The Enneagram. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Maybe you’ve even used the Enneagram to write better characters.
Like Myers-Briggs, Socionics, and the Four Temperaments, the Enneagram is one of many systems within the study of personality theory. These systems are designed to identify the patterns found in the different ways we approach various aspects of life, so we might better study and understand ourselves and others.
In short, the Enneagram is not only a useful life tool, it’s also the perfect character-creation tool.
I’ve always been interested in personality theory. Let’s face it, I just like theories (come to me, story theory, my love). But I don’t see it as any kind of coincidence that my interest in characters and stories dovetailed so conveniently with the ever-deepening rabbit hole of personality theory.
I’m not alone. In fact, my introduction to the Enneagram, many years ago, was on romance author Laurie Campbell’s site, where she offered a brief description of the system’s nine types as, you guessed it, a character tool. Since then, I’ve pursued Myers-Briggs—another personality-typing system—in some depth, but only this year have I finally dived headlong into the Enneagram.
I’m not exaggerating when I say it has changed my life—and my writing.
What Is the Enneagram?
Unlike Myers-Briggs, which is a “neutral” system focused primarily on the differing ways people take in and use information, the Enneagram is often called an “ego-transcendence tool.” Sounds all lofty and new-agey, but it’s really just code for “this-is-gonna-hit-you-where-it-hurts.”
(Side Note: I read once, in relation to Myers-Briggs, that if you typed yourself and had nothing but excitement about your discoveries, you very likely mistyped. A true typing is going to show you stuff about yourself that maybe you’d rather not look at. In short, you can be pretty sure you’ve found your type when you end up muttering, “Ah, dang.” If that’s true of Myers-Briggs, it’s about ten times truer of the Enneagram. But I digress.)
The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile (affiliate link)
In their book The Road Back to You (which is a great overview of the Enneagram, uncomplicated by denser aspects of the theory), Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile introduce the Enneagram like this:
The Enneagram teaches that there are nine different personality styles in the world, one of which we naturally gravitate toward and adopt in childhood to cope and feel safe. Each type or number has a distinct way of seeing the world and an underlying motivation that powerfully influences how that type thinks, feels, and behaves….
The Enneagram takes its name from the Greek words for nine (ennea) and for a drawing or figure (gram). It is a nine-pointed geometric figure that illustrates nine different but interconnected personality types. Each numbered point on the circumference is connected to two others by arrows across the circle, indicating their dynamic interaction with each other.
The Enneagram is a vast and deep system, impossible to completely summarize in a post like this, so I won’t even try. However, perhaps the simplest way to sum it up is to say that the Enneagram is designed to call baloney on the defensive lies we have been programmed from childhood to tell ourselves about ourselves and the world.
How I Discovered the Enneagram
My experience with the Enneagram went something like this.
I’d decided long ago, after reading the brief descriptions on Laurie Campbell’s site, that I was a Five: The Investigator. Introverted, studious, quirky. Yeah, totally. Fives are awesome!
Confidently, I started reading Cron and Stabile’s book—until I hit the chapter about the Three: The Achiever. It was like the authors reached out, grabbed their own book, and smacked me between the eyes with it. It was a total oh-dang moment.
Don’t get me wrong. Threes are awesome too. Productive, adept, ambitious. But I immediately knew, without question, I was a Three simply because so much of what I read hurt.
I would have been totally cool (too cool) with the Five’s problems of hyper-independence, trust issues, and sarcasm (because, hello, that’s all my favorite characters ever). I’ve always considered myself a relatively self-aware, self-honest person, but reading about the Three’s motivations made me face things about myself I’d never been willing to admit or face, things I really didn’t like about myself, such as the driving need for the approval of others and a pervasive underlying belief in, essentially, “salvation (and love) by works.”
For me, the revelations that followed were toppling dominoes that unlocked answers to questions I’d been asking about myself and my life for a long time. It was painfully liberating. My awareness of my Three-ness has since allowed me to acknowledge and own aspects of myself I’ve long hidden from, which, of course, now means I have to deal with them. It has been and continues to be incredibly exciting.
And now I get to use these new approaches to life, people, and the self to help me (I hope) write better characters.
Use the Enneagram to Write Better Characters
There is just so much to say about how you can use the Enneagram to write better characters. I’m not even going to get into the wings, triads, integration/disintegration, instinctual variants, or tritypes (the latter of which I have yet to study in any depth but which, I think, bears out I wasn’t totally wrong in my initial association with the Five).
Personality Types by Don Richard Riso with Russ Hudson (affiliate link)
It was in reading Don Richard Riso’s Enneagram “bible” Personality Types that I was truly blown away by both the beautiful complexity of the system and its easy applicability to writing characters. After listening to the book on audio, I immediately bought my own copy and added it to my pile of easy-reach writing-resource books. I will be referring to it regularly when I start outlining my next book.
Following are the five primary ways I plan to use the Enneagram to write better characters in the future.
>>Use Nadine Avola’s handy Enneagram Tracking tool to help discover and remember your characters’ Enneagram types.
1. Typing Characters, the Fast and Easy Way
Dreamlander (Amazon affiliate link)
Let me start with a slight digression: I’ve been studying Myers-Briggs for years. I love it. In its own way, it too completely changed my life and my writing. But I actually find the system really difficult to use in typing my characters. For whatever reason, I can type other people’s characters with reasonable confidence, but I can’t type my own to save my life. For example, I have progressively typed Chris Redston, the protagonist of Dreamlander as: ISFJ, ESFJ, INFJ, ISFP (with ponderings about ISTJ and INTJ thrown in for good measure).
(Second Side Note: I actually have serious doubts that any author is able to truly write a character with differing cognitive functions from their own. For example, as an INTJ, I might be able to fake an ESFJ character based on ESFJs I personally know, but because I share no functions with that type, can I really write about the mental process of a character who absorbs information via Introverted Sensing and makes judgments via Extroverted Feeling? Maybe, but I kinda doubt it.)
In contrast to Myers-Briggs, the deceptive simplicity of the Enneagram makes it much easier to confidently recognize a character’s likely type/number and use it as a guideline while writing. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it far less complicated to look at a character and recognize, “she’s a One,” rather than running through a litany of criteria to determine her four cognitive functions and their order in her Myers-Briggs stack.
When I do figure out a character’s Enneagram, I instantly see them a little clearer, and I instinctively know just a little bit more about them. (Chris, by the way, is a Six. In case you were wondering.)
(Third Side Note: Although there is some overlap, the Enneagram is an entirely different system from Myers-Briggs, with an entirely different focus. Typing a character according to the Enneagram doesn’t accomplish the same things as will typing that character according to Myers-Briggs. So if you feel qualified—or, like me, literally unable to resist, do both!)
2. Keeping Characters Consistent: Strengths and Weaknesses
One of the Enneagram’s primary focuses is each type’s inherent strengths and weaknesses. This is convenient, since one of a writer’s primary focuses is each character‘s inherent strengths and weaknesses. Indeed, we could argue that the pairing of strength/weakness is one of the most important aspects of character, and thus story, since it drives everything that happens in the plot and theme.
In expanding on the chart at the beginning of the post, a super-simplistic approach to each type’s strength/weakness might look like this:
One, The Reformer: Responsible and idealistic/judgmental and hyper-perfectionistic
Two, The Helper: Kind and generous/intrusive and needy
Three, The Achiever: Productive and adaptable/overly image-conscious and out of touch with emotions
Four, The Individual: Creative and idealistic/self-absorbed and unrealistic
Five, The Investigator: Perceptive and self-reliant/emotionally-detached and cynical
Six, The Loyalist: Loyal and engaging/reactive and fearful
Seven, the Enthusiast: Optimistic and fun/impulsive and undisciplined
Eight, the Challenger: Bold and decisive/domineering and combative
Nine, the Peacemaker: Calm and reliable/passive-aggressive and unmotivated
Once you really start studying the system, you realize there’s so much more to it than just this. But even just these simple starting points give you an intuitive strength/weakness pairing for your character that sets everything up right for a solid character arc.
3. Identifying the Character’s Motivation, Want, Need, and Backstory “Ghost”
Because of the Enneagram’s talent for pointing a finger at painful motivations arising from our pasts (especially our childhoods), it’s perfect for figuring out the backstory Ghost motivating your character’s goals in your main story.
The Ghost (sometimes called the Wound) is a hole in your character’s self. It’s the hole where the Lie the Character Believes first started growing, and it’s the hole she must climb out of if she’s to grow into wholeness by the end of her arc.
Again, not so coincidentally, the Enneagram offers a basic Lie for each type:
One: Mistakes are unacceptable.
Two: I am not lovable.
Three: I am what I do.
Four: No one understands me/there is something wrong with me.
Five: I am not competent to handle the demands of life.
Six: The world is not safe.
Seven: I can’t count on people to be there for me.
Eight: Only the strong survive.
Nine: I don’t matter much.
Starting with some iteration of the above for your character, you can start extrapolating consistent motivations and goals within the specific needs of your plot.
4. Charting Character Arcs
Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)
Not only is the Enneagram system helpful in setting up character arcs, it’s also helpful in double-checking that the progression of your character’s arc is consistent and realistic.
One of the main reasons I ended up buying a hardcopy of Riso’s Personality Types was that the book methodically charts nine levels of “health” for each type. It divides these nine levels into three apiece under the headings of Healthy, Average, and Unhealthy. Once you know your character’s specific story Lie and the type of arc you want him to follow, you can reference Riso’s lists to nail down how a healthy, average, or unhealthy person of this type would behave.
For example, if you’re writing a Positive Change Arc for a generally likable character, you’re probably going to to start him out in one of the Average categories and let the story’s events help him progress to Healthy. Or maybe you’re writing a Negative Change Arc, about a descent into unwellness or psychosis, which brings me to…
5. Writing Better Bad Guys
For me, bad guys have always been one of my challenges. A large part of this was a struggle to find suitable motivations for their evil deeds. “Oh, they’re just crazy” is an easy out that doesn’t give due diligence to what should be one of the strongest characters in the story.
Yet another reason I was psyched by Riso’s “health charts” was that they immediately grounded my understanding of what would motivate a deeply unhealthy person to commit deeply unhealthy acts. At the bottom level of psychosis for each type (which is almost never reached without either deep-seated childhood trauma or a physiological catalyst), Riso suggests the “ultimate end” each type is most likely to fall to:
One: Punitive Sadism
Two: Hypochondria and Martyr Complex
Three: Murder (!)
Four: Suicide
Five: Schizophrenia
Six: Masochism
Seven: Addiction and Manic-Compulsive Behavior
Eight: Megalomania
Nine: Dissociative disorders
Personally, I take these with a massive grain of salt (because how likely is it that all, or even the majority of schizophrenia sufferers, are Fives?). But it is a useful guide for following the descent of personal and mental un-health to a consistent ending point. If you read all the sections in Riso’s book, it becomes easy to provide a proper motive to a character who is undergoing a realistic personal descent.
***
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Enneagram. I’ve been studying it for months now and have barely scratched its surface. If you’re interested in digging deeper, both for yourself and your characters, I recommend starting with the book The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile and following it up with the significantly heavier and more in-depth Personality Types by Don Richard Riso with Russ Hudson.
Brace yourselves, half fun, and get ready to say: Oh, dang. :p
Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Have you ever used the Enneagram to write better characters? Tell me about it in the comments!
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About K.M. Weiland | @KMWeiland
Usually, when I’m writing characters, I’ll use three different systems to sketch out their mentality. The first is the enneagram, which tells me motivations, fears and desires. The second is the MBTI, which tells me how a character thinks through problems. And then I’ll pair that with the Dungeons and Dragons morality alignment (usually an altered one, like the Real Alignments by EasyDamus, which allows you to create heroic chaotic evil characters!).
Now I’m not saying this gives me a whole picture, but by the time I can name my character’s Enneagram, MBTI and their morality, I have a pretty clear image of who they are, how they think, and what might have gotten them there, and I have the tools I need to write them consistently.
(The protagonist for my current project is a Type 8 wing 7, with an MBTI of ESTP and a morality of Chaotic Neutral. She’s a go-get-em firecracker, through and through!)
Great post, though! It’s quite a nice, concise introduction to the system.
I’m not a D&D player, but I messed around with their morality alignment for my last book, when I needed to quickly characterize a large-ish group. It helped me immediately get a nice mix of personalities and possible motives.
I like that method! It’s very detailed and thorough and helps you get a deep understanding of characters and people.
Hi Katie, I’ve been reading your site for almost a year now, and I just can’t even say how much this has helped me! I have a few questions about trilogies. I am currently outlining a trilogy with an overreaching plot, like The Lord of the Rings, and I’m guessing that would mean the main structural beats would be scattered throughout. But does each book need its own set of plot points? And also, would it be alright not to introduce a couple of main characters that will be important in the climax until the beginning of the second book? They include the mentor, sidekick, and love interest. Thanks for your time!
Short answer is each book needs a complete structure of its own within the larger series. It’s okay to introduce important characters in the second book, but not optimal. At the least, it’s best to foreshadow them in the first book.
These posts might be helpful:
FAQ: How to Write Character Arcs in a Series
How to Outline a Series of Bestselling Books
Thanks, that helps a lot. And by the way, this was a great post! I’ve always been crazy about personality type theories. I think I’m a 3
As a fellow Three, I feel for you. 😉
No! Why did you do this to me!? I’m just starting to get a hang on the depths of Myers Brigg and now you pulverate my insatiable curiosity with this!
*moans*
I’m so sorry. I’m a three two. *Sticks hands in pockets and kicks a stone*
I wonder if the protagonist in Crime & Punishment was a three?
Hmm, been a long time since I’ve read that, but I think Rashkolnikov’s murderous motivations were less primal and personal than a Three might have been. His were more esoteric. A Four maybe?
Possibly. I’m really no enneagram expert. I was just wondering because he felt he needed to commit the murder to prove that he was a truly great human. It could be a three and four wing combination? Man, I really need to study enneagram.
Yeah, I recommend the books I’ve mentioned here. The Three’s descent to murder is more about protecting their image than anything.
I’m 2.5 years late to this comment, but as an enneagram enthusiast and someone who has read C+P at least half a dozen times, I am pretty confident that Raskolnikov is a 5w4.
A friend of mine conducts enneagram workshops, which (sadly!) I have yet to attend. It does sound intriguing, and likely worth the experience. The better we know ourselves, the better our character development will be.
You qualify your examples, which makes sense. Enneagrams aren’t likely intended to turn out cookie-cutter characters, with the author picking and choosing characteristics at random. And real people are far too complex for us to emulate perfectly as we build our characters. But I can see how enneagrams can be valuable in rounding out a character, focusing on building a few characteristics fully, and suggesting other characteristics that will support the primary ones by adding “seasoning” (and authenticity) to the whole personality.
So far in my writing, my characters seem to come to be fully developed, and my task has been to find out their individual facets for myself, in order to reveal them on the page. But no doubt I will eventually find myself in the middle of creating a story and will need something like enneagrams to discover who the characters are.
Back in the day before I really started studying personality systems, I resisted the idea of using them to type characters because I felt it would force them to conform rather than allowing them to evolve. I realize now that’s the difference between *imposing* a personality type on a character, versus letting their natural personality emerge and then identifying it.
This is very helpful. I’ve been trying to think through Enneagram for my characters, but it felt like I was skimming the surface or caught in the deep end without a paddle. Thanks for making it more manageable!
Riso’s book is great for delving deeper. Lots of helpful anchor points for character development.
I am highly suspicious of any “system” that tries to describe something as amorphous as personality into a specific number of types. They typically try to present themselves as science without the rigorous process of true science.
Nonetheless, I do find them useful for sparking legitimate questions when I try to develop character personalities. Some of my characters align with the “types,” while others are a bit of this and a bit of that. (Not to mention that some personality traits can change with situations. Professional life vs private life, anyone? Dealing with a parent vs dealing with a friend?)
I would encourage anyone using these “systems” to use them as loose guides so that you are ultimately the one in control.
Personality theory is just that: theory. It recognizes patterns and tries to interpret them in useful ways. I’ve found the various theories endlessly useful in helping me understand myself and others better. But I agree: you can’t shoehorn either people or characters into a system. It’s a tool, not a Magic 8 ball.
Sorry, this is a long comment, because I want to respond to almost everything in this post!
This is super-fascinating. I never got into the Enneagram because I didn’t get the internal workings of the system — where the numbers come from, how the types relate to each other, what exactly is the internal logic other than just identifying nine broad types and giving them numbers. I need to learn more because it looks like there is an internal logic. But I like that the Ennegram descriptions get more into the pathology — more “here’s how you’re broken,” while the MBTI is usually, “here’s what’s AWESOME about YOU.” Both are useful — there is something to putting a name to what already hurt. The Ennegram is so much more brutal about warning against dysfunction. I generally test as a Five, but the Four dysfunction is so much more painful to read, and you’re right that there’s some pointer to truth in that pained response.
I like that the Enneagram transcends the T/F dichotomy, which is often misleading, even if you know the MBTI system well. When I am developing characters, this is the biggest problem I have with trying to “box them in,” even though I know that that MBTI is not that simple and you can be a sensitive T or a tough F; you can do Ti in a way that looks like Fi, and Fe can be much more bureaucratic than Te.
The MBTI is (as you point out) better for taking apart than for constructing. For me characters usually start with a holistic idea, a flavor or image or something, and I have to color in the lines a little before there’s enough there to take apart. It feels more like discovering than deciding. And taking the vague idea of a person and deciding, “He’s a Ne-dom” feels a little artificial. But I am magicalizing the writing process a little, because of course these characters are “artificial” and I do construct them.
Have you looked at Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies? I thought that framework was extremely practical: https://gretchenrubin.com/2015/01/ta-da-the-launch-of-my-quiz-on-the-four-tendencies-learn-about-yourself/
The first big takeaway for me was that motivational/discipline tactics that work for other people are not necessarily going to work for me. I figured out that the best way for me to get things done is to work out personal rules that actually make sense and then follow them, because following them is the logical thing to do. Seems like an obvious insight, in retrospect, but it was helpful to think through it and realize that I don’t really respond to arbitrary outer expectations if they don’t make sense. And if I think an expectation does make sense, I can and should work out a system for meeting it. The second big takeaway was gaining a better understanding of what the world looks like to Obligers, my opposite type, so I know how to be nicer.
Thanks for the link! Looks interesting.
“The MBTI is (as you point out) better for taking apart than for constructing.”
Great way to put it. I will add that, in line with what you’re saying, I find all personality applications to character most helpful when I’m using them to examine already dimensional characters rather than trying to create a character from scratch to fit a particular box.
I love Eric’s reply and this is the way I handle my character’s development. Quite frankly, any personality test confuses me and gives me hives. Early in my writing journey, I took Laurie Campbell’s class on Enneagrams and while I tried to type my characters, they had a mind of their own and would buck at my type-casting. I gave up and just wrote the story and we all got along famously. Awesome podcast and article…one I’m certainly bookmarking and will use if and when my characters settle down and give me control.
Although I do tend to believe that all dimensional characters resonate with typology systems (in that all dimensional characters resonate with real-life patterns), I also think it’s ultimately difficult for authors to *truly* write characters whose minds work differently from their own. I tend to think this is one reason it’s hard for authors to type their own characters, because ultimately aren’t we just trying to type various aspects and projections of ourselves?
You are certainly right, Katie. This is why one of the most-asked questions of authors and writers is: Is this piece autobiographical?
I think the answer, inevitably, is yes. :p
This post has already been very helpful to me by reminding me of the Enneagram for personal use. I’m a Type 4 who’s been going through a period of stress, and after reading this post, I read more about my type, and the listed coping mechanisms prompted several “oh, dang” moments. 😛 So I’ll be using that knowledge to start being proactive instead of reactive in my personal growth.
I’m trying to edit my novel draft to more accurately reflect the protagonist’s emotional journey, which is a unique (though exciting) challenge when he is an ESTP male and I’m an INFP female – gender differences aside, those are completely opposite cognitive functions! My sister is an ESTP, but even that familiarity has limited applications for a character in a different world with different life experiences.
I can already see that using the Enneagram to type and analyze my protagonist and other important characters will help me stay consistent to their personality when describing their behavior and responses. As you noted, the Enneagram deals with the fears and internal conflicts that direct a character’s journey, which has direct bearing on the story itself, and in some cases knowing a character’s Enneagram type could be more important than knowing his/her MBTI type in making the story succeed. (By the way, I’m pretty sure my protagonist is a 7w8.) Thanks for all the helpful information; I’ll be referring back to this post for sure!
ESTP 7w8’s are my favorite. 😉
This information was published in 2015
How to Write Great Characters: The Key to Your Hero’s Growth and Transformation
by David Wisehart
Link: http://a.co/d/hCbYwGe
Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, they lifted it almost completely from David Wisehart.
They? The Enneagram system has been around for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years. Riso, who pioneered a lot of development in the theory, first published his book in 1987.
I stand corrected. There is no reference or acknowledgement to Riso in Wisehart’s book. It is nearly verbatim.
A lot of the credit for who thought of what in personality theory gets blurred along the way. Riso’s addition to the study, I believe, was particularly the 9 Levels of Development. The rest of the stuff has come down to us piecemeal through history. So it may have been that Wisehart was just discussing the same theoretical ideas and terms that Riso did and that many others have and will.
I like Myers-Briggs. It makes way more sense to me than any other system. I’m also the second rarest type, a female INTJ, and it’s the only thing that pegs every little thing about me and how my brain works. I truly don’t care what other people think about me and I’m not driven to achieve anything external. I’m almost entirely inward focused. Which is why I’ve nearly been run over by courtesy carts in airports multiple times.
I’ve been typed in the official paid Ennegram. Answering the questions was an exercise in frustration because nearly every single one of them both answers were a hell no for me and I had to pick the lesser of two evils. What it spit out at me is soooo not me that it’s almost funny. Even my family didn’t see me in it.
Because of that personal experience with it, I’ve never been able to dig into it or understand it. It just doesn’t make sense to me. MBTI, on the other hand, makes total sense. I operate so strongly out of my Ni (94% N) that I’m more likely to engage my Fi than I am my Te. Especially when it comes to characters. I was also raised by an ISFJ mom, and I think that made a big difference in how I access my functions.
I now have the skills, as a mature INTJ with a handle on my Fi, that I can mine my own feelings and pull out all kinds of stuff that logically doesn’t make sense to my Te. But it works with my characters because I always get strong reactions from readers.
It clearly works for me, so I’m going to keep at it.
Since my I is also in the 90’s, I almost exclusively write introverts. That sort of defining makes total sense to me, whereas the Ennegram–that lacks that dimension–leaves me confused.
As an INTJ woman myself, I would point at that though the INTJ is the second rarest of the MBTI personalities, the INTJ female is by far the rarest. 🙂 Though there are a lot of us in the writing world!
I would also say that the not caring “what people think” or about “external achievements” isn’t always intrinsic to the INTJ. The Enneagram plays a huge role in how that manifests.
I would say, based solely on what you’ve mentioned here, that you seem like an Enneagram Five, which is the most common Enneagram for INTJs. I, however, as a Three absolutely do care what people think and about achieving external successes. For a long time, I felt weird about this. “I’m an INTJ. I shouldn’t care about this stuff!” But after studying my Enneagram type, it all makes sense why I don’t fit a lot of the INTJ expectations.
Actually no. I typed as a 6w5. It couldn’t be more wrong. I’m none of those things, and have never been any of those things at any point in my life. Yes, I have trust issues now as an adult, but they’re 100% caused by a bad marriage and it only extends to certain types of men. Not in general. I have zero issues with self-doubt or lack of confidence, I don’t get anxious or worry about things and never have.
Even when I look up the Defender description, it’s still not me. The only part of it that fits me is the observing people and environment part. I don’t have a desire to deconstruct systems. I’m more interested in building ones that work for me. I don’t get involved in stuff, I’m no one’s champion, nor do I identify with people or groups or systems. Other than being an INTJ or a follower of the Curly Girl Method. I don’t fully understand the concept of loyalty in my personal life either. I’m also one of the least insecure people you’ll ever meet.
The motivations for all of those descriptions leave me scratching my head at why anyone would even care, let alone allow it to drive what they do.
I do fit most of the INTJ stuff, with the exception of my being more creative as opposed to understanding math. I’m also not a plotter in any way, shape, or form. That kind of structure shuts me down. It extends into the rest of my life too. I have a hard line for how much structure is too much, and it’s a lot lower than most expect.
Like I said, on all but maybe three or four questions, both answers were a hell no from me. I wouldn’t do either of them and I had to pick the one I found least objectionable. I’ve never done well in either/or. I need multiple choice or sliding scale stuff for any system to actually get me.
I do things for personal satisfaction and truly don’t care what anyone else thinks about me. I’ve always been that way for the most part. I tell people Dobson’s The Strong-Willed Child was written about me.
Sounds like you’re just really healthy and centered. 🙂
One thing I will add is that I hate personality tests. Particularly with MBTI, I find they test wrong about 50% of the time (as one example, my brother who is absolutely an INTP originally tested INTJ). If you’re struggling with the Enneagram simply because of a test’s questioning format, I would recommend looking at the system more holistically.
Or leave it alone. That’s cool too. 😉
Some of the free MBTI tests are more accurate than others. My result is consistent enough that I’m confident in it. And digging more into it was like somebody studied me.
Yeah, that’s how I felt when I discovered Myers-Briggs as well. And now the Enneagram as well.
I’m a four, I think, right down to considering suicide– a LOOOOOOng time ago. At this point, meh, I’m good.
I’m in the 2nd half of the outline for the 1st draft of my first novel. It’ll be interesting to take just this general information to the characters and see what changes might be made in the first edit.
Love your blog, Katie. It’s been my guide for much of this year and this draft. Just when I think I’m ready to write, there’s more “research” and outlining to do. But, I’m on it, now. Eager to type “The End” well before Christmas. 😉
I’m Three with a strong Four wing. I have a feeling there a lot of creative Fours around here. 🙂 Glad you’re in a better place these days!
Eh, I’ve been classed as an INTJ/ISTJ before, but I never took it too seriously because I am no mastermind type. I can’t be bothered to take over the world, and I’m allergic to cats, which are required pets for a mastermind trying to take over the world. Hollywood says so 🙂
About the most I’ve ever used is the Dungeons & Dragons alignment mentioned above … but mainly when analyzing other people’s characters. For example, Robin Hood is often slotted into Chaotic Good (characterized as a person who would waylay the evil baron’s tax collectors), and Lawful Good is usually thought of as someone who slavishly obeys authority.
But a case could be made that Robin is Lawful Good to the proper authority (King Richard) but is Chaotic Good when dealing with usurpers of lawful authority (King John and the Sheriff of Nottingham). I thought Danai Gurira’s character in “Black Panther” was a good example of a Lawful Good character who is duty bound to serve an evil ruler who happens to be the lawful authority. I like such an archetype in such situations; in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I played a Light Sider working for the Empire. It was fun!
But I approach the personality/characterization from a different angle. I’ve always had an interest in “anti-social personality disorders” — previously called psychopaths and sociopaths. That led me to the Hare Psychopath Test, created by Dr. Robert Hare. It’s a list of personality traits common to serial killers and the like. The thing about it is that a lot of not-nice people have those traits, too, but Hare stresses that it’s a question of degree and quantity. A person who tells blatant lies doesn’t have to be a serial killer, but they will make for a terrible boss/girlfriend/brother. You could get some good villains out of that test.
I’ve also looked into people who stay in abusive relationships — hint, the abuser doesn’t usually start with the punching — and people who join cults. There’s a lot of overlap between abusers and cult leaders. For one thing they both like to isolate their victims. Your character who stops seeing her Best Friend Forever because the BFF’s boyfriend is such a jerk is actually playing into the boyfriend’s hands: he wants the BFF to be without a support system. The actions of the abuser/cult leader also tie into the conditions for the Stockholm Syndrome, a phenomenon that is readily reproduced. What’s even more insidious are the ways that basic biology may tether a victim to the abuser.
Bottom line, when writing of people in such scenarios, don’t assume the character must be stupid or weak. Real life people in those situations aren’t necessarily any different than other people.
I also like to explore the traits of normal people who survive extraordinary circumstances. There’s a paper somewhere about Admiral Stockdale, a former POW who talked about the differences in outlook between those who survived captivity, and those who didn’t. One was that it was important to not set a deadline on when you’d be free. The people who believed they would eventually be free did better. The people who believed they’d be free by Christmas … by Easter … by summer were more likely to suicide, or just break upon reaching those milestones and finding themselves still in captivity. A good setup for the “dark moment of the soul” in your plot points.
These are just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re resistant to Myers-Briggs or Enneagrams, at least consider exploring psychological factors from the angle of “type of person in a type of scenario.” It can make for more realistic characters and juicier conflicts.
Great stuff here. Ultimately, what personality theory provides is a structure for studying aspects of psychology, development, personality, and trauma–among other things. It’s certainly not the only way to approach any of these topics, and indeed I believe *should* eventually lead to a deeper study of all its aspects.
I actually start character building with archetypes. I understand those, how to use them, how to mix them up. And I can layer in MBTI traits too. But I don’t rely on MBTI, or any other personality typing system for that matter.
When I started using archetypes is when I started writing characters who feel real to people other than me. There’s room for so much variation.
Thanks for pointing this out to us. I can see how it will help. The “ultimate end” chart is a great tool for getting villains fleshed out. K., you rock!
Glad you found it useful! 🙂
Yep! I came across enneagrams a few years ago and decided to give my characters a personality test. It helped me figure out a few things about my MC that I hadn’t quite gotten nailed down, and gave me some ideas on how my characters should respond to each other. Most interesting was that I used the test after I’d written the first draft and discovered that the characters were (mostly) behaving according to their personality types. But this helped me stay on track.
Unfortunately the website I used to take the test doesn’t seem to be active any more.
I totally recommend reading the books. Tests are fun in their place, but ultimately provide a pretty limited overview of the system. The books offer a much deeper, more holistic overview of the whole theory. You’ll get to a place where you won’t need a test to figure out your characters’ types.
Great article – I was like you in a way when I discovered it – I thought I was a ‘cool’ 3 with all the achieving and that fit me really well, then I read the 5 and went “oh oh, that’s a little too close to home” lol.
I’ve just started applying it to characters and that really helps – looking forward to reading that book – the road back to you.
Hah. Our experiences are mirror images. 😉
Sorry for the duplication — I used the wrong e-mail for WordPress, the first time.
The nice thing about the D&D system, in my opinion, is that it is not an either-or (you must be one or the other) system. It allows characters to be middle of the road in one axis or the other (or even both). My problem with MBTI (and its kin) is that I know I test out very even on one axis, thus do not fall into a corner. Of course, that would be easy enough to fix, but …
Thank you for your post. I had known about the Enneagram, but had not considered using it. You provided enough information to make it useful, yet did not overwhelm us. I just spent the last few hours running through 17 character sketches for a novel I am plotting for a class, expanding 14 of them using material. In about half the cases, one of the nine types worked; in the other half, I made a composite. Either way, very helpful (thank you again).
Let me add. you read that very well. No umms, ahhs, or other fillers, good vocal variety, a pleasure to listen to. I wish more people would practice their speaking skills (you obviously have).
Glad you enjoyed the post–and the podcast–Gary!
I prefer the Myers-Briggs, but a lot of that is because I was carefully introduced to it by a professional psychologist, who taught me how to administer the written test and score it.
However, I did a breakdown of the Enneagram system for my writers’ group this spring, so I had to do an intense crash course in it. I wound up building a 3-d model as part of my powerpoint presentation, so I could demonstrate healthy or deteriorating behaviors.
I found the “stacks” part of this incredibly illuminating, personally, and have found ways to apply this with characters very different from myself. Writing from a perspective other than my own has taken some time, but it’s doable. There’s a trick to it.
Thanks for this, it’s good to know where to get a better summation of the Enneagram than what I had to work with. 🙂
That 3-D model sounds awesome!
Do you want me to share it with you?
Sure! I’d love to see it.
The first time I heard about the Enneagram was while playing the video game Xenogears, a PS1 RPG highly praised for its story. The creator (Tetsuya Takahashi) relied heavily on the Enneagram to write his characters, which made them believable and multi-dimensional. He had never published a novel or anything before nor did he study/practice writing extensively, yet he created one the deepest, most engrossing stories in the whole medium of gaming. The Enneagram really allows you to understand people and yourself, which in turn helps you write better characters.
That’s interesting!
Thanks for this–I’m going to check out one of the books you recommend. I adore psychology–it’s where my education and work experience lie–and my protagonist is a research psychologist. No surprise, I also love considering psychology when developing characters. I’ve never looked into this before, but I’m looking forward to it!
Fun! Enjoy. 🙂
Interestingly enough (to me anyway), I found a used book at the library a couple of weeks ago, titled The Enneagram Made Easy by Renee Baron and Elizabeth Wagele. It’s a very simplified, illustrated introduction to the subject, with questions and lists. An easy and quick initiation to the subject.
I thought it would be great to use for character identification and development, but I see I’m way behind the curve. I agree with you, though, that it would be difficult for an author to “truly” write another type. Great article. Thanks!
That was the first book I read on the Enneagram. In all honesty, it made zero sense to me. :p Maybe it was just me, but if you don’t like that particular book, don’t stop there!
Thanks for this excellent post/overview on the Enneagram, Ms. Weiland! I love reading about the MBTI system and found that I’m a female INTJ myself ;), and I’m quite certain that I’m a Three as well. (Hmm… is that why I find your posts so relevant and communicated in a way that I totally understand and agree with every time?!) Is there a good test you recommend for determining the Enneagram?
I’m def. going to apply this to my characters. And, yes I do find this system to be simpler for typing characters than the MBTI!
BTW, would you say that Sherlock from the BBC adaptation is a type 3 or 5?
Thanks!
I discovered recently that there are ton of INTJs who read my stuff. Makes sense. :p
As I mentioned in another comment, I’m not a big fan of tests for personality typing. They tend to oversimplify things and are only as accurate as the taker’s ability to analyze themselves at the given moment. From what I’ve seen, Enneagram tests seem to be a little better than MBTI tests, but I don’t have one I’d recommend. I think it’s much better to read the info and get a holistic view of the whole system before typing yourself.
As for Sherlock, I don’t watch the show, so couldn’t personally say. But a Tumblr I follow types characters according to both MBTI and the Enneagram. She’s got him as a 5w6.
Hello Ms.Weiland..
Primarily I write to ask about your Tumblr experience (you follow someone there). My daughter works at Tumblr and I want to use the platform…is there a writers community, or what? (I’ve just started using r/Write at Reddit). Other communities?
I’ve only just recently been perusing your posts.
I’m deep into a 3rd or 4th edit of my first fictional (story/novel?)
And know nothing about anything. The story wrote itself with the help of the characters. So everything is interesting and, well confusingly due to lack of experience and knowledge. It’s all a bit overwhelming you know?
I found you looking for ways to reverse outline (need to find a way to navigate 41 Chapters/112K words to stabilize chronologies)
Thanks for what you do.
Jacks
Welcome, Michael! I don’t really use Tumblr. I didn’t even know I had an account! So I’m afraid I’m not much help there. I don’t spend time on community forums anymore. A while back, I collected some links to sites that focus on critique partners, so you might find something here: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/find-your-next-beta-reader/
Thank you for this post! It is really helpful. Your comments about Myers-Briggs are spot on. Its widespread use suggests in industry that some really knowledgeable people have assessed it as a very useful tool. Unfortunately, I am not one of those really knowledgeable people. I need something which is more accessible. I read about the Enneagram in your book Creating Character Arc but chose to start with Myers-Briggs as a possible character-building tool. Aim high, I thought. I missed. I will definitely be reading The Road Back to You and Personality Types. Thank you again for this and your other posts! You put a lot of work into them and we all benefit from it!
The Enneagram is a very deep system. It’s just as deep, if not more so, than Myers-Briggs (although, for the most part, dealing with totally different aspects of personality than Myers-Briggs). However, I do think the Enneagram has a much simpler entry point than Myers-Briggs. It’s pretty intuitive, whereas Myers-Briggs requires some figuring out before you have a foundation on which to base further discovery.
Hi Katie,
Another interesting post, but a subject I have deliberately put on the back burner while I complete the plot for the whole book. I have characters of course, my main ensemble created for a particular purpose and role, while the secondary characters assist or otherwise as needed. At the back of my mind, I intend to go back for another draft and concentrate on character then, but my question is, if it would be possible to create a well-rounded character, with a proper changing arc, with feelings and emotions and actions, that is all dictated by their role in the story, by the environment they live in, and by the people they interact with. For instance, the grumpy and devious hen in the coop that is sick and tired of still being second-peck. Her motives are clear from her position, her change-arc can see her become head-peck, and therefore perhaps, less grumpy, or alternatively see her drop in the rankings and become suicidal or even murderous.
My point is, cannot the story dictate a character’s make-up organically and not have it imposed on them before-hand, just by being part of the plot?
Cheers!
If you’re asking whether a character’s surroundings can create the Lie that drives their character, then absolutely. The Normal World is often the catalyst, or at least a symbol, of the causes behind the character’s foundational Lie.
Count me in on the Enneagram changing my life. By changing the way I looked at personality of family and friends (can’t say enough about how it blew my mind and made life easier). Hopefully it helped me create better characters for readers.
More books I love are “The Enneagram Made Easy” by Rener Baron (really fun starting point, with cartoons!) and “Believable Characters: Creating with Enneagrams” by Laurie Schnebly.
PS: I’m a classic #5 who became a librarian. Perfect typecasting. And then a writer, also a good match for an Observer type.
Thanks for the book suggestions! Another book I’ve got on my list is The Complete Enneagram by Beatrice Chestnut. I believe she gets more into the tritypes, which I’m eager to learn about.
Haha! What timing for this post. I have just been working my way through “Outlining Your Novel,” again, and literally last night I read the following:
“In general, I’m not a fan of using personality tests to flesh out characters … However, because of its simplicity, I occasionally utilise the enneagram…”
I’m going to take this as one of those coincidental moments in life where you get a few points, and maybe just look at my characters through the enneagram, just to see what insights I pull out of it.
Yeah, I originally wrote in OYN that I disliked MBTI. That’s obviously gone by the wayside as I’ve learned more about it. 😉
I have not heard of the Enneagram. I think I will get a copy of the books you recommended and start studying. Sounds interesting and maybe an easier way to create a character. Thank you for the information. 🙂
Be careful. Personality theory is a deep rabbit hole. 😉
I love the Enneagram! I first encountered it as a way to type characters, too. It’s amazingly simple but can also be very complex and in-depth. Studying it has given me huge insights into my own personality as well as the people around me. I totally agree with your article and I may buy the books you mentioned.
Totally. I’m looking forward to studying it even more.
Really interesting tool for character development. I particularly like the Enneagram Lies and am keeping the list nearby. Thank you for sharing this information!
Glad it was handy! It’s definitely something I’m going to be referring to regularly in my next outline.
I was wondering if you might know what the most common Myers Briggs types are for writers.
The INFX types are very common–INFP and INFJ. After that, probably INTJ. But there are lots of ENXPs (consensus seems to be that G.R.R. Martin and Terry Pratchett are ENTPs) as well. Of course, there are writers of all the other types, but from what I’ve seen, those seem to be the most common.
Thanks. I’m an infj.
You’re in good company here. 🙂
Based on reading about the types, I think I should be a 9 (Peacemaker), but the online test I took put me as a 5 (Investigator), which I can’t argue with. I think i made my last main character a 5, also. This is a really interesting subject – thank you for your detailed introduction to it!
Ultimately, the Enneagram deals with fears that motivate us. So the best way to be sure is to look back surface descriptions (unlike what I did when I originally thought I was a Five!) and dig down to the true motivations.
I have always considered Myers-Briggs to have a chauvinistic bent. I subsequently studied the Enneagram and now I am even more convinced of M-B’s inherent bias. But then again, I am an Enneagram 5, so I’m suspicious of those M-B bastards anyway. 🙂
How so?
Does a flat arc character need a mentor? My protagonist is already on board with the story’s thematic truth, but say, he ain’t perfect, and I think he could use a “guide” in other aspects of his journey…..just wondering. (Sorry to ask so many questions in one day).
Not thematically. Technically, the Flat-Arc protagonist will be a Mentor archetype to other changing characters.
I have never bought in to Meyers-Briggs. I’ve taken it formally (through employers) three times and informally (once with a workbook through church, once online through church, and three times online on my own, because I was so befuddled at there not being One Type for me. I just feel that if I test differently each time I take it, it’s not all that valid. Then, too, none of the types seem completely me.
In a marriage counseling session 12 years ago, my minister mentioned the Enneagram and it intrigued me enough to buy Personality Types and read it. Paid for the full online test — and fully agree with the results. (I’m a Six. TOTALLY a Six. No question about it, oh dang, really a Six. With a Five-Wing.) Over the years I have made so many notes in the original copy that I had to buy a second one. Spouse is the Eightiest Eight I have ever met. My mother is the Epitome of Two (GUILT!!!); so is one of my sisters-in-law. The other SIL is so (unhealthy) Three that I have difficulty in conversations with her. My kids? A Five with a Six-wing, a Nine with an Eight-wing, and (oh dear Lord help me please) an Eight with a Nine-wing.
The Lie is always helpful in characterization.
My family are also all different numbers (and all different MBTI types too, interestingly enough). The variety provides plenty of opportunity for study!
I’m very interested in the Enneagram and the personality traits and fails. My characters rap on the inside of my head and tell me their back stories, life histories and I pick out the lies and half truths and the real reasons they won’t e.g. go into a closet at night, lol. Thank you for a fantastic post.
Yes, once you know your characters, I find it’s actually super easy to immediately identify their Enneagram.
Hi Katie,
I’m glad you’ve raised this, and I’ll definitely read those books you mention.
I’ve been considering the enneagram for a few years and a it seems to me that the Perfectionist/Improver is synonymous with Steve Pressfield’s ‘Pro’, and the Enthusiast type is his ‘Amateur’. Dontcha think?
But also I think it should be a ‘decagram’ because there’s a tenth type – what I call the ‘Experiencer’. She fears boredom, and desires experiences and novelty, and her vices are avarice, always needing more, amorality, and impracticality. This one is different from the Romantic/Individualist, because that one desires significance, fears mundaneity, and is envious of others’ experiences. And it’s different from the Enthusiast, because she fears disappointment, her vice is excess and dissipating time on trivia, and her desire is simply pleasure/enjoyment.
It seems to me that the Experiencer has really been missed from this system.
Grateful for your thoughts…
Peter
Interesting. To me, what you’re describing as the Experiencer doesn’t sound incompatible with the Enthusiast type.
I am writing about Lina or Coralina who is Leilani granddaughter a young goddess who is also a mermaid who does not an arranged marriage but will have one since she is going to marry Dylin a merman a mortal. This story is going to maybe have for three books. Lina is the oldest and two sisters who is some times headstrong.
The only fear she has if time was stopped or it was frozen or if her grandma was not around.
I have about eighteen characters for this story. In your books is there a special thing or celebration your character does?
Hmm, not that I can think of.
*winces and raises hand* 4w5…
I so did NOT need another personality thing to study! *runs around in circles clutching her head**glumly puts books on her ‘to read’ list*
One of the reasons I love MBTI is that it’s a dissection that seeks to find the roots of your actions. Looks like this could be more of a diagnosis that tries to understand your roots /by/ your actions. I like it. They complement each other well.
That’s what I would have guessed for you. 🙂 My INFP brother is also a 4w5.
Several INFPs I know are also. 😉
This is so interesting. Recently, my husband and I had a little fun Myers-Briggs typing ourselves, kids, and family. So many things made sense! I had never heard of the Enneagram, although the chart looks familiar. I love the idea of using it to map, make sense of, and plan my characters’ growth and change, as well as understanding their dynamics with other characters. Thank you for pointing me in this intriguing direction!
The Enneagram coincides nicely with MBTI. They’re not so much competing systems as complementary ones.
That should help me stay on track. I like your series about Flat- Arc characters. It’s a good reminder that Impact characters might “change,” but never thematically. Like Frodo Baggins.
I love Flat-Arc characters. They can be extremely inspiring.
I find that enneagram and MBTI are most useful in concert when developing characters. Initially I found the MBTI baffling and was drawn to the enneagram, because its core hopes/fears paradigm is so wonderfully suited to giving each character a “big want”. Now I like to use them together. The enneagram supplies the “what” and the MBTI fleshes out the “how”. MBTI is quite helpful in branching out and diversifying the way I make characters approach challenges and problem-solving.
For all intents and purposes, I got into MBTI first as well. It informs a lot of my thinking these days, so it would be all but impossible to create characters without referring to it in some measure!
Thank you for this useful and informative post, and for the book recommendations to learn more about Enneagrams.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’m so happy that the enneagram is getting some love within the writing community! It’s a really interesting and accurate personality system. My mom is a certified teacher on the enneagram, and the first time I found out my type, I was devastated and cried literal rivers. But after accepting it, it has transformed my life and been so helpful.
Another interesting thing is that every personality type also has a specific body language, co-relating with their view of themselves and their core beliefs of the world around them. There is a danish dance-instructor who has specified in research on it and I went on a day-long course with her to learn more. After watching me move across the room for two minutes, she pointed to me and told me she knew exactly what type I was. She was right.
The body-language thing is fascinating. Do you have a link to or know of a book on the subject?
I’m such a nerd for systems like this. Thanks for pointing this one out.
Me too. They’re endlessly fascinating.
I had a similar experience and spent the last 2 years digging into the subject. I eventually abandoned Type theory for a number of reasons not just because Psychologists have abandoned it for Trait theory, or that there is no scientific support for it, (the 5-factor trait model does enjoy some–though not unqualified–support) but because the category of behaviors associated with any given type are largely arbitrary and inconsistent and because type theory fails to explain the reasoning behind the behaviors.
Lately I’ve had a growing interested in Cognitive Appraisal theory–particularly the various offshoots of Dietrich Dörner’s Psi-theory. I particularly like some of the experimental frameworks like Joscha Bach’s MicroPsi (I have an entire directory his papers.) Throw in French and Raven’s theory of social power (particularly as integrated in the SAPIENT model) And you start to get something like personality types that are not merely descriptive but better grounded in how people think and how thoughts determines behavior.
I spent my Friday afternoon reading up on the subject. It is three hours later and the sun’s setting soon. What kind of rabbit hole did you send me down to?? 🙂
*evil plan is working* 😉
Wow this sounds interesting. I was introduced to MyersBrigg by a friend a while back, and used it for some of my characters, but I’ve never heard of this. I might look into this!
Have fun! 🙂
Amazing! I will definitely research this more. Are you familiar with Vanessa Van Edwards’ book Captivate and her website, thescienceofpeople.com? I just recently found her book and its summaries of different personality systems really insightful and practical for writing characters and real life applications. Enjoy. . . ;-D
I’ll check it out!
Enneagrams have always confused me … I did some reading tonight (just internet articles, etc.) just for myself (it would probably take me a while to figure it out enough to use on characters/others, haha). My first instinct was “I’m type 8.” I took a test online and got 8w7, which seems about right. But I don’t know; I’m not terribly upset yet, so that can’t be right! 😛
Sooo … on to do some more research! If I could figure this out, it would sure be a helpful tool, especially since I can struggle with realistic character arcs from time to time. They look fine on my head, but translating them to paper is the hard part. 😉
Apparently I’m a type 4, which happens to be painfully true. It doesn’t feel right to admit these things to yourself, but after doing it, if revealed an interesting facet about my person which I would never have thought about before. Thank you Katie for suggesting the Enneagram. I’m sure it will come in handy as a guideline to add strength to my characters.
I discovered the Enneagram in 1994 and it changed the way I wrote my characters.I’m delighted to see you’ve written an article about it.
This is really interesting. I always have a tough time writing a bad guy because, well, I don’t think like a bad guy (I am, after all, a good guy) 🙂
A while back I took a similar profile, for a job, called Life Languages. It focuses on how people communicate, but it has, I think, similar flavors (Mover, Doer, Influencer, Responder, Shaper, Producer, Contemplator). I’ve been trying to use that for character development. I’ll look more into Enneagrams and see if they compliment Life Languages.
So I have a question about working with a critique partner who is a 3 with a 4 wing. Since I know you’re a 3, I thought you would have some great insight.
When my critique parter is at his best, his comments are insightful and supremely helpful. Like the lowest level of a healthy three, he’s very geared toward self-development as a writer, and so he’s equalling “willing to help others attain the qualities he embodies.” Which is perfect, right? Since he’s already helped make me a better writer through lots of investment of time and energy.
I’m a 5 with a strong 4 wing, like basically 50/50. Which, of course, makes me perceptive and insightful, but also paranoid, sensitive and hyper self critical. So I don’t know if I can trust or discount my intuition on this, but a pattern has started to emerge in our critique sessions. When I get on a roll, and send him really good work, he first says, “Wow! You’re writing is incredible.” I could never produce work like that on first draft.
But…
Then something ends up being “wrong” with my story in such a profound way I’m forced to go back and edit from the beginning. As a 5 I take his feedback and immediately doubt all my decisions, panic for a while, hate myself for messing up, and then buckle down with an intent to improve. I tear through my story with the vengeance of a demon, shredding everything.
After devouring Personality Types this weekend, I was able to, for the first time objectively observe this pattern. Then, once I categorized my critique parter as a 3 with a 4 wing, I can’t help but wonder if he’s beginning to act out of jealousy and malice then subconsciously trying to sabotage me by holding me back to the same place he’s at in order to keep me from finishing my novel first, or what would be worse I think in his mind would be if I wrote a “better” novel.
Of course, with my own tendencies to be paranoid and constantly second-guess myself, not to mention the general struggle to finish work and ever get it out into the world, how do I continue this relationship in a way that helps me continue to improve, without succumbing to crippling self-doubt and constant disassembling of my story whenever I get feedback that doesn’t immediately make me feel as though I’ve made ALL the right choices?
I can only speak from my own limited experience with the Enneagram and my own understanding and observation of the 3w4 from my perspective of being one. I cannot, of course, speak to this person’s motivations or level of personal awareness or health.
I don’t think that I have ever over-criticized someone’s else’s work out of jealousy.
However, it’s possible I could fit some of these patterns, to the eye of the observer, simply because I am opinionated and critical enough to take someone’s story apart on a “profound” level, while at the same time trying effusively hard to balance it out by also emphasizing (even maybe over-emphasizing) the good.
I can’t dial it down when I perceive something is wrong with a story, but I really, really don’t want to hurt people’s feelings or make them feel badly about their work. This is a good trait to a point, but can become unbalanced. I could see how maybe I could sometimes confuse people by seeming to project two different attitudes simultaneously. It’s not that either attitude isn’t genuine; it’s just that they’re motivated by very different feelings.
I can’t say whether or not this rings true for all 3s, but I could see how it might be.
I would suggest approaching your CP with your concerns. Be honest about the difficulties of the relationship. If it’s a good relationship, he’ll move toward fixing the problems. If not, move on.
This is one of the most useful things about character development that I have discovered so far. Many thanks for writing it and explaining it so well. I’m definitely a 7 on the ennergram – I work hard but keep popping over to the fridge!
So, I took this quick 5 minute test out of curiosity.
https://enneagramtest.net/
And, the results were inconclusive. It threw up 3 types, a 9, a 6 and a 5, and basically said read the descriptions and figure it out yourself. Well, as you might suspect, some elements in each type rang true, and others did not.
I often get these kinds of results from personality tests. I once took one on a dating site and the result said that only 5% answered the way I did, so sorry, we won’t be able to find a match for you. At least that explained some of my struggles finding the right match! It’s science, don’t you know! Perhaps that’s my number 5 cynical nature…
Maybe I need to create a character that defies all classification? If you match 3 types, you really don’t match any, and are a type all your own. But, I’m content being a peacemaker, loyalist, and investigator. But it does mean I have 3 times the strengths and 3 times the weaknesses of the average mortal. That’s almost superhero status!
But then again, superpowers in peacemaking and loyalty are not all that flashy and exciting, so perhaps, I’m “blessed with suck”?
I suspect, for me, the enneagram is a better tool for writing fiction than for real life. But, one of the benefits of my peacemaking superpower is that I find it natural to put myself in another’s place and understand his/her perspectives. That’s not all that sucky, for a writer…
I laughed after reading your comment because my best friend is 100% a 9, but got these same results (9, 4, 7, and a dash of 5) scattered all over the place. What happened for her was that as a healthy 9, she was observing the world around her and taking from whatever she saw working. 9s are the best at adapting, and therefore the hardest to type! In fact, 9s will often give up on the enneagram in frustration because outwardly, they exhibit so many different traits, but inwardly, they don’t want to upset their inner balance, their harmony, and dive deep into their gut-level fears and desires (which are often repressed). Also, I am a 5w4, and I was painfully determined to figure her out (which is text-book for my personality). The sense of relief and joy I got when I realized she was indeed a 9 was almost absurd. So I think the enneagram works very well in real life, but it also requires a willingness to dive deep (go beyond the 5 minute tests). Once I typed myself and my friend, lots of things started to make sense, and I can see how I might grow (or devolve) according to my levels of development. Very interesting stuff, and worth the work, in my opinion! Give this page a read – it’s what helped me click with my friend: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/misidentifying-5-and-9
Thanks for a great post. I don’t quite understand how you come up with the basic lie of Type 7 (I can’t count on people to be there for me.). Where does this come from and what is the base for it? Thanks a lot for your answer.
Sevens pursue outer-world stimulation as a way to “run away” from inner-world fears, particularly those of being abandoned.
K.M., your blog and books are wellsprings of invaluable information for the writer! Thank you so much for sharing your experience and knowledge! God bless.
Oof. That Lie for Type 5. “I don’t believe I’m competent enough to handle the demands of life”. Describes me perfectly.
I’m not kidding. When I was ten years old, I read articles about how to get scholarships and avoid credit card debt and I always wondered how adults could do all that paperwork and confusing stuff.
Oomf, I finally got around to typing myself after using this for my characters in my current WIP. After writing lots of 8’s I was worried that I was projecting a little… I scored a 6 and after the pain of being called out went away I realised that I’m definitely projecting, just not the way I thought.
K.M. I always enjoy reading your posts and advice. During a writer’s club meeting yesterday, we discussed using the Enneagram philosophy to build better characters in fiction (along with using the Archetype to develop characters). I browsed Amazon for books on Enneagram and found several with 4.7 and above stars on reviews, and don’t want to spend too much money. In your opinion, are most of these useful to adapt to developing characters in fiction (v. finding out the true “me?” 🙂 Thanks in advance.
I would start with The Road Back to You, linked in the post. From there, Beatrice Chestnut’s The Complete Enneagram is great.
Traditional Chinese medicine has five elements and five types I am the water type I forget the Chinese term for that. I might have commented in the past old age and forgetfulness. I think in the Bible there is reference to types one reference I think is the five types. I think a proper understanding of the Bible would include reincarnation and that the shed blood of Jesus will eventually redeem everyone including the demons..
In terms of Brigg’s types combined with enneagram types I’m an infj with aa enneagram four.. a site claimed that one might never meet such a type in their whole lifetime🙄😎
I remember the Chinese term for the water type shao yin