Quiz: Are You Destined for Greatness as a Fiction Writer?

Psychological Research Reduced to One Handy Dandy Quiz

Illustration by Kit Irwin

Reading cognitive psychology studies, many are aimed at predicting who will become a writer, an artist, or “Creative.” Whenever I read one of them, I would evaluate myself against their criteria. I boiled these studies down into this quiz and now you can evaluate yourself.

Quiz: Are you destined for greatness as a fiction writer? 

WARNING: Potential side effects. Taking the quiz could lower your motivation to write, however taking the quiz probably reduces your motivation less than reading actual research articles themselves.

1. Did you have a happy childhood? 
   25 points for no 

2. Did your parents respect learning? 
   25 points for yes

3. Did you have a parent who was intellectually curious or very creative? 
   25 points for yes

4. Did your parents encourage creative activity? 
   25 points for yes 

5. Did you like school? 
   15 points for no

6. Do you have a massive vocabulary? 
   3 points for yes 
   5 points if you assent 
   15 points if you possess a prodigious lexis 
   -20 if you thought lexis meant a car 

7. Did you have imaginary companions? 
   Add 5 points for each imaginary companion up to 15 points

8. Did people chastise you for daydreaming? 
   25 points for all the time 
   5 points for some of the time 
   -10 points for never

9. Do you enjoy pretense? 
   20 points for yes

10. What’s your IQ? 
    25 points if your IQ is between 120 and 150 
    -50 points if your IQ is 150 or over (you might write brilliantly, but no one will understand you)

11. What’s your place in the family? 
    5 points if not firstborn (more successful poets were firstborns while fiction writers were later born)

12. What’s your MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)? 
    25 points for ENFP or INFP
    15 points for INFJ, ISTJ, INTJ, or ENTP 
    5 points if you are Intuitive and not Sensory

13. How much do you read? 
    5 points for a lot 
    25 points for massive quantities

Results

• If you send me your score and a check for $999, I will tell you that you are definitely a born writer who will astound the world with your creativity.

No check, then I have serious doubts about your abilities — clearly not enough imagination.

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Questions 1 thought 7 are based on Kohanyi’s theory that there are four factors that predict whether someone is going to be a creative writer.  Questions 8 through 13 are based on Kaufman’s analysis of creative writers. Questions 13 through 14 are based on Piirto’s Understanding Creativity. 

Kaufman, J. C. (2002). Dissecting the golden goose: Components of studying creative writers. Creativity Research Journal, 14(1), 27–40.

Kohányi, A., & le. (2005). Four factors that may predict the emergence of creative writing: A proposed model. Creativity Research Journal, 17(2/3), 195–205.

Piirto, Jane (2003). Understanding Creativity. Scottsdale, AZ: Great Potential Press.