PurpleCar

Catch phrases are an efficient way to show a lot of inner information and motivation about a character with a few uttered words of dialog.

Have no fear if your IQ score in 2nd grade was less than ideal! Don’t worry if your main character is a dud! Below are some interesting skills that can liven up any party, fictional or non!

My husband Gary and I have a friend (who we haven’t seen in a while) named Dave. We met Dave in college. Dave was a very short and slight guy with a personality bigger than a house. Dave was bubbly and he loved everything and everybody. Besides the incredible penchant [...]

(this is a re-write of a post I did back in November of 2007, which was deleted)
Researchers love to look at deviant behavior.  These are the things we do that fall outside the “normal” range of how most people usually act.  Sociology and Psychology scientists eat up odd human behavior like the desert does rain: [...]

Wacko Wednesdays: Prosopagnosia.
For three years, I lived in a third floor walkup apartment in a lovely 7-unit brownstone building at 18th and Pine. Most of us renters were in our twenties and early thirties except “Ellen”, a woman in her late 50’s. Ellen seemed a bit strange but she was friendly and [...]

This week:  Narcissism
It’s been a long day.  After carting the kids around town on errands, you hope to do a quick return at the department store.  You are about to pull into a prime parking space when you are cut off by a man in a Mercedes. You finally get into the store and are [...]

From Words Mean Things:
 Do you tend to be late or on time? I am pathologically on time - even when I don’t try, I’m there five minutes before I’m supposed to be. My friends, on the other hand, are almost always late. This infuriates me.
From PE Online:
Perennial lateness inhibits success. It’s annoying. It slows [...]

I’ve been so busy over the holiday (and recovering!) that I have been awol on Purplecar. Sorry!   Here’s a bit about multiple intelligences that you can use for character building.
Howard Gardner shook psychology ground back in 1983 when he theorized that there were more measurable skillsets than just the typical math, reading and logic most [...]

There are a ton of sites on the web offering scaled-down versions of famous personality tests, like Myers Briggs or the MMPI.   Lots of sites offer free tests, but they aren’t reliable ones; in fact, most of the tests are just plain fake.  Still, I think you should go and take a few.
Why take a [...]

One of my characters likes to collect antiques. What does this say about her? Characters with a collecting habit can be pretty interesting. The plotline can go so many different ways.