Originally Published at www.girlfriendsbookclub.org

Lanier, Nicole

This month we’re blogging about our characters dossier with the idea that they’re filling out an online dating profile. My series, the Carrie Mae Mysteries, features an all female spy organization run by a make-up company with the goal of women everywhere. My main character, Nikki Lanier, a top level Carrie Mae agent, also happens to be dating a CIA agent. And with all those spies running around, I had to create dossiers on my characters just to keep track of their cover stories. Go to Top Secret, to get the inside scoop on all things Carrie Mae – from characters dossiers to gadgets.

But as I sat down to type up Nikki’s details for this blog I started to wonder, just how strong was my dossier? I think I’ve created a very real character, but how good a job have I done? So in the interest of “science” I went to chemistry.com and took their free personality test as Nicole Lanier. And it came back that Nikki is (drumroll please): A negotiator / director. (See below for further explanation). Which I think nailed the character pretty well. Of course, if I were really interested in “science” I’d set up one for her boyfriend and see if the computer god’s matched them up…

THE NEGOTIATOR (PRIMARY TYPE): You are imaginative. You are emotionally expressive and share your feelings. The big picture is what interests you most, and you like to assemble facts and focus on larger concepts. When you make decisions, you often think things through very carefully, weighing all the options before deciding what to do. People are important to you and you prefer to build intimate attachments with others, connecting on a deeply personal level.

Agreeable and unassuming, you can be very intuitive, and you generally prefer win-win situations that protect social harmony. You are very good at reading people, and this includes facial expressions as well as vocal inflections. You excel at what scientists call synthesizing, which means you collect lots of data and then find patterns that lead to larger concepts.

THE DIRECTOR (SECONDARY TYPE): You are very independent and admire self-control. Analytical, skeptical and exacting, you can be tough-minded and decisive. You enjoy competing and achieving, and you are usually mathematically or mechanically skilled. You generally have a few very close friends, rather than a big social circle.