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The Writer PersonalityCynthia's Column September 2003 Several times over the last few years I have found myself on panels at writers conferences where the question has been asked, "When do you write?" And as it works its way down the row I hear writer after writer, all successful professional people, answer something along the lines of "three hours every day." All of them stressed how important it is to write every day and that discipline is one of the essential qualities to develop if you want to be a writer. Then it comes my turn to speak and I have to admit it's not true of me at all. I don't have discipline. I don't write every day. I write every year, hundreds of pages. But sometimes I don't even write every week. Every month, I'm pretty sure, but I couldn't even swear to that. I started noticing that writers come in a variety of personality types. We have some traits in common, but many others that seem polar opposites. So I started exploring this. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality profiling system inspired by Jung's theories of Personality Types. It was developed by mother and daughter, Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. It uses four criteria to determine what type of personality a person has. Introvert/Extrovert. (I/E) Sensing(S) or Intuitive (N) Thinker/Feeler. (T/F) Judging/Perceiving (J/P). Using these four pairs of criteria, they could classify all people into sixteen personality groups. I've kind of adapted this system for writers, using criteria that are particular to us. Here goes: First there are your Introverted writers (I's) and your Extroverts (E's). The extroverts are easy to spot, right? We've got our Hemingways and Tennessee Williams, our Truman Capotes and Norman Mailers and Mark Twains and Tom Wolfes and the list goes on and on. If you would recognize him or her if you passed them on the street, chances are they are extroverted and like being covered by the popular press. My two favorite Hemingway books are A Moveable Feast and Papa Hemingway and the latter isn't even written by him, but by his friend A. E. Hotchner. Both are about Papa H. and to me, his life was even more interesting than his books. It's more difficult to be a writer and an extrovert. I happen to be of the extrovert variety, which is one reason I love to teach. Those of us who find ourselves extroverts and writers find it harder to be in a room alone so much of the time. It makes the phone and email tempting diversions. Introverted writers would include Emily Dickinson, J. D. Salinger, Carson McCullers and so on. I have a photograph of the opening night party for the Broadway production of A Member of the Wedding. In it, Julie Harris, still in costume as the twelve year old "Frankie" smokes a cigarette and drinks a cup of coffee, while behind her the real "Frankie," Carson McCullers, looking scared and big-eyed and twelve years old, cuddles down into the ample arms of Ethel Waters. Clearly an introvert. Trying to disappear. Next you have your Disciplined and Undisciplined writers. Or as I prefer to call us, binge writers. The D's have writing schedules and daily writing times and keep plowing ahead, whether the going is easy or tough. The U's wander around chewing over the ideas and images, waiting for them to come together, then write in a rush once something has gelled. In personality types there is no right and wrong type. All are right. And you can't force yourself into any given type. You can only recognize yourself and work with who you are. Forget feeling guilty if you aren't disciplined. There's nothing you can do about it, but support the assets that you have. Play to win with the cards you were dealt. It's possible to be just as prolific and successful without discipline as with it. It's feeling guilty that wastes energy. Then you have your Perfectionists and your BIGE's. (My Best Is Good Enough. )Judging by what I hear from other writers, it seems that P's far outnumber B's, but it could just be that the P's, never satisfied, carp about it, while the B's just do it and get on with it. In any case, it is quite likely that the P's, while burdened with the stress of constantly demanding the impossible of themselves, will achieve more greatness. Many immortal writers were burdened with this trait. But it probably balances out with the B's increased productivity. Once the B's get that this draft is done, they ship it off and move on to something else, while the P's will still be tinkering with it for weeks or months. Fourth, we have the Focused writers (F's) who once into the thing, immerse themselves and follow it straight through to the end. And the Scattered ones (S's) who flit from project to project and idea to idea. We also finish things, but rarely write one thing straight through without getting distracted and at least jotting a few notes on something else. People with ADD or ADHD (attention deficit disorder) are the S's poster children. You can have ADD and still have a terrific writing career. It's not even unusual. And the compulsively Organized (O's) with their incredibly clean, neat desks and perfectly ordered filing systems. And their polar opposites, the messy ones (M's) whose desks haven't been seen under the piles of papers in decades. I am a EUBSM. That is, an extroverted undisciplined non-perfectionist scattered messy writer. People might consider this the worst end of each spectrum, but you know what, being a B, my best is good enough. And the best I can do is ok by me. And I've made a good living as a writer for many years. You will probably recognize yourself somewhere on each of these continuum. Whatever personality type you turn out to be, I promise you there have been great and famous writers with your exact combination of traits. The real challenge is to accept that these are our personalities and work with our strengths. Stop criticizing yourself for being the way you are and just be the way you are and work the way you work. I spent years feeling terrible that I would procrastinate for weeks and then write a script in a huge rush. After a couple of decades I finally saw that this is the way I work. And it always works out. To beat myself up for doing what works was silly. Like beating the goose that lays the golden eggs, as if the beating created the eggs. It doesn't. The goose lays golden eggs because it is a goose of the type that lays golden eggs. Beating yourself up is a waste of time, energy and joy you could be feeling about being a writer and doing your work. Figure out who you are and how you work, and then BE YOU. And work YOUR way. And let yourself have a little happiness and satisfaction along the way. Cynthia Whitcomb is president of Willamette Writers, and has had 29 of her screenplays produced. She is author of The Writers' Guide to Writing Your Screenplay and The Writers' Guide to Selling Your Screenplay. She teaches screenwriting classes at Portland State University.and through Willamette Writers. |