Neither a wise nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history
to wait for the train of the future to run over him.
—Dwight Eisenhower
Can knowledge of personality type make you a better writer?
INTJ writers are single-minded in their pursuits. They tend to envision the conclusion even before they begin writing. With a talent for analysis, they’re skilled at communicating about technical subjects. But pragmatic INTJs tend to dismiss subjects that don’t seem rational or useful. Visualizing the big picture, they integrate the theoretical with the practical.
The INTJ personality type is one of 16 identified by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a popular psychometric instrument used to determine how people prefer to gather information and make decisions. The initials INTJ stand for the following:
I: Introversion preferred to extraversion
INTJs get their energy from the internal world of thoughts and ideas. They enjoy interacting with small groups of people but find large groups draining. They generally reflect before acting.
N: iNtuition preferred to sensation
INTJs are abstract thinkers, placing more trust in flashes of insight than in experience. They’re less interested in sensory data than in the patterns perceived by the unconscious mind. INTJs tend to be intellectually restless—they want to change the world.
T: Thinking preferred to feeling
INTJs prefer to use their thinking function when making decisions. They place more emphasis on the rule of logic than on the effect that actions have on people. They tend to be skeptical in evaluating ideas, whether their own or someone else’s.
J: Judgment preferred to perception
INTJs are drawn to closure. They feel satisfied after finishing a project or reaching a decision. They think in terms of likelihoods rather than possibilities.
Are you an INTJ writer? If so, the following information may give you some insight into how temperament influences your writing style. Use these insights to help you play to your strengths and compensate for your natural blind spots.
Writing Process of the INTJ
INTJs may approach a writing project in the following ways:
- Are conceptualizers who tend to explore a narrow topic deeply. They take a systems approach, rather than a linear one, during the planning stage. They may start a project early to test their concept, then quickly drive toward the conclusion. Once the bones are in place, INTJs further develop the content, adding facts to flesh out their ideas. If you take this approach, you may find it useful during revision to challenge yourself to consider alternatives, rather than locking yourself in to your original premise.
- Like to work independently. INTJs require long periods of concentration to form mental models. They focus deeply on the task, blocking out distractions. To facilitate this, find a secluded place to work. Schedule your writing for a time when you won’t be interrupted. Let others know that you need time alone.
- Are innovative problem-solvers who want control over the product and the process. INTJs are confident in their vision and want to bring it to life. Their writing can have a sense of inevitability, presenting an orderly progression of facts and ideas that can lead to only one possible conclusion. Their authoritative voice can instill a sense of comfort and trust in readers. Make sure that trust is warranted—use your natural skepticism to seek out possible flaws in your reasoning and research.
- Are motivated by their personal vision. Original thinkers, they have little regard for convention. They want things to make sense according to their own logical standards, and they will discard anything that doesn’t. For this reason, they tend to enjoy technical subjects. They often use visual aids that support and clarify their writing. If you’re an INTJ, one path to success as a writer is to draw on your natural curiosity about how things work and your talent for explaining this for others.
Potential Blind Spots of the INTJ
INTJs may experience the following pitfalls:
- Tend to be good at weeding out information that isn’t pertinent to the project. Be sure to keep audience needs in mind, however. Concise is good; terse is not. Where appropriate, include personal anecdotes to engage the reader. Don’t scale down to mere facts.
- Want to control their work and express their original ideas. Make sure you do so within the parameters of the project. If you’re a freelance writer, for example, remember that you’re writing for an editor, not for yourself. If something about the assignment doesn’t make sense to you, don’t ignore it—seek clarification.
- Set a high standard for themselves and can become frustrated if they can’t achieve it. Avoid pushing yourself toward an unrealistic goal. Tap into your desire for efficiency and recognize when 99% is good enough. And if you need help, ask for it. Other people don’t want you to be perfect—they want you to be human. Human is much more interesting.
Remember, there’s no right or wrong approach to writing. Each individual is unique, so don’t let generalities limit you. Do what works best for you.
Do you have any tips for INTJ writers? Leave a comment and share your experience.
Also, for more information on this subject, check out the sources below.
Sources:
Write from the Start by Ann B. Loomis
What Type Am I? by Renee Baron
Your Personality Type and Writing: INTJ from the Villanova University website
Famous Military Quotes at About.com
ENFJ – ENFP – ENTJ – ENTP – ESFJ –ESFP – ESTJ –ESTP
INFJ – INFP – INTJ – INTP – ISFJ – ISFP – ISTJ – ISTP
Write with Personality 
This is great! Absolutely awesome 🙂 I found your website through this page because I am an INTJ, and according to this website, my personality is not fit to be a writer! But I say, what better use of “strategic planning” than in plotting a story.
It’s almost scary how accurate the INTJ personality profile is to myself on other websites, but seeing the list of things on this page really makes me laugh. So true! I’d love to give other INTJ’s advice, but I honestly don’t know if I could sift through general writers’ problems and a personality type roadblock. I do know I write slower compared to other writers I know, and I have a hard time turning off my inner editor, but that seems to be a common theme amongst writers and not just personality types 🙂
What would you think about this as far as an INTJ personality problem? I have been told that my dialogue doesn’t sound natural. I also feel that when I listen to other writer’s talk, they have a better grip on characterization, emotional motivation, and character relations. Does that sound like a personality problem to you?
“This website” was supposed to be a link to here .
The MBTI is a good starting place to help you find fields that might interest you. But don’t rule anything out just because it’s not on the list. A lot of the professional writers I know are INTJs.
Thanks, Andrea 🙂 I was worried at first, but I found some lists of famous personalities, and INTJ’s have plenty of their own writers. It was just shocking when I first read the profile, that’s all.
As an INTJ, I think the thing that I get hung up on the most is displaying emotions realistically. In real life, the T of INTJ often prevents me from showing/expressing emotion, even if I’m feeling it, and that carries over into my writing. With the fear of appearing overemotional or melodramatic, I often include emotions that are so subtle that not very many people pick up on it. So there’s that extreme that needs to be brought into balance.
I agree with Emery–all that I’ve read so far on INTJ personalities have been “scarily accurate.” I’d feel predictable if we weren’t only like 9% of the population. 😉
Amanda, you’re an INTJ, too? Cyberspace hug! Oh dear, my immaturity is showing…
Anywho. You took the words out of my mouth. I have actually told friends recently (a writer friend even!) that a major fear of mine is that I am melodramatic. This translates completely into my writing. I hate reading melodramatic characters, so I try to tone down and make strong emotions as digestible as possible. It’s definitely something that we need to get an outsider’s opinion on – are we (or our writing) too melodramatic, or are we holding back from the reader? It’s a very important thing to know.
What’s even crazier about INTJ’s is that female INTJ’s are even rarer! And there’s two of them in the room right now! 😀
Actually…I’m a man. Duh. 😛
Had to give some immaturity back. 😉 I never did get to use my name-joke in elementary school–it wasn’t the right time, or it wasn’t the right place…
Female INTJs FTW! 😀
INTJs are actually about 2% of the population. 🙂 They’re one of the rarest types, and often misunderstood.
I recently gave the following advice to INTPs about conveying emotion, and the same goes for INTJs:
Focus on what the characters are thinking, rather than what they’re feeling. To convey emotion, you can use imagery, sensory detail, and physiological reactions: “Martha watched the yellowing leaves fall from the trees. Her chest felt hollow.” This is much more effective than saying, “Martha felt sad.”
I suspect that INTJs may have more trouble verbalizing character emotions and motivations, but not necessarily understanding them. That’s why showing the emotion, rather than describing it, may be easier. And in fiction, showing is generally better than telling, anyway.
Ann Hood’s book, Creating Character Emotions, might be a good one to read. It comes down to craft, regardless of whether you prefer Thinking or Feeling. In some ways, I believe Thinking types might have an advantage when it comes to bringing emotion alive on the page, because they’re less likely to be maudlin than Feeling types.
Thinking about it that way…that is so much easier than starting with the emotion and working my way back to the thoughts. I feel like I should shout ‘Eureka!’ or something. 🙂 And I knew INTJs were 2% somewhere in this brain, but I got it confused with my specific political affiliation percentage, lol. I knew it was small, anyway. 🙂
Emery, regarding your question about dialogue: Difficulty writing realistic dialogue is a common problem, and I’m not sure it’s related to personality type. ITs do have a tendency toward formality, however, and that may contribute to what you’re experiencing. Try flexing your type, and letting out your inner EF.
EFPs are especially fun to write, because you can use long, meandering sentences that end up someplace completely different than where they started: “I saw the cutest pair of shoes at Macy’s, they were blue with a satin ribbon, kind of like the ones Joan wore to the Fourth of July picnic—you remember, she had on that white blouse, and Frank spilled potato salad all over it?—I’ll have to call Joan to get her potato salad recipe. It was really good.”
Now, I’m not saying that you necessarily want to use dialogue like that, but writing it may be good practice that helps you break out of your comfort zone. Also, I’ve heard that Elmore Leonard is one of the masters of dialogue, so you might try reading some of his work to see how he does it.
Thanks for the advice, Andrea! And your sentence made me laugh out loud…which is bad because my family just went to bed 😉
I really appreciated this article. As an INTJ who loves writing, I found it strange that none of the many descriptive pages on INTJ ever mentioned this. I am a very strong INTJ, though I’ve learned over the years that some behavior is just not smiled upon in society.
This is particular appropriate to my writing style:
“Their writing can have a sense of inevitability, presenting an orderly progression of facts and ideas that can lead to only one possible conclusion. ”
Thank you for a great post, it is appreciated.
Thanks, Alyssa, glad the post was helpful. The requirements of writing as a profession—and particularly science and technical writing—are well-suited to the habits and interests of INTJs. It’s a shame that technical writing isn’t mentioned more as a profession for INTJs, because it’s projected to be a good field to get in to over the next 10-15 years. (The market’s not great right now, but it’s slowly coming back.)
Hah! I could shout, I’m so excited I found this page.
Over and over I’ve been discouraged with my characters- they weren’t believable and realistic, they never had the raw human emotions (even after filling out character questionnaire after character questionnaire!) So discovering this has been absolutely fantastic, and now I’m itching to get back to my notebook.
I think the biggest problem, for me, has been dialogue and character variety. Too often I find them all reserved, cold, awkward, unfeeling, and plain…boring. Who else has experienced this? What have you found that helps release the ‘inner EFP’ (; I’m just about to go research the personality types and writing them as characters. Haha, that’s something I can never get rid of, I love the internet and research!
Hugs to all my fellow INTJs (especially us ‘rare girls!’)
Razzie
I find I know and understand my own emotions pretty well, so I use those, and flesh it out like that. Then my characters seem to be less boring. I also write in first person POV because I find it’s easier to use thoughts.
Most of my characters are probably still XXTX’s though.
Reblogged this on The Cineraria: Karen Astrid's Writing Blog and commented:
I came across this neat article and I’m amazed on how spot on it is!
What kind of writer are you?
High-five from another INTJ 😉
Well. INTJ in the house….
Wanted to write: so i did a small book on what i knew best first, police dog training. That went well. Then i wrote a book about my passion. Strategy – it was fun. Sad part is people dont read facts, they like fiction and social media mumbo-jumbo.
Hey!
Another female INTJ writer here!
I think I might have some insight or at least suggestions of areas to explore for INTJs struggling with emotion in writing. I have issues in the same domain but in a different way.
First, let me give some background on how I came to this model and the specific form of it I’m using…
I just found out I’m an INTJ. Always scored on tests as an ENFP of all things and therefore failed to see the appeal of Myers-Briggs. It seemed vaguely like me but not really precise. It was through researching intuition that I came back to it, found a website called personality hacker and did my own category by category assessment of myself to start using their models of cognitive functions.
This was so helpful!! I realized I’m an INTJ and learned a lot. They breakdown the M-B profile into cognitive functions. I recommend checking out their podcasts on INTJs and on intuition for a lot more info.
But, to the matter of emotion….
Essentially, they say that as INTJs our dominant cognitive function is a particular style of intuition called “introverted intuition,” which they label “perspectives.” It’s characterized by advanced pattern recognition about how the brain forms patterns. Our secondary function is “extroverted thinking” – which they call “effectiveness,” and our tertiary is “introverted feeling” or “authenticity.”
According to this model, authenticity is where we process emotions – a process characterized by checking what feels right to us. We feel strongly but it’s not super highly developed and because we don’t know how to make good decisions with it, it can get us in to cycles of not being production. For me, as a creative writer trying to deal with the emotion I feel like I can either not connect to it or connect deeply but really struggle to organize that information. This makes sense if my “authenticity” process struggles with making decisions and getting things done. So my life as a writer is characterized by this process: What feels meaningful goes in circles and can’t get finished but what’s easy to finish doesn’t feel like it goes deep enough.
Does anyone else have this problem?
The problem of struggling to get to emotion seems vey related! I feel like this model might also be helpful for thinking about how to bring emotion in for those INTJs struggling with that aspect.
My theory is that we must find a way of communicating between my effectiveness and authenticity processes. Get them to work together.
Any ideas for how??
I am an INTJ male fiction writer, who found this site because I’m really just procrastinating in finishing writing my scene. I am born in the fired chasm of Romance fantasy (which I know is weird).
My thoughts on INTJ writing style.
Structure. I am a believer of structure, and have come to realize that my strengths as an INTJ is weaved into constructing outlines, which ensures that I have a grasp of where the story will go.
Outlines. My outlines, for example in a scene, weaves in and out and meanders before getting to the point that advances the story. I do this because my stories have the tendency to become short so I compensate by using ‘red herring’ or some misleading action or train of thought. I find that if you put in just enough conflict or some rough exposition, the reader might just blast through this.
Characterization. This is hard, but not impossible. The characters will as much as possible have a voice, and I struggle to paint them in as much as i can, but still I try. Which leads to dialogue.
Dialogue is bane. But it is also one of the fun parts. This requires special attention. What I usually do is work on the dialogue separately, just so that it sounds fun, or at least, it doesn’t look like I’m just meandering. I have taken to the approach of Quentin T. in that the characters are often talking about seemingly useless things, which is not, because it adds to the depth of the character. Dialogue is hard. As a trick, I try not to get too much dialogue, and just work on the details through a summary of the main points, folded into the prose itself. But sometimes, Dialogue really gives the work its own life (and also a great way to expand the page ie. filler.).
Do I think INTJ make good fiction writers?
Maybe. Maybe not. I know I’m not a natural, and I do hate some of my stories, but nevertheless try to finish it and I do make a living out of it, no matter how small it is. I think as an INTJ we can really take a use of ‘deducing’ powers, and aim into the marketability of our work. It takes a mind to learn what a certain genre wants and expects, and try to incorporate that in the writing, so that even if the writing isn’t the strongest: it delivers.
At least if we know what people expect, we can have a ‘framework’ to work with.
I think being an INTJ makes it hard to write, but that could just be defeatism. This craft is hard no matter what personality you have. The trick is to find out your strengths and weaknesses and make it work.
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” – Ernest Hemingway
The INTJ Writing Personality: Creative Precision Andrea J. Wenger: Write with Personality
Your article is very interesting. I think as an INTJ we can really take a use of ‘deducing’ powers, and aim into the marketability of our work.
The two fiction writers, Jane Austen and Isaac Asimov, were INTJs. So, I’m begging all youthful INTJs to stop boxing yourself in. If your can’t express yourself, it’s not because you’re an INTJ. Writing fiction is work, a craft. It must be worked at to be perfected. I heard an INFJ, the type who’s supposed to be so great at writing, go on about how he couldn’t get the words down on paper. Well, guess what? That’s called writer’s block. It’s not mysterious and has nothing to do with being an INTJ. I’m an INTJ and I’ve written three science fiction novels I hope to get published.
Writing fiction is carthartic and liberating, but you just have to press on when you’re blocked or in self-imposed inertia. You start by writing chapter 1, then chapter 2, not thinking to perfect anything. Then, when you’re finished, you revise chapter 1, then chapter 2, then, after all the chapters are revised, you re-edit chapter 1, then chapter 2. It’s a process.
There’s an older gentleman between 66 and 70 who runs a YouTube channel called channel, “INTJ Island.” He writes sci-fi novels, too, can sing, as well as play a guitar. I learned computer programming the same way, by studying the code, then writing it, revising it then re-editing it. My efforts got me a 30 year career with the Federal government, my final position being that of an IT Network Specialist/Project Manager. I’m 60 now, and because I practiced my fiction writing, which involves world building as well as character building, I found it was easy to go back to it. Frankly, it was sort of like riding a bike and I quite amazed myself. But why was it so easy after so long? It was because I’d spent years perfecting my craft. I bought books on writing, went to seminars, studied the paragraph structure of my favorite authors, and subscribed to “Writer’s Digest.”
Interestingly, Jane Austen (b. 1775, d. 1817) had a character named Mr. Darcy in her novel, “Pride and Prejudice.” He’s thought to be, like his creator, an INTJ. He explains his ineptitude in conversing with others, saying the following:
“I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,” said Darcy, “of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their
concerns, as I often see done.”
Elizabeth Bennett, the object of his affection tells him succintly, “Perhaps you should take your aunt’s advice and practice.”
There’s a saying, and it goes like this: “Practice makes perfect.”
If you’re held back, it’s not because you’re an INTJ, but because you’ve probably let your desire for perfection stifle you. Fortunately for the older gent and I, we had no one stereotyping us, trying to fit us into a box.
Because we have “Fi” or introverted feeling as a tertiarty cognitive function, we’re not easily manipulated as we get older. Why, because liars and incompetents have taught us through trial and error. Eventually, we become, if not cynical, skeptical. Mature adult INTJs have gradually learned to take nothing at face value whether that be in the realm of the sciences or the humans around us. I can spot a narcissist, sociopath or psychopath because “Fi” has informed my understanding of human nature, along with a person’s tells and micro-expressions. The other thing that helps is reading fiction, because it’s here where authors have detailed their narratives through their characters’ actions, dialogue and emotions. Here you’re feeding “Fi,” which then feeds into your secondary function, “Te.” Reading allows you to meet different kinds of people, people you’ll never meet in person, but they engage both your mind and your feelings. The more “Te” and “Fi” interact, using newly acquired knowledge, the faster “Te” can respond when engaging in conversation with others, because refined. Ask the excellent INTJ actors, Dan Aykroyd, Jodie Foster and Adam Driver.” People think Adam Driver is Emo, but is he just accessing “Fi.” He hates hugs, and can’t even watch himself on the big screen unless forced to do so, but if you see him in interviews, he’s always thoughtful with his answers, and every subsequent interview I’ve seen him in just gets better and better. (Check out the SAG interview of Adam Driver and study him.)
But you may ask, “How does all that help with writing? Well, “Fi”, the framework where we create a matrix of all the different human emotions we encounter. We know that between “annoyance” and “rage” there’s also “anger, pissed off, petulance.” We also know that between “contentment” and “ecstasy” there’s “happy, thrilled, joyful.” Our Emotional IQ just keeps on getting better and better. For me, writing fiction helped me sort out what others were feeling, what I was feeling, so that my understanding is now much more refined than it was as a child. With computer programming, where I was told by my boss what the end product should look like, well, the fun was always puzzling through the code to that end point. In fiction, your “Ni” or subconscious, probably already knows where it wants to go, you just have to puzzle out how to get to the last line, last paragraph, last page of your short story or novel.
Getting better and better, of course, wasn’t easy or quick. My 2nd grade teacher wrote in my report card, “Your daughter is an excellent student but such a composed, quiet child who daydreams throughout the day. Sometimes I just wish she’d just jump up and run around the classroom.” By 6th grade I would talk to myself in the mirror about how to go about handling a situation with another human (Many INTJs are know for talking to themselves out loud). Then there was writing which helped sharpen my social skills, so that I could navigate the world.
We’re only awkward at anything, because like Mr. Darcy, we don’t practice enough. Remember, “Fi” is our own personal matrix, but because it’s “introverted feeling,” involving inward processing, it’s slower, so we can come across as if we’re stilted, even detached. (Personally, I think this is a form of protection so that we don’t become overwhelmed with emotions). But, if you practice putting “Fi” to work through writing, its communication with “Te” or extraverted thinking is going to become more sophisticated and take you to wondrous places.
This is brilliant. Thank you.