This comes from Bev Walton-Porter http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1639/66904 who wrote the Freelance Writing topic at Suite101 for ages.

These days you can read Bev's writing for writers at Scribe and Quill - http://www.scribequill.com/

Anyway, though I didn't write this myself I still like the idea and think it's interesting. The more you know about yourself the better you can figure out how you work at your best.

Writer, Know Thyself Author: Bev Walton-Porter Published on: May 7, 2001

Writer, know thyself! "But how?" you may ask.

Writers vary as much as types of books vary. So, what type of writer are you? Well, that depends on what type of person you are, actually.

Some writers prefer technical work, while others gravitate toward more creative pursuits, such as poetry or fiction. All writers, regardless of their strengths and preferences, can be successful freelance writers - The trick is to find out the type of person you are and then translate it into the type of freelance writing you might be most successful at!

Some of you may already have a clue as to what types of writing you prefer most. In my case, I've done some business writing, but it's not my favorite subject. I'd rather interview authors, celebrities or sports stars. Human interest features also strike a chord with me, as well. I'll admit it - I'm an idealist (some call that being a dreamer!) and I won't apologize for that. I look at the glass as half-full most of the tiime, rather than half-empty.

On occasion, I'll meet writers who seem a lot more jaded than I am, and that's okay for them to be more serious and critical of the world. But as for me, I'd rather seek out the possibilities of the world rather than pick apart every little nook and cranny. After all, if you look close enough, you're always going to find something wrong with everything. However, even when I come across people who see the world on a different level than I do, I always learn something from the encounter even if I don't agree with the other person's point of view.

On another matter, I have met writers who swear by specialization in their writing. They adhere to writing only on education, medicine, business or technical matters. Apparently that strategy works for them. Not so for me. I'm more into diversification. I've heard "write what you know" for a million years, but that doesn't apply to my freelancing.

I believe you can write on almost any subject if you find the right sources and experts to draw your information from. I don't know a thing about heart transplants or flying a helicopter, but I've written extensive articles on both subjects.

In the course of my research, I was able to interview some pretty famous people - including the heart transplant surgeon who worked on Joe Torres of the New York Yankees. In my opinion, you are free to write about anything and everything when you're a freelancer - so why should you limit yourself? Specializing works for others, but it doesn't fit my style or personality as a writer. As the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

How well do you know yourself and how does your personality shape the kind of writer you are? Below you'll find a variety of fun and interesting personality tests that will assist you in discovering who you are. Enjoy yourself, have a blast and don't try to overanalyze this whole exercise.

Tests for the Inquiring Writer Within You:

Here are some links to tests that are fun, revealing and quite telling about the type of person you are, the things you value most, and your psychological make-up.

By analyzing your results (and be honest when you answer these questions!), you can determine what strengths you have as a person and as a writer. You can also learn how you can translate these strengths into a successful niche for your freelancing career!

Duniho's Enneagram Test

Keirsey Temperament Sorter

PTypes personality types

(Note: I removed the links because they had link rot. You can try your luck on Google or check around for the Keirsey and other personality test links at BackWash. Yes, I could have found replacement links for you but I'm getting over the flu and just want to go back to bed.)

Finally, instead of just suggesting that you take the test while I sit back and do nothing about it myself, I braved taking these tests myself. Although it's kind of scary to unveil the inner workings of oneself to a global audience, here were my test results in order of test:

*Duniho's Enneagram Test - It was a close one here - I scored nearly the same on Type Two - The Helper, and Type Five - The Synthesizer.

*Keirsey Temperament Sorter - Idealist

*Myers-Briggs - ENFP - The Champion

*PTypes- The Vigilant - The Journalist

Now it's YOUR turn to share what your results were! If you're brave enough, send me a rundown of what your test results were and I'll compare all answers to see if there's a strong similarity of types of writers, in general.

Will most of the respondents be Fives, Sevens, Twos, or Ones? How about the frequency of ENTPs, INFJs, or ENFPs? No names will be used - the only thing I'll post will be how many responses I received and what percentage of "types" I received based on responses.

Weblogrrl writes- On Keeping A Writer's Journal http://www.backwash.com/content.php?jouid=7993