The “Boxes” I Put My Characters In
People say it’s bad to put people in boxes, and the same applies to characters. I say that if you know they won’t fit neatly in the box it can help you get to know your character to put them in it. It can help you understand their values and flaws and strengths better. Here are the boxes I’m mostly talking about:
Harry Potter Houses: Yep. I’m a nerd. Although, not a Harry Potter nerd. I have yet to read it. (Long story short: It’s on my tablet and my tablet broke.) However, Pinterest and just HP’s overall popularity have pulled me into the fandom without reading it. I probably have a full mental list of every character who dies, and I am well-acquainted with the houses. I can accurately match my characters to a house, in most cases, and get backed up by a quiz.
Divergent Factions: Yep, more nerdiness. What can I say? I’m a bookworm, of course. I know few writers who aren’t. Anyway… I have read this one, and though I wasn’t a fan of the books I was fascinated by the faction system. This one helps me a lot in getting to know my characters, and it’s another that I can usually accurately match myself and then back up with a quiz.
MBTI: Meyers-Briggs is a sixteen-type system that measures your ratio of introvert-extrovert, intuitive-sensing, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceiving. This is one I can’t successfully assign my characters on my own because there are a lot of them and there are four pieces. I can almost always tell you whether a character is I or E (introvert or extrovert), but beyond that I entrust typing to the test.
Alignment: This is a new one that I haven’t used much yet, but is interesting. It’s a test that sets you in one of eight types: lawful good, neutral good, chaotic good, true neutral, lawful evil, neutral evil, or chaotic evil. This is another one that’s fairly easy for me to gauge myself, but I still go to the test to know for sure. (Not that tests are the be-all and end-all, but you know what I mean.)
As an example, I’ll use my character Livi Brooklyn and put her into each box.
HP: Prediction: Hufflepuff, through and through. Quiz reaction: Hufflepuff.
Faction: Prediction: Amity. Quiz reaction: Amity (Divergent, officially, but every answer is Divergent and Amity scored a lot higher than anything else.)
MBTI: Guess: ESFJ. Quiz answer: ENFP (I told you I’m not as good at predicting that one.) Ooh, and this slogan fits her perfectly: “What do you mean ‘life is boring’? Are we living on the same planet?”
Alignment: Guess: Chaotic good? Quiz answer: Lawful Good (with a lot of answers in neutral). Livi? Lawful? Huh.
I know that no one ever fits in one particular box, and characters shouldn’t be an exception, but if I know that she’s a Hufflepuff and Amity I know she’ll do anything for anyone. If I know that she’s an ENFP I know that she sees everything as fun (and if you search on Pinterest for “{insert MBTI type here}” it’ll pull up things that relate to that type. I have a character who’s board is currently dominated by these, if you’d like to see what I mean.) Looking over these gives me more of a feel for the character, too. Lawful Good tells me that she’s good (duh) and that she respects some authority, be that official authority or her own set of standards. These “boxes” all help me get to know the character better. (Fun fact: Livi’s first three are the same as my character Cordain’s, from The Heart of the Baenor, and the fourth might be too but I haven’t taken the test for him yet.) Boxes can be restricting, but when used properly they can actually have the opposite effect and help unleash the character.
Just for fun, here are the “boxes” I belong in. ;)
HP: Ravenclaw (tests have given me Ravenclaw and Gryffindor multiple times each.)
Faction: Divergent (Abnegation, Amity, Candor, and Erudite are all really close in the results.)
MBTI: INFP (This one has actually been steadily the same.)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral (a lot of mixed answers. I seem to truly be Divergent. ;))
How do you feel about “boxes” for character development? What HP house/Faction/MBTI type are you? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. :)
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I’m a Hufflepuff, Candor, INFP-A, and Lawful Good. I think this is an interesting idea, to fill these things out from a character’s POV. One thing I do for my own characters sometimes is think of what their spirit animal would be (I don’t believe in spirit animals per se, but I like the idea.) I don’t fill out a quiz, but imagine their personality as I know it, and what animal those attributes remind me of. For example, I have one very optimistic, friendly, out-going, and caring character who would be a golden lab; one character who is very cynical, jaded, and persistent, who I imagine to be a battle-scarred tomcat; one character who is peaceful, graceful, and loving, who I would imagine to be a deer, or a white mare; one character who is handsome, clever, condescending, and strategic, who I imagine as a fox; etc. If I was an animal I would probably be a cat that likes her people and lives in a bookstore. What would you be?
I’m also an INFP! Probably Hufflepuff, too, though I feel like I waffle between that and Ravenclaw, lol.
That’s an interesting approach; I can see that being really useful for purposes of description! Having an animal “theme” to go back to can make metaphors and whatnot easier and more consistent. (Though obviously you don’t want to go too far and end up overly clichéd or repetitive!) I’m not sure what I would be. I compare myself most often to a cat, but I would have to be a very personable cat, lol.
Lol, yes, I have one character named Crow and have to be careful about not using crows or birds for EVERY SINGLE metaphor and simile in the book. Yay, INFP cats for the win!