Intro/Extro/Omni Vert

Most people know what kind of camp they fall into when this is brought up.

Are you an Extrovert or an Introvert?

Extrovert being the type who love interacting with people and texting every two seconds.

Introverts being the type who prefer alone time and just want that damn Extrovert to stop sending so many text messages about what they had for lunch. I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR SANDWICH I’M WRITING A DEATH SCENE I’M TOO DEPRESSED TO CARE ABOUT YOUR FANCY TUNA!

If you can guess which one I am you get a gold star.

Then there are those who feel like they belong to both camps. I call them the Omniverts, like Omnivores except instead of food I’m talking about their brains. Apparently it’s not recognized as an actual word according to Microsoft, (curse you red squiggly line!) but I feel as if it should be. What else are we going to call them? The Undecided? The Fencers?

(Actually Fencers are pretty cool but I think it’d get mixed up so we’ll go with Omniverts)

Anyway these are the three types of people in the broadest of terms and I feel like there’s a huge gap in understanding when it comes to the two extremes.

Extroverts are very sociable people and enjoy good company and radical parties… people say radical right? Eh whatever, Extroverts know how to have a good time and get their energy from being surrounded by people.

Introverts are… huh how do I describe my species? I guess I’ll start with the definition and work from there. Introverts get their energy from being alone and enjoy peaceful and relaxing environments. Maybe a quaint little room with a big window so the scribbles on the walls could be bathed in milky moonlight. We are quiet but not empty, words brim in our minds and overflow in conversation but only with someone we can trust and confide in. We don’t hate people (mostly) we would just rather spend our time with someone we care about rather than a sea of strangers.

However I find that Introverts have a better understanding of people than Extroverts do, even though they’d rather be alone most of the time. Really with Introverts it’s quality over quantity when it comes to social interaction, we do enjoy talking to people but we prefer deeper conversations rather than casual small talk.

This is why I have really long posts about my thoughts on things instead of quick little blips of what I felt like wearing today. Introverts are quiet but if you can get us talking it’s nearly impossible for us to shut up.

Yeah, you would not believe how much I cut out of these blog posts sometimes. Entire paragraphs get wiped out, sentences slaughtered and left for dead, all so my posts aren’t sixty feet long.

Yet in real life I’m the quiet girl in the back who occasionally mutters to herself in pig latin.

Omniverts as I stated before are a balance of the two. They like having a large social network and deep conversations about the futility of the universe. They’re quite the mixed bag I’ll tell ya, very rare but fascinating people none the less.

I’m writing about these three because I wanted to shed some light on how their brains work. They all have their pros and cons but at the end of the day they’re not as cut and dried as we make them out to be. As an Introvert I LOVE PARTIES dancing is so much fun! The thing that makes me still an introvert though is usually I’m dancing alone in a corner away from everyone else, or dancing with my closest friends who won’t make fun of my dance moves. That’s really my only exception when it comes to my Introverted tendencies, I’m quite the respectable shut in thank you.

As a writer I like to explore different kinds of personalities and also brain types like Extroverts and Omniverts. If we want to write dynamic characters we have to understand how their brains work and what they’re comfortable with. I understand Introverts the most because I am one, but I tend to write Extroverts more because they get the plot going and drag characters along for the ride. On the other hand Introverts are really mysterious characters or amazing POV narrators because of their internalization of their feelings.

Overall there’s a lot a writer can gain by realizing the advantages of having a character with a different brain energy than themselves. You just have to put yourself in the mindset of your character and truly understand how they think and who they are. It’s not easy but it’s pretty rewarding when you can finally nail the points of view of an Intro/Extro/Omni Vert.

Afterall we’re all different in glorious ways…

~Zambonnie~