Thinkers VS Feelers
I’m 49% feeler and 51% thinker most days. But sometimes, I’m more of a feeler than a thinker. Coming up in the construction management, I always had the feeling there was something wrong about me whenever I used a “feeling” based approach, though I was rarely wrong. When I communicated that to my superiors, however, using a “feeling” language, I was instantly discounted.
Being a thinker or a feeler doesn’t give a person less or more value in most situations, and writing books effectively is one of them. I’ve known plenty of thinker authors who came up with a perfectly researched and trope-met outline only to fumble on the novel. I’ve also worked with hundreds of feeler authors who bucked the outline, complained about it the entire time, and then wrote the book like they were a hot knife in butter.
The outline is to help you through where you struggle most while giving you something fun to look forward to as you write. It helps you mitigate the parts that are going to rob of your energy while also providing the energy on the days when you show up with little to spare.
Outlines are amazing for both feelers and thinkers, but feelers tend to go into the outline with a negative approach while the thinker tends to be excited about it. The outline itself still has to be set up to support the individual author. So, a thinker will need to do some research, sure. Otherwise, they’ll get stuck on the lack of details or they’ll open the door for rabbit holes during deadlines. That’ll be their energy killer. They’ll overlook the emotional growth path of the characters and be okay with that. Their developmental or marketability editors won’t, but they’ll keep writing without even paying attention to that. They will, however, be all too distracted by the minute detail they missed and will invest hours of research into something that will not make nor break their book.
Feelers are kind of the same. They can sometimes become overwhelmed by details. The thought of hours-long rabbit holes zaps their energy and they don’t want to even open a document if it means they have to provide details on something they don’t know. They’ll focus so hard on the emotions that guns will just appear out of nowhere.
Both the feeler and the thinker need details in their outlines. The thinker needs to invest the time into the rabbit holes before the deadline starts and the feeler needs the details to be ironed out so they don’t have to worry about it while writing. I can’t tell you how many action scenes I outlined for feelers that had details like weapon type, how fast they could swing, coordinating movement through a room, how much you could actually move in a bodice, or how quickly it could come off so a fight scene didn’t break ribs. I also wrote a lot of world builds with lots of details for the thinkers who needed those details so they could sit back without having to worry about the procrastination squirrel that was going to tell them they needed to create an entire language so they knew what to call their currency.
Knowing what to focus on in your outlines is crucial for the energy efficient success of your written novel.
For Thinkers (T):
Logical Progression:
For thinkers, it goes beyond the outline. Yes. We need the chapters laid out and the beats mapped on each scene. We need to know what happens in each one. Some thinkers go so far as to need each scene broken down by the scene essentials: Opening Hook, Purpose, Conflict, Climax, Goal, Conflict, Setback, Character Development, and Sensory Detail.
Additionally, however, high-spectrum thinkers need a fully detailed world-build. They need language, history, locations, social impacts, layouts, discoveries, and more. This includes details on your characters.
Analytical Approach:
Thinkers tend to be very good at studying what works and incorporating what they see. They will study other works and see what they feel is the main draw for that book. They’ll study the structure, how the story was told, how the setting was shared and more. This includes how tropes are folded into the outline for a more natural progression.
Objective Conflict:
Most thinkers do better with an outside motivating plot thread. Most of my books have external plots. Something from the outside is motivating the push for change and my characters are rising to create solutions to overcome the obstacles. When you have a long series, this tends to mean that each book needs to be bigger and that the villain must become worse and worse until you’re fighting off a nation. As a thinker, watch for that. It can, however, get out of hand.
Character Development:
Thinkers enjoy character development just as much as feelers, but they tend to see it differently. They see it more from the outside. They see how the character handles situations differently at the end of the book then they did in the beginning. As a thinker, be sure you’re including your emotional arc in your outline because that doesn’t flow naturally to you while you’re writing. Try to include helpful things to write or consider as you’re writing the scene and try to write it from the inside instead of the outside.
Fact-Based Research:
Because thinkers are fact based, if they start writing and are missing a street name in a real city, they will be derailed. One quick pop onto Google Maps for a street sign, and the next thing you know, an hour’s gone by, the kids are waiting for dinner, and you wrote thirty-five words. And you still don’t have the street sign name. As you’re working on your outline and your world build, grab quick links to maps, menus, restaurants, etc. Set a timer as you’re writing if you need to. Click the link, grab the information, close the tab. Keep writing.
Critical Feedback:
Thinkers are great at taking criticism. Usually. As long as it’s critical and it has some meat to it, thinkers love hearing what they could do better. “It didn’t really hit the mark,” is a criticism that doesn’t hit the mark for thinkers either. They need to know why. They need to know what you thought, felt, experienced, and how you think they could do better. Moreover, if there’s someone else who did something similar and you liked it, share that with them but also tell them why you’re sharing that.
For Feelers (F):
Emotional Depth:
High-spectrum feelers are great when it comes to the emotional journey. That part of your outline could be one sentence. In order to make your book writing experience more efficient, you need enough emotional information to get you excited to write, but your writing obstacle is going to be the energy drain that comes from details.
Your outlines should have more of the helpful details that could otherwise drain your tank. You don’t have to have big chunks of it in your outline. You could have it bullet-pointed. If you know there’s something specific you need in your scene, ask a friend to give you the details and then just list them. I do that with cars and weapons all the time with my husband. There’ll be one paragraph in the scene description that simply lists the bare bones information I need.
The emotional depth is what will come the easiest for you, so don’t map it all out in the outline. That’s an investment of energy you don’t need. Find the balance between getting you excited (because discovery is fun and generates energy too), and having enough details so you’re not drained after having written a chapter.
Character-Driven Stories:
Most feelers have character-based stories, so their world builds have more character information than it does world information. A feeler needs to know roughly where they are, but a chair in a castle looks a lot like a chair in a conference room. The people, however, will be a lot different.
Your world build will have more character cards and details. Your outlines will also have more to do with the interactions of your characters than there outside plot.
Moral and Ethical Dimensions:
Feelers love reactions. This is how most feelers lose an entire outline. They’ll plot it out, but if they get board with the telling of the story as it’s been outlined, they’ll put their characters into a situation where they need to make a decision, which will ultimately change the course of the entire book.
As you’re writing your outline, look at decisions as plot points because, for you, that’s exactly what they are. Exterior plots are just what happens, but you draw your energy from watching your characters interact with each other and shaping the world around them by what they do.
Use of Intuition:
Feeling is a little like intuition. Instead of thinking or intuiting, you’re feeling your way through a situation. That’s okay! If your outline is feeling restrictive, shift the focus from outside plot to what they’re feeling. This will come naturally to you as you’re writing, so you don’t have to be put a ton in your outline. This should, however, be your focus. Have enough details in your outline so you don’t get stuck, but not so many that you get bored.
Themes of Connection:
Feelers shape the world around them by using themes even if they don’t realize it. Their theme might be acceptance, or faith, or identity, or found family, or not being the biggest a-hole. That theme will flavor the narrative, the characters who show up, and their actions. This is the energy that pulls a feeler through their book. Include just enough of this into the outline to create the spark. A theme spark is all that’s needed in an outline. If you build an all out theme fire in your outline, there’s a chance you’ll burn out before you finish writing your book.
Constructive Feedback:
Feelers like constructive feedback too, but this is where the Oreo Cookie method came into play. If you’re giving feedback to a feeler in person, make sure your face, tone, and body language show your intention to help and not harm. If you’re sending this over the internet, watch your punctuation and word choice. Crisp sentences can sometimes feel like slaps, even though that wasn’t the intent. Use full sentences and paint your intent with empathic precision. Do not skimp on your words here. A feeler will take the blows and then disappear into the depths of despair.
If you’re on the receiving end of criticism that seemed overly harsh, it’s hard to pull yourself back and get back into the seat. However, most people do not intentionally try to hurt you. You have no control over other people, but you do have control over yourself. If they didn’t tell you something they liked, tell yourself what you liked. Fill your positive energy bucket yourself and then assess what they said. Do you think it has any legitimacy? If they slammed you with harsh words, and didn’t approach you the way you needed, chances are good they’re not your ideal reader anyway. You don’t need every reader to like you.
Managing Details
Managing details is the hardest thing for thinkers and feelers but for opposite reasons, but it all depends on where you fall on the spectrum, too. Your outline should serve two purposes: helping your manage your energy dumps, and keeping you motivated to write when you don’t have it naturally welling within.
It’s important to play in order to get to know who you are as an author and an outliner. I know several authors who have written dozens of novels and still do not successfully outline. I still believe they can if they choose the right approach, but that road has to be unique to them. Your road has to be unique to you as well.
