Traits and Personalities for Creating Your Characters

One of my favorite books for developing character personalities and traits is Florence Littauer’s Personality Plus.

She describes four basic personalities - Choleric, Phlegmatic, Sanguine, and Melancholy.

I also discovered The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Leman. He describes the four birth orders - oldest, middle, youngest, and only.

After reading both books, I realized that the four personalities lined up with the four birth orders:

Choleric - oldest
Phlegmatic - middle
Sanguine - youngest
Melancholy - only

Florence lists some of these strengths and weaknesses for the four personalities:

Choleric - powerful, persuasive, forceful, leader, productive, unsympathetic, proud, workaholic, stubborn, intolerant

Phlegmatic - peaceful, reserved, friendly, consistent, listener, balanced, indecisive, nonchalant, worrier, slow, compromising

Sanguine - popular, playful, spontaneous, cheerful, demonstrative, talker, brassy, forgetful, naïve, disorganized, restless

Melancholy - perfect, self-sacrificing, scheduled, deep, loyal, resentful, insecure, moody, critical, withdrawn

She also notes that Cholerics and Sanguines tend to be extroverts and Phlegmatics and Melancholies tend to be introverted. Cholerics and Phlegmatics are also unemotional while Sanguines and Melancholies are emotional. A person can be a mix of two personalities, too. (I’m an only child but the youngest of my cousins, so I am a melancholy-sanguine mix.)

There are many personality charts, and this one isn’t always set in stone as to how the personalities line up. But it does give one a good base from which to start.

From the list, can you determine either your personality or that of your characters?