Mind Styles to help build character profiles:

How well do you know your character? How can you develop conflict just with a character profile? Dr. Anthony Gregore published The Style Delineator in 1982 culminating twelve years of study and research.

This resource guide can give writers a way to enhance conflict and humor as well as bring the hero and heroine to a deeper understanding of each others personality. We all understand that characters must undergo change and growth if they are to find true happiness. We understand too that the conflicts must be resolved before the end of the manuscript. Conflicts are not always on the physical level. Sometimes the problems that separate the characters are on a psychological level.

Gregore defines four personality types: Concrete Sequential, Abstract Random, Concrete Random, and Abstract Sequential.

One mind style at a time:
Concrete Sequential--These are the "recipe kids." They want to know the who, what, when, where, and why of every task encountered, with the what receiving the major emphasis. Being Concrete and Sequential the view is always so clear…to them. They wonder "will the rest of the world ever be so precise and to the point?
Favorite sayings--"If it's worth doing do it well." "I'm from Missouri, show me." "If it isn't in writing, it doesn't exist." "What you start, you finish." "As it is written, so shall it be."

Priorities:
Orderly, Persistent, Structured, Diligent, Direct, Organized, Detailed, Practical, Concrete, Product Oriented, Realist, and Conscientious.

Partial list of strengths:
1. Solid as the "Rock of Gibraltar"
2. Makes, gathers, appropriates, names, and labels
3. Honest and straightforward
4. Reliabel and trustworthy
5. Excellent at providing structure
6. Accurate, precise, and particular

Partial list of annoyances - to other points:
1. Perfectionistic, one way demands
2. Can be inflexible and rigid
3. Do not like change
4. Viewpoint of an external materialistic world
5. Sometimes they lack sympathy and compassion
6. No nonsense approach to work

Personal Preferences:
1. Quiet with minimal activity
2. Informed on the correct way to do things
3. Quiet, stable, ordered, and predictable
4. Dependable, trustworthy, co-workers
5. High qualitative and quantitative standard
6. Concrete rewards for meritous service

More mind styles coming...
Are you a Concrete Sequential or CS? Do you write characters who seem to have these traits?