Perspective
Around ten years ago, I was watching a self-improvement video by a business consultant. His temporary role was to evaluate a company’s operations and recommend improvements. One of the examples he presented in the video was interviewing the mailroom supervisor, who had been at a large company for 25 years.
Their job was to distribute mail and interoffice communications, which meant they knew and spoke to every employee. As a result, they became a wealth of company knowledge, and the 15-minute interview turned into a two-hour marathon of good ideas.
When the consultant presented their report, the business executives were flabbergasted. They eagerly discussed each improvement and complimented the deep understanding of company operations. At the end of the presentation, each executive warmly shook the consultant’s hand and congratulated them for performing an excellent analysis.
When asked about how the consultant developed so many significant improvements in such a short time, they revealed that many of the ideas came from the mailroom supervisor. The mood instantly turned sour. “Oh, that guy!” Then, the executives ordered the report shredded.
Can good ideas not come from the mailroom supervisor? That strategic person goes everywhere, knows everybody, and sees everything. Plus, they handle inventory, documents, and presentations. This person is the backbone, eyes, and ears of the company, but their quirky personality made the executives cringe.
Unfortunately, we often see judgmental behavior in our daily lives. Race, religion, appearance, and gender prevent good ideas from being accepted. From this example, we also know that personality plays an important role.
I tend to craft my articles around writing, so how does personality bias apply to characters? That’s a tricky call. It is essential to educate the reader about core character flaws so they understand the motivations behind actions and decisions. Thus, if a character negatively interacts with another character, the negative source must be clear, but the above example does not translate to a clear flaw. Well, let’s build such a character.
Pat (a gender natural name) is 5’ 5” tall, with brown curly hair, and could stand to lose 20 pounds. This person started in shipping and worked their way up to mailroom supervisor. Nearly every employee gets along with Pat, and this individual does a fantastic job of keeping the company communicating. However, a few people do not appreciate Pat’s bubbly personality and feel this individual should focus on delivering mail and not chatting.
That’s a grand description, but readers would not understand why Pat’s great ideas would lead to illogical reactions. Does this mean that a character cannot have a hidden flaw or be surrounded by mean people? Well, there are many close-minded people in real life. Can we state that fact? “Hey, I hate Pat but cannot explain why.” Yeah, this does not read well.
Readers dislike characters with weak foundations because they cannot mind-read the author’s thoughts. What about a mysterious character? How about a blanket statement like, “People hate Pat because of their bubbly personality.” My advice is to tread lightly with such character types. Readers only tolerate a slight amount of confusion and would not understand why a bubbly personality is being rejected.
And in real life, I were running a company, once a quarter, I would have a sit-down with the supervisor and ask them multiple questions about the company. Yet, the executives did the opposite because the mailroom supervisor did not mesh with upper management.
My takeaway is that when crafting a personality, I must think about how the reader would understand the interaction. Meaning, I need to think about presenting clear and realistic motivations behind a character.
Where does this leave us? I have a writing toolbelt, which is what I call my mental collection of concepts that help me to be a better writer. When developing a character, I sometimes think about this consultant video, which serves two purposes. The first is to remind me to have clear characters, and the second is a good example of character contrast.
My writing toolbelt is a complete hodgepodge of life lessons. The trick to building it has always been being open to what is going on around me while thinking about how it might help my life and writing.
You’re the best -Bill
April 20, 2022 Updated August 08, 2026
Their job was to distribute mail and interoffice communications, which meant they knew and spoke to every employee. As a result, they became a wealth of company knowledge, and the 15-minute interview turned into a two-hour marathon of good ideas.
When the consultant presented their report, the business executives were flabbergasted. They eagerly discussed each improvement and complimented the deep understanding of company operations. At the end of the presentation, each executive warmly shook the consultant’s hand and congratulated them for performing an excellent analysis.
When asked about how the consultant developed so many significant improvements in such a short time, they revealed that many of the ideas came from the mailroom supervisor. The mood instantly turned sour. “Oh, that guy!” Then, the executives ordered the report shredded.
Can good ideas not come from the mailroom supervisor? That strategic person goes everywhere, knows everybody, and sees everything. Plus, they handle inventory, documents, and presentations. This person is the backbone, eyes, and ears of the company, but their quirky personality made the executives cringe.
Unfortunately, we often see judgmental behavior in our daily lives. Race, religion, appearance, and gender prevent good ideas from being accepted. From this example, we also know that personality plays an important role.
I tend to craft my articles around writing, so how does personality bias apply to characters? That’s a tricky call. It is essential to educate the reader about core character flaws so they understand the motivations behind actions and decisions. Thus, if a character negatively interacts with another character, the negative source must be clear, but the above example does not translate to a clear flaw. Well, let’s build such a character.
Pat (a gender natural name) is 5’ 5” tall, with brown curly hair, and could stand to lose 20 pounds. This person started in shipping and worked their way up to mailroom supervisor. Nearly every employee gets along with Pat, and this individual does a fantastic job of keeping the company communicating. However, a few people do not appreciate Pat’s bubbly personality and feel this individual should focus on delivering mail and not chatting.
That’s a grand description, but readers would not understand why Pat’s great ideas would lead to illogical reactions. Does this mean that a character cannot have a hidden flaw or be surrounded by mean people? Well, there are many close-minded people in real life. Can we state that fact? “Hey, I hate Pat but cannot explain why.” Yeah, this does not read well.
Readers dislike characters with weak foundations because they cannot mind-read the author’s thoughts. What about a mysterious character? How about a blanket statement like, “People hate Pat because of their bubbly personality.” My advice is to tread lightly with such character types. Readers only tolerate a slight amount of confusion and would not understand why a bubbly personality is being rejected.
And in real life, I were running a company, once a quarter, I would have a sit-down with the supervisor and ask them multiple questions about the company. Yet, the executives did the opposite because the mailroom supervisor did not mesh with upper management.
My takeaway is that when crafting a personality, I must think about how the reader would understand the interaction. Meaning, I need to think about presenting clear and realistic motivations behind a character.
Where does this leave us? I have a writing toolbelt, which is what I call my mental collection of concepts that help me to be a better writer. When developing a character, I sometimes think about this consultant video, which serves two purposes. The first is to remind me to have clear characters, and the second is a good example of character contrast.
My writing toolbelt is a complete hodgepodge of life lessons. The trick to building it has always been being open to what is going on around me while thinking about how it might help my life and writing.
You’re the best -Bill
April 20, 2022 Updated August 08, 2026
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