If you have a Facebook account, you’ve no doubt had the opportunity to take a plethora of quizzes.
Which Disney princess are you?
What Mexican food are you?
What is your stripper name?
Amusing? Perhaps. Creative time-wasters? Down to the last one.
Here’s a quiz, however, that will actually help you with your writing process. It was constructed by a highly qualified friend of mine, Dr. Katherine Ramsland, who holds graduate degrees in clinical psychology, forensic psychology, criminal justice, and philosophy (an MFA is soon to be added).
Originally published on her popular blog at Psychology Today, “Shadow Boxing: a blog that probes the mind’s dark secrets,” the quiz assesses your observational quotient or “OQ,” and places you on a scale of inward to outward focus. Knowing which end of the scale you gravitate toward can help you identify your natural strengths as a writer.
Ramsland defines observational intelligence as:
The ability to observe one’s surroundings, including the people in it, and to understand what the details show.
We each have an OQ, but according to Ramsland, people oriented in an interior direction have to work harder at adding important story details than people with an external orientation.
This is good for a writer to know, since being observant is a crucial trait for both the author building the story and the protagonist delivering it. Yet observation is not a mad, natural skill for everyone. “Innies” tend to miss a lot. I find it interesting that Ramsland herself, who writes about externally-detailed processes such as crime scene investigation, confesses to being an “innie.” Knowing this informs where she will have to exert more energy.
This quiz can be an eye-opener when it comes to your personal relationships as well. When my husband and I shared results, it explained away as innate traits things we’d previously seen as inexplicable downfalls.
The first question, for example, asks us to rate how true the following statement feels:
I am alert to the environment around me.
On a scale of 0 (not true of me) to 2 (that’s me), my husband would have given me a “0”. I am so often lost in the riveting cloud of thoughts unspooling in my mind, that each time we leave a hotel room, he gets ready to corral me with his arm, knowing I’ll head the wrong direction in search of the elevator. (But seriously, does he not understand that once I come to a dead end, I can turn around and find my way? The way I see it, there’s a health bonus: extra steps!)
I, however, gave myself a “1” on that question, because sometimes, I do notice the darnedest things. For example, I just noticed the light was left on in our closet, and thought, “Did my husband leave it that way all night?”
Take the quiz
Your turn! You have 3 options for each item: 0 = not true of me, 1 = sometimes or sort of true, 2 = that’s me!
I am:
____1. alert to the environment around me.
____2. aware of my preferences for furnishing a room.
____3. good at following directions to specific places.
____4. generally not curious about the contents of a sealed envelope.
____5. only basically skilled at assessing another person’s moods.
____6. quite perceptive about subtle changes in a room or property.
____7. only vaguely attuned to how I feel.
____8. attentive to the significance of items in someone’s else home.
____9. aware of where the exits are in any room I enter.
____10. easily distracted during a long project.
____11. observant of the color of the walls when I enter an unfamiliar room.
____12. confident of arriving at unfamiliar destinations.
____13. able to draw quick inferences from appearances.
____14. unable to quickly adopt another’s perspective.
____15. attuned to scene details in a novel.
____16. able to quickly estimate the number of people in a room.
____17. uninterested in keeping a dream journal.
____18. alert to what people are wearing.
____19. aware of my thoughts most often when I’m stuck.
____20. alert to subtle sounds around me, even when working on a project.
The results…
Add up your score and compare it to the chart below:
30-40: You’re an Outie, so you naturally notice and remember things around you, and have only average interest in your inner life
20-29: You’re a mix of interests, with some natural attunement to your environment, so you can improve your OQ quickly with active reminders to yourself to pay attention.
10-19: You tend toward an interior life, but you do pay attention to detail. You show more interest in atmosphere than sensory detail, and would probably benefit more from exercises than reminders.
Below 10: You’re an Innie. You’re internally attuned, and for writing about appearances and settings, you need more balance.
…and what they mean
I gave this quiz at one of the writing retreats I host and participants had scores ranging from 8 to 30! Knowing where you fall on the scale can help you be a better writer.
The revision action list for someone with an OQ of 8 would be to ground the character in the real world through connection to setting, and make sure to add in plenty of sensory images.
The revision action list for someone with an OQ of 30 would be to make sure all that lush description actually serves an inner arc that moves the character through the story.
So let’s go back to the initial quizzes mentioned: Disney princess, Mexican food, stripper name. If I told you that my answers were Mulan, guacamole, and Eleanor Hoesevelt, would you think you had a handle on me?
Mmm, probably not.
But what if I told you that one year my uncle made off with a needlepoint that I had just completed, took it south with him for the winter to get it framed, and completely surprised me with it the next spring because I didn’t even know it had gone missing? Or, that because I’m often in the public eye, I obsess over what I’ll wear to events at which I’ll be highly photographed so it won’t look like I own only one outfit, and yet, if you asked me what the keynote speaker I’d just watched for a half hour had worn, I wouldn’t be able to tell you? You’d get a good sense of me as a person.
And, it turns out, as a writer.
My husband, who scored 23, is much more attuned to observing the outer world than I am, so will naturally insert more physical description and sensory detail in his storytelling than is strictly necessary. But he also always knows where he is, which came in handy in large amusement parks when the kids were young. With a score of 10, I am much more inwardly focused. I will reach for the inner conflict and emotional turning points before I ever get around to anchoring all that in a world of real sensations. In amusement parks, I’ve learned to pick up a map, and if I lose it, ask directions.
Please know there is no right or wrong, good or bad here. Great writers exist all over this spectrum. Katherine Ramsland, the designer of this quiz, admits to scoring very low, and yet she is the author of 68 books, ranging from vampire culture to ghost hunting to serial killers to crime scene investigation. Her latest book, released in July, was How to Catch a Killer (Sterling, 2020). I urge anyone writing in related fiction genres to check out these fascinating resources. Many thanks to Katherine for letting us reprint the quiz.
Now that my secret is out, please don’t worry about me. Despite my low OQ, I see plenty in the world that interests me, although I’ll admit it’s usually because an unknown motivation has snagged my interest.
And if while mulling that motivation over in my car, I miss my exit to the Philadelphia airport and land in New Jersey, instead? I’ll find my way back. Now that I know my OQ, I keep my GPS locked and loaded, and have already factored in extra time so I don’t miss my flight.
How about you—are you an innie, or an outie? Does this seem to be reflected in your writing process? Take the quiz and report back!
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About Kathryn Craft
Kathryn Craft (she/her) is the author of two novels from Sourcebooks, The Art of Falling and The Far End of Happy. A freelance developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com since 2006, Kathryn also teaches in Drexel University’s MFA program and runs a year-long, small-group mentorship program, Your Novel Year. Learn more on Kathryn's website.
What a wonderfully fresh post! And I LOVE how you applied it to the art of revision, with the reminder that every detail that earns its way into a manuscript—whether it’s an interior reflection or an exterior sensory detail—has to serve a purpose. Deciding which is needed and would work best, at a particular moment in the story, is one of the challenges :-) Your thoughtful remarks help me to see that my “default” would be more likely to be an inner reflection than an outer detail—so useful! Thank you!
We’re alike in this way Barbara. It’s interesting to me that I am always attuned to the character’s setting—because I use it to bring their inner life to the fore, lol! Even in external details I’m an innie all the way. But later, I must often go back and anchor dialogue in the scene.
This was a great quiz, Kathryn! At 28, I’m mix and see it with my writing. Now, to work on using this information better.
Hi Ane, I suspect those in the middle have a great balance of natural inclinations, but must check to be sure they show up in a balanced way in the manuscript.
Thank you for this fun post! I scored 24 and am in the mixed category. I find this interesting because on the Meyer’s Briggs test I scored exactly in the middle between introvert and extrovert, too. I wonder if there is a correlation between “-vert” status and OG status? Hmmm…the ex-LCSW in me wants to know!!
I’ve always known descriptions of locations are hard for me, but now I know it might be because I don’t really pay attention to the details of urban landscapes. I’ll start taking a few minutes when I’m out and about and really see buildings, cars and roads, and maybe writing about them will become easier. It probably would help to slow down and actually read the description in books I’m reading, too… :)
In Katherine’s original post she suggested what you deduced here, Lara—that observational exercises can help develop this writing “muscle.” The lack of observation you note in yourself as concerns urban landscapes is how I feel in a shopping mall. I’ve always though it had to do with overstimulation, which I suspect would be related to introversion.
What an interesting way to look at the writing. I scored a 21 and it’s a mix. As Barb said above, I have to pay attention what belongs in my story. I tend to write lean (picture book and magazine writing has trained me to allow for illustrations) and my critters often have remarked to have more interior and sensory details, esp. the visual. I tend to focus more on taste and smell–yup, love food!
Writing fiction is like getting a PhD in self, isn’t it? Sounds like you have a good handle on your propensities, Vijaya. :)
I love this! I rank as ‘leaning toward innie’ and that’s no surprise. I’ve learned that when editing, I need to go chapter by chapter to make sure I’ve included sensory detail —because otherwise, it’s just not there. Thanks, Kathryn!
Cool! It’s fun to see why you’re consistent in this regard, right Rebecca?
I would’ve guessed I was a full INNIE, but I’m a 19, which is almost a relief. Thanks for this unique post, Kathryn. I’m going to stare at the walls for a while as I work through a tricky plot point…
“…which is almost a relief.” Haha-I get it, Therese. Hard to take such quizzes without worrying if you’re gaming the system with what you think you “should” be, all the while thinking, “Please don’t let me have an observational disability”!
This was fun–and I’m always a sucker for a self-assessment quiz like this, which hints at the “innie” inclinations. ;-) I wound up a 22, though, and that makes sense now I think about it: I often get early glimmers of a story by picturing a setting and THEN, gradually, the character(s) in that setting. The stage and then someone comes onstage…and so the character in her context starts to reveal who she is.
I can immediately see how that will translate for editing/revision, too. I may see things, but not articulate them–so I can watch for balance, making sure what’s in my head actually shows up on the page for the reader.
I do think you have a point about overstimulation, Kathryn…when I seem most oblivious to my surroundings, it’s often because I’ve “turned off” my awareness (clutter in the house, anyone?) so I’m not as distracted. And don’t get me started on trying to read–much less write–while listening to music with words! That’s a big NO; too many voices in my head. :-)
Another fairly balanced writer! That’s great! And I absolutely cannot listen to songs while writing. I thrive in a silent or easily ignored environment. As one of five kids, “easily ignored” used to be a pretty wide margin. My mom would never believe me that I didn’t hear the dog barking while I did my homework, but it was true!
What a unique idea for a post, Kathryn! I do feel like I just finished a BuzzFeed quiz. Ha!
I scored a 32, which may be due to my being an extrovert. I not only feed off the energy of people around me (that sounds vampiric, doesn’t it?) but also my environs. For me, everything gives off a certain energy: Colors, sounds, odors, textures… all of my senses are on high alert whenever out and about. I notice and feel most everything.
And yes, it does slow my writing process. Anne Lamott tells us to be observant, but sometimes I don’t need to write about the lint in a character’s belly button, or the crust in his eyes. Sometimes, however, it’s just what the character needs. Truth be told, I write it all, and edit with a heavy hand.
By the way, I’m Rapunzel. My hair has grown long enough to measure safe social distances, as well as lasso packages from the gate.
I believe scoring so low slows my process too, Rapunzel. I mean Mike. Skewing hard toward one end or the other means more drafts, it seems. I need to lay down my story in layers.
Love the way you spoke of your senses being on alert wherever you go. I eagerly await the day I read about your character’s belly button lint in a relevant and meaningful way.
Loved this post, Kathryn. I scored a 25. But it might be a bit skewed because we just moved and I am constantly aware of new sounds, new colors, new places. I think comfort comes when one settles into a place, but as a writer I could certainly adapt my experience to someone in danger, confused etc. Thanks.
I can certainly see how an awareness of how furniture is arranged in a room, or what colors the walls of a room are, would be front and center when you’ve just moved. Or how you might feel more of an “innie” if you just suffered the loss of a parent. Do such situations apply a kind of situational filter, or do they reveal who you really are and how you think? Hmm.
Good point, Beth. it’s worthwhile to note that our — and our characters’ — OQ might change due to outside circumstances and changes in our lives. Having character experience a sudden drop in OQ could be a way to suggest she or he is depressed, anxious, or crazy in love.
This is terrific! Thanks, Kathryn. I haven’t taken the test yet, but I will. The way you’ve applied it to revisions is such a good idea. I’m going to share the quiz, and your suggestions with my students and participants in writing groups. Giving you credit, of course. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Give Katherine Ramsland the credit, by all means. She developed the quiz for writers to help them assess their strengths along this continuum. Hope you find it helpful, Judy!
I scored a 17 – leaning innie, but not strongly so.
I find I can see the scene in my head when writing, but generally forget to let the reader in on it – because isn’t it obvious? (facepalm)
I can’t handle music with words while writing either, unless they’re words in a language I’m unfamiliar with. Music helps form a screen to other distractions, but I really can’t concentrate with people talking nearby! Apparently my brain does not have a “screen out conversation” setting.
Super fun, Kathryn! I scored a 26. This is a great game to help keep us on our toes when it comes to writing our stories so we are mindful of capturing both the inner and outer world of our characters while connecting it to the story arc.
After doing many writing-on-the-spot sessions with you, Donna, this is right where I would have predicted you’d be! You always reach immediately for those yummy details, while I’m trying to nail the inner arc first.