In Story Building Blocks II: Crafting Believable Conflict and the Build A Cast Workbook, I introduce sixteen character mannequins or prototypes based on personality types. I track them from cradle to grave and talk about their strengths and weaknesses and how to warp them. I use male or female pronouns based on the percentage of the population that fell in that category, but all mannequins can be anything you make them. The traits discussed are starting points. You can alter their temperaments depending on the purpose they serve. Their traits give them strengths to build on and weaknesses to exploit.
LEE
As a hero, Lee is decisive, resolute, and courageous. Sometimes it takes a bulldozer like Lee to get the job done.
As a villain, Lee is lethal but her critical flaw is arrogance. The cronies she mocks and belittles easily turn against her. She thinks she is invincible and usually is.
Lee follows the right course of action and won’t let anything or anyone stop her. She is a force of nature. She is grounded in what is real and now, but her beliefs are subject to distortion. She is a natural leader or queen bee. She excels at whatever she chooses to do. She never follows and never conforms. She is self-reliant and self-regulating. She works hard and is highly competitive. She moves unilaterally. She has short term and long term goals. She thrives on material success. She is good at classifying, generalizing, and summarizing data. She thinks on her feet and comes up with fresh ideas.
On the dark side, Lee wants to be the center of attention. She will do anything to pull focus back to herself. She needs cronies. She is tolerant as long as the method gets desired results. Everything else is pruned. She hates inefficiency and messy emotions. She isn't interested in the emotional part of the problem. She conforms on the surface to gain what she wants. She believes she lives on a higher plane than other mortals. She is focused on the right and true cause. She may resort to crime to get the status and material items she craves. She can be childishly petulant when she does not get her way. If someone is more competent, she'll resent them.
Lee gets hypercritical when stressed. You don't have to like her, just obey her. If you aren't with her, you are plotting against her. Her harsh and critical approach alienates. She represses slights and negative emotions until she explodes. She thinks her opinions are superior to most and she isn't open for discussion. She shuts down anyone who disagrees. She looks down on overly emotional types.
Lee enjoys a lively debate so she can win and dismisses people she needs to listen to. Lee seeks recognition and cares about appearances. She could be successfully conned by the right person who made her think something was her idea. She won't listen to whining. She tells you what she thinks, delivers objective opinions, and is focused on whether information is true or false. She doesn't care if you agree or why you are upset, she wants you to capitulate. She goes with her gut and ignores evidence. She has no patience with excuses. She can be abrupt and rigid. She rarely takes advice and never asks for it. She grills rather than banters. She isn’t happy with glib statements. She tears apart an argument if her opponent doesn't have a firm understanding of the topic. She considers opposition a personal attack and steamrolls over everyone. She becomes argumentative when crossed and squelches challengers with a steely gaze.
Lee likes to talks things over as she thinks them through. She sees the big picture but is fuzzy on details. She makes impersonal, impartial, and rational decisions regardless of the human cost. She decides quickly and doesn't reconsider. She never acknowledges an authority above her own. She enforces rules if she is in charge.
Once she buys in, she is in. Status, rank, and titles are important. She is highly responsible and hates those who aren't. She is focused on the tasks ahead and loses sight of the task in front of her. Minions are there to take care of details. She is an innovative planner, sets it up, sees it through, and takes care of follow-up, usually through delegating and bludgeoning. She has a backup plan for the backup plan. Deadlines are enforced. She is the first to act and resists improvisation. She wants the thing done so she can forget about it. She only changes course when she hits a dead end.
When conflict hits, Lee is more interested in solving the problem than rehashing it. She is furious if orders aren't followed. She never praises and doesn't respond to it. She never apologizes and has a justification for everything.
Lee's natural allies are Taylor, Arden, Morgan, and Cam. Her nemesis is Blair. Lee is a gift to those who need guiding and an irritant to those who prefer independence. Lee is social and energetic. She is interested and interesting to those she deems worthy of spending time with. She loves a good intellectual debate. She impresses with her vast knowledge base. Her friends are never in doubt where she stands on any topic.
She is a fierce ally. She is drawn to those who share her interests. She is attracted to other powerful people, even if she doesn’t agree with them. It takes a strong individual to stand up to her confrontational communication style. Lee likes to structures other people's lives. She is very persuasive but can be overbearing and meddling. Woe betide those who land on her bad side. She makes characters with low self-esteem, even those with self-confidence, insecure. She has little patience for touchy-feely types. She ends friendships that grow stale or don’t stimulate her intellectually.
As a hero, Lee is a force to be reckoned with. She leads the charge and forces people to do the right thing whether they want to or not. People are in awe of her. She rises to the top of any hierarchy.
As a villain, Lee is the hardest to defeat. She is intelligent, forceful, and can command legions. She has few weaknesses to exploit. It would take someone getting close to her to defeat her.
Next week we meet River.
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