Prying into the brain

[Magister]

Using prior knowledge I’ve gained from the many years in life, I’ve documented and compiled many pieces of the immense puzzle that is the human brain. It is a complex conglomeration of thoughts, creations, stories, and concepts, but most of all, personality. A way has been concocted in order to attempt to simplify the understanding of a human personality and allow one the ability to create and understand different personalities for different peoples.

It can be broken into 4 different traits: Heart, Mind, Body, Soul…
Each, to a greater or lesser extent, is a part of the human personality. What creates the difference between one person and the next is the priority if each trait. Let me explain….

Heart- When someone is guided by their heart, they are influenced heavily by emotions and how they are feeling. They will act upon what makes them FEEL a certain way in order to satisfy their emotions. Now just because someone is emotional, doesn’t make him or her a romantic or mean they are a loving mother. A serial killer who kills because he needs the rush to feel like he has a meaning is emotionally driven.

Mind- When guided by the mind, the logical and thought out approach is taken to any matter. They decipher and investigate every problem, inconvenience, or situation they find themselves in. They are led by the logical solution based on their knowledge. A scientist or detective has no choice but to follow the logical solution as years of experience has programmed their mind to think of every possible outcome of every situation, based on prior knowledge.

Body- When it comes to body, the person is driven by reflexes. They are led by the urge to react to a situation with a push or pull, agility, dexterity, or even yelling: anything that exerts a force on something or someone in the world around him or her. They don’t think… they act. Now that doesn’t mean they are a dumb character, it simply means action is their preemptive strike against something. Extreme confidence or pride can cause Body to be the leading trait of their personality.

Soul- when guided by the intricacies of soul, they are followers of what they believe in. whether it be a religion, a goal, or a promise. They are guided by a purpose. A Paladin who believes in smiting the wicked is led by his religion = Soul. A Marine who gets the job done and is always faithful to his goal = Soul. A man who’s family was gunned down and plots revenge on mob leaders, so he wears a black T-shirt with a skull on it to scare them, and might have also been in some black ops special force team and can use every weapon imaginable is led by a promise = Soul.

The personality of a character can be created by simply mix-matching these 4 traits and giving reasons behind the order or level of influence each trait has.
For example (because I like the military): the difference between lieutenant pillows,fresh out of college, and a General of the Marines.

Lieutenant Pillows

· Heart: the lieutenant who has never seen combat in his life soils his pants in the first firefight he ever gets into. He is frightened and is crying wishing he was in the arms of his mother to tell her he loved her. Being a mama’s boy, he wishes he never listened to his father, who was in the Marines, when he told him to go to the Marines because he’ll probably never amount to anything else

· Mind: To prove his dad wrong he worked hard to be at the top of his class in every grade to go to college to become a better Marine than his father. He learned tactics and strategies in order to fight effectively

· Body: he is a Marine and they are trained to be the best they can be. He is in excellent physical health and is plenty capable of defending himself or surviving on his own

· Soul: He is wholeheartedly faithful to the Marine Corpse and his religion. At night he prays to his god for his blessings and the chance to survive. It is what keeps him sane amongst the lost friends and countless hours he can not sleep

General Maximus Epicus Omega Optimus Primus Leonidus Alexandre Payne, a.k.a. the Widdowmaker, a.k.a the Alpha and Omega, a.k.a. Chuck Norris meets Old Spice Guy, a.k.a. Your Real Father, a.k.a. prestige 15, a.k.a the only Highlander, savior of Thanksgiving and Halloween AND Christmas, The Last Starfighter, and The Lord of All Rings.

· Soul: He is faithful to his country and there is nothing on this planet that could ever shake his purpose: The protection of his country

· Mind: He is a strategic genius after being in combat for over 50 years and experiencing almost every intricacy and danger that is possible to face in a warzone.

· Body: Somehow…he could still beat the living crap out of anyone under his age. Come on, we’ve all seen Avatar(not the airbender), where the Colonel, who's HUMAN, held his breath on another planet, simply to throw some rounds at a helicopter (and actually wound someone bad enough to eventually kill em), then again to shoot outside of some flying supercarrier ship thing, then once more to get into a hand to hand fight wielding a knife IN a freakin robot?!?!? And he had the perfect scars on his head that make you go “ooo…lets not mess with him…”. So just imagine how epic a GENERAL is.

· Heart: Emotions? WTF are those?

With the lieutenant you can see that all of the traits are very important to him, but they are still able to be ordered based on which he will react to first. Though with the general, he simply isn’t affected by emotions. He probably lost them along with the ability to cry 13 wars ago. The order is important because it determines the order of their resposes to a situation. The general would instantly think of what needs to be done to protect the Country he loves, then he would begin to think of a way to inact the plan. Lieutenant Pillows would at first be scared, but his training would pull him through and think of a way to handle the situation he is in, which leads the way for his body to enact the plan.

This is my take on an easier way to start building the personality of a character. Its an excellent foundation and a great structure in general of how you want someone to encounter, assess, and respond to an event.

Give me your feedback pleeeeease
and i hope it helps lessen the struggles of character building

[The Muse]

Very interesting breakdown. But puts me in mind quite a bit of the discussion that was had on the differences of gender as related to writing. I totally can see this application and how it works for the way the male mind thinks....I am not so certain about how it would apply to the female character though. For the female characters I believe it would be more heart/soul, mind/body.

However your comparison of the soldiers is quite impressive.
I should like to know Omens thought on those........

[mmcgriff]

I've used this breakdown for my characters (some of which are female) and I think it's quite universal. True, woman tend to be more emotional creatures, however if, for example, they find themselves in a place of power in a male dominated world, they can't always be emotional at the drop of a hat. I think for a female character who finds herself in this position to have mind first and even body second, it would create a very interesting female character that doesn't fit the female standard.

[The Muse]

I agree mmcgriff...and after reading your comment I realized I needed to clarify mine.

First~ I only meant to convey the idea that the heart and soul would more likely be closely paired in females, the same for the mind/body. I didnt intend to imply that they would have any particular order of prominence.

As to women of power, Queen Elizabeth, Henry VIII's daughter comes to mind for the situation you mentioned. While I personally believe women's thought patterns ARE emotionally driven, I also believe that they are capable of herculean amounts of self control, which allows them to (nearly) negate their emotional inclinations. That self control is a cultivated and learned skill.....for anyone. So while these breakdowns of personality can definitely aid in the building of our characters, the "Learned Self control" card can be a game changer and allow for suprising twists we can make.

[Magister]

Hmm... now that I think about it, I like and agree with what you're saying domesticgoddess. Though I think what "learned self control" can translate into, is a personal flare introduced to the character by the authors themselves.

For example: like mmcgriff said, you can have a female character built with the 4 traits of heart, mind, body, soul. Though like I stated, it is only the foundation of that character. After you have mix matched and set the priority of each trait, you then create a past, present, and a general future you want for your character. This is the “Learned self control” you’re talking about I believe.

The traits are simply how they act and react. Don’t forget that based on the story the traits can change. So the learned selfcontrol they gain over the years is based upon how you develop the character. Take Lieutenant Pillows and General Epicness up above. The general started off as a lieutenant too did he not? Over the years he gained that learned self control by being forged and reforged on battlefields. Emotions for him may have been a priority in his life earlier, though as years passed he learned control of those emotions.

The same can go for female characters like Henry VIII's daughter. Even though they may have possibly been raised led by their Heart and Soul, a life altering event is all it takes to shift the focus of her traits to that of Mind and Body, making her a powerful and strong-willed female

[The Muse]

I rather think that learned self control is a REAL trait. It comes more from a need for self preservation than anything else. It can also come from a desire to manipulate and control...but in either case the character has to CHOOSE to develop that self control.

In a story, yes the author has full control over this. But in real life..it is something we either choose or choose not to develop.

[Magister]

ahh i see what you mean. your logic is undeniable.

bringing those factors into making a character definitely help make him or her come alive.
If someone could give that "real trait" to someone, it would definitely be an achievement in character developement and allowing the reader to relate to the character.

[Omen]

uh.... i wanna be smart like ya'll, when I grow up.

[clavis4hire]

When i used to create a story, landscape, and characters. I used to think thats all there is to create. But whats shocking is that, the hero or villians mind, is a universe within its self. Not just the normal "Thought clouds" posted on the page. But the multiple personalites each character have. A hero/villian can actually see his/herself differently in a parrellel universe within his/her own mind. And that just opens up a whole box of new possibilites! ;D

[The Muse]

Omen~ Ha! Self-deprecating much?

@clavis~ You are SO right...I guess the trick then would be to know how far to take it so that it doesnt overwhelm the rest of the storyline. But, as you say, the possiblities for new complexities of character are ENDLESS!

[mmcgriff]

Clavis and DomesticGoddess - you guys make a lot of sense. If you are dealing with a complex character, yes, there is plenty of room in that character's arc for growth and change - i.e the switching up of the priorities of these 4 basic character components.

Queen Elizabeth is a GREAT example of the use of self control, though I believe her motives were indeed emotionally driven but she had to learn self control because of her position. If she wasn't Queen, she could have easily been a temper tantrum throwing princess.

As people and characters, we are all shaped by experiences and these experiences shape how we act and react to certain situations. That is also something to keep in mind when we are developing our character's personalities and their own universe as Clavis described.