TEMPERAMENT
What it is and how to use it in your writing
By Gini Wilson
Temperament, according to Webster, is the peculiar or distinguishing mental or physical character determined by the relative proportions of the humors according to medieval physiology . . . . OR . . . Characteristic or habitual inclination or mode of emotional response . . . OR . . . so on and so on . . .
At this point, I would like to touch on the Jung-Meyers concept of temperament in concert with style and character of the individual as used by David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates in their book PLEASE UNDERSTAND ME. (ISBN 0-9606954-0-0)
"People are different in fundamental ways. They want different things; they have different motives, purposes, aims, values, needs, drives, impulses, urges. They believe differently: they think, cognize, conceptualize, perceive, understand, comprehend, and cogitate differently. And of course, manners of acting and emoting, governed as they are by wants and beliefs, follow suit and differ radically among people."
I don’t know if the above mentioned publication this quote is from is still available, but I feel it was a good investment. I’ve used it as a tool to help with my writing. It has also come in real handy to study my family and friends. Most people are more than willing to answer questions used in the temperament evaluation section of the book. I’ll bring my copy to the next meeting for you to see. Or if you’re interested, it was distributed by Prometheus Nemesis Book Company, Post Office Box 2748, Del Mar, CA 92014. (Copyright 1984 Gnosology Books Ltd.)
For our purposes here, temperament is the combination of personality and character that goes to make up the individuals who people our manuscripts. Temperament is the reason Uncle Charlie continues to smoke his cigars in the living room even though he knows Aunt Phoebe is highly allergic to all tobacco smoke. And temperament is what makes Auntie Phoebe take an extra dose of allergy medicine instead of tossing out all of the old man’s cigars. She enjoys being the martyr. Don’t expect her to change any time soon.
We writers run into trouble trying to sustain the protagonists and secondary people’s character for 200 to 500 manuscript pages. We can make changes in their personality during the span of the book, but true character change takes years and usually many traumas for true, sustained change. And even then don’t be surprised if your people revert back to their old precious selves given the proper provocation. Usually, we don’t have the privilege of the long passage of time in our stories that brings heavy, believable character change.
I personally believe that we are born with our basic characteristics. And our personalities develop from birth as we act and react to those around us. This is the same way our "people" develop to the point where they enter our stories.
It follows that we must know something about the backgrounds of these people, their hurts, trauma, happinesses and dreams in order for the reader to know them well enough to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy our stories. The hardest lesson I’ve had to learn as a writer is that the reader is not privy to my rationalizations. Therefore I must not let my people act out of character. I was told years ago that letting them do as they damn well please is the sign of a lazy writer. So I bite the bullet, and even though it makes my job a little more challenging, I find another way for my hero or heroine to do the particular deed that will move the story forward. And of course, I have to make sure that way that is in keeping with her/his basic personality. My job as a writer is to keep my various people’s foibles and warts in all the right places. It is a never ending challenge that I actually enjoy because I have so many tools I can utilize including the use of temperament styles.