personality types, based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter, which I find fascinating.

Epic fail.

Not the Kiersery, but my follow through. Well, I'm going to try again. Someday, I'd like to write a novel where I base the characteristics completely upon the sixteen personality types. Which is kind of funny, really, considering that I'm a hybrid on one area. Keep reading to find out.

My first two posts will be repeats of posts I did last year.

I've been fascinated for years (all right, decades) with the Kiersey Personality Sorter. It was based on the MMPI, which is a comprehensive test, something like 600 questions. The MMPI is used a lot in dealing with mental illness, but for people trained in what to look for it tells a lot more about the people taking it than they would ever dream.

The Kiersey is much shorter and has many practical uses. They give it to department heads at work. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions, but merely give insight into how the taker views the world.

Here's a real life example from the business world. I used to work as the lead secretary for a department that oversaw physical facilities--buildings, etc. My old boss developed a health issue and retired. He was a detail-oriented person when it came to the budget and was very hands on. His replacement, however, was a big picture kind of guy. The finance director commented after the first budget meeting with the new director that he wished he'd known this about the new boss because he'd have prepared his presentation completely differently.

People's personalities change a lot as they mature, but settle in somewhere around age twenty-five. So for young people under that age, their results are . . . questionable. Once you reach twenty-five, your scores aren't likely to change much. Now, there can be traumatic things people go through that would impact how they answer the questions, but eventually things settle down again.

Some people also answer the questions differently if they're looking at them as they are at home as opposed to at work. When I had a coworker mention that, it floored me because I am what I am. I'm the same at home or at work. With me, what you see is what you get.

What does this have to do with writing? When you're creating characters, their personality traits are important if you don't want them to be flat. But what characteristics fit which personality types? The Kiersey would be a great tool for that.

So over the next few blog posts, I'm going to be talking about different aspects of the Kiersey and what it has to say about people. It separates people into sixteen different personality types. I'll start with me.

I'm an EXFJ.

The E means I'm an extrovert. (the other option is introvert, of course)

The X is going to be confusing because it means that I test dead even between the two options: S (sensing--dealing with information from your five sense) and N (intuitive).

The F means I'm a feeler. (the other choice is a thinker--don't even say it!)

The J is for judging. (the other option is perceiving).

If you have the time, I suggest you go and take the test and find out what you are. I'll start with the introvert/extravert topic next week.

ETA: I think it's important to know what your split is between the types, so if you're interested in taking the test to find that out, email me and I'll send you a pdf of the test.

Have you ever taken a personality test? If so what kind was it? What did you think of the results?

A to Z - Kiersey Personality Sorter

Source

This is from a series I began last month. A to Z got in the middle of it, so I'm just posting a little reminder here.

I've been fascinated for years (all right, decades) with the Kiersey Personality Sorter. It was based on the MMPI, which is a comprehensive test, something like 600 questions. The MMPI is used a lot in dealing with mental illness, but for people trained in what to look for it tells a lot more about the people taking it than they would ever dream.

The Kiersey is much shorter and has many practical uses. They give it to department heads at work. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions, but merely give insight into how the taker views the world.

You can find my March 21st post here where I provide an overview of it, and my March 28th post here where I discuss Introverts vs Extroverts. I'll take the series up again in May.

I'm an EXFP -- you'll have to check out the March 21st post to see what that means.

What is your personality type?

Personalities - Introvert and Extrovert

This is Part 2 of my series on personality traits based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter. You can check out Part 1 here.

Today I'm going to talk about introverts and extroverts. Frequently people think that introverts are shy and extroverts are not. Sometimes that's true, but sometimes it isn't.

The way to think about the introvert/extrovert traits is in terms of energy.

An introvert isn't necessarily shy. An introvert is simply energized by solitude, while an extrovert is energized by being around people.

Real life examples.

#1
I have a friend who didn't marry until she was nearly 30. She lived on her own in an apartment, but she had a day job where she worked in a solitary office and almost never dealt with people face to face. She's an extrovert, and it really wore on her. In order to get her energy back up, she needed to be with real, live people.

So she got a roommate.

However, the roommate--an introvert--was an insurance person. She dealt with people all day. By the time she got home at night, all she wanted was to go to her bedroom and be alone.

My friend said she felt lonelier with this roommate than she had when she lived by herself.

#2
My professor who taught the class where we learned about the Kiersey shared this experience. She was a therapist for many years and spent her days interacting with people. She's an introvert. By now you know what she needed when she got home. Quiet. Solitude. Time to lay in the bathtub and contemplate the universe.

Enter her younger sister who wanted to share an apartment. Not just an extrovert, but a flaming extrovert.

Anybody see potential problems?

Professor would come home from work, needing time to rejuvenate. About the time she'd just get her stuff settled, her younger sister would arrive at the apartment after work and blast the radio, sing, talk, and want to chat with Professor.

Guess what Professor wanted to do to younger sister?

Obviously, Professor was a mature, intelligent woman, and she didn't act on her impulse. What she did was talk with her sister about being quiet for an hour when she first got home, so Professor had some time to fill her batteries again. Then she'd be happy to talk.

What did younger sister do? Not hang around a silent apartment. She hung out with her friends a little longer before coming home. Win/win.

My score balance for the Kiersey for years was 7 extrovert and 3 introvert. As you can see, it's not like people must be all of one or all of the other. As you consider the description of yourself, you should keep that in mind. Someone who is an extrovert with a 9/1 score would view things a bit differently than an extrovert with a score of 6/4.

Does the energy concept make you look at any of your characters differently?

Personalities

I've been fascinated for years (all right, decades) with the Kiersey Personality Sorter. It was based on the MMPI, which is a comprehensive test, something like 600 questions. The MMPI is used a lot in dealing with mental illness, but for people trained in what to look for it tells a lot more about the people taking it than they would ever dream.

The Kiersey is much shorter and has many practical uses. They give it to department heads at work. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions, but merely give insight into how the taker views the world.

Here's a real life example from the business world. I used to work as the lead secretary for a department that oversaw physical facilities--buildings, etc. My old boss developed a health issue and retired. He was a detail oriented person when it came to the budget and was very hands on. His replacement, however, was a big picture kind of guy. The finance director commented after the first budget meeting with the new director that he wished he'd known this about the new boss because he'd have prepared his presentation completely differently.

People's personalities change a lot as they mature, but settle in somewhere around twenty-five. So for young people under that age, their results are . . . questionable. Once you reach twenty-five, your scores aren't likely to change much. Now, there can be traumatic things people go through that would impact how they answer the questions, but eventually things settle down again.

Some people also answer the questions differently if they're looking at them as they are at home as opposed to at work. When I had a coworker mention that, it floored me because I am what I am. I'm the same at home or at work. With me, what you see is what you get.

What does this have to do with writing? When you're creating characters, their personality traits are important if you don't want them to be flat. But what characteristics fit which personality types? The Kiersey would be a great tool for that.

So over the next few blog posts, I'm going to be talking about different aspects of the Kiersey and what it has to say about people. It separates people into sixteen different personality types. I'll start with me. 

I'm an EXFJ.

The E means I'm an extrovert. (the other option is introvert, of course)

The X is going to be confusing because it means that I test dead even between the two options: S (sensing--dealing with information from your five sense) and N (intuitive).

The F means I'm a feeler. (the other choice is a thinker--don't even say it!)

The J is for judging. (the other option is perceiving).

If you have the time, I suggest you go and take the test and find out what you are. I'll start with the introvert/extravert topic next week.

Have you ever taken a personality test? If so what kind was it? What did you think of the results?