Let’s talk about Freya Elison...
Freya is a name I’ve been wanting to use for a main character forever. The name comes from Freja, the Norse goddess of love. Honestly, though, I don’t know much at all about Norse mythology and just chose the name because I felt there was a unique and mystical quality to it.
My Freya would be the last to believe in any sort of mysticism. She a genius, a natural skeptic, and keeps her feet planted firmly on the ground. In this way you could perhaps liken her to a character like Temperance Brennon from the TV show Bones, but I didn’t want to give her a devotion to rationality at the expense of passion. Despite being a genius, Freya is also a feeling person and she never ignores her instincts.
She is an ENFJ according to the Meyers-Briggs test. Basically, that means she is:
Extroverted - Freya enjoys being around people. She is naturally empathetic, which helps her greatly in social situations. Often, she knows just the right thing to say or do to make someone’s day. For this reason, people are drawn to her and she doesn’t have much trouble making friends.
Intuitive - Despite being a genius, Freya is always striving to find new ideas. She places a greater value on creativity than on hard fact. She is more interested in discovery than in observing what has already been discovered. In effect, she wants to expand the total realm of human knowledge to something beyond what it is.
Feeling - Freya doesn’t let her intelligence deter her empathy. She doesn’t need to be acknowledged as the smartest person in the room to be satisfied. She can be selfless to a fault in looking out for the feelings of others. She also feels things very deeply and has a difficult time keeping her emotions inside. She is very expressive in personality, in anger, happiness, sadness, etc...
Judging - This has to do with flexibility and work ethic. Freya is not a spontaneous person. She likes to have a plan for each and every situation. She takes her responsibilities as a police officer very seriously, often to the point of exhaustion. She has specific methods to her work and doesn’t like it when her routine is interrupted.
In a nutshell, that is Freya Elison. Myself, I am an INFP -- so I relate to Freya on some levels, but on others, not so much. It is a challenge for me to write such a socially adept protagonist, and that’s part of the reason I chose to do so. My other protagonist, Chris Tinney, meets Freya and I both halfway as an ENFP -- but I’ll have more on him next time.
