Character Building with the Enneagram

A few weeks ago, I attended a workshop on the Enneagram, a method for analyzing personalities. Although the Enneagram is intended to help you understand yourself and the people around you, it also makes a great character-building tool for writers. Here are a few steps to get started using it.

1. Determine your character’s primary personality type (1 through 9). You can find more detailed descriptions of each type at the Enneagram Institute.

Example: My main character is primarily driven by fear and worry. She mistrusts others, feels insecure, and acts preemptively to prevent negative outcomes. This led me to peg her as a 6.

2. Find her governing center of intellect. Types 2, 3, and 4 are governed by the heart (feelings, emotions); 5, 6, and 7 are governed by the head (thinking, logic); and 8, 9, and 1 are governed by the gut (instinct, visceral reactions). Your character’s center of intellect will inform how she reacts to the events of the plot.

Example: My main character’s center of intellect is the head. She overthinks everything, always planning for the worst-case scenario, spending more time worrying about the future than living in the present. She rarely trusts her instincts or emotions, choosing to suppress them in favor of reason and logic.

3. Find her basic motivators. Knowing your character’s basic desire (green) and basic fear (red) will give you valuable insight into what drives her. When you’re unsure what she should do next, just remember that she’ll generally try to achieve this desire and avoid this fear.

Example: My main character’s basic desire is security. Her basic fear is lack of support or guidance, which in her mind is necessary to stay safe.

4. Find her growth and stress points. These are other personality types that represent the extreme ends of her personality spectrum. When her primary personality traits spiral out of control, she shifts to her stress point (purple arrows). When her traits are channeled in a positive direction, her growth point results (green arrows).

Example: My character, the 6, is governed by fear and worry. At the beginning of the novel, these traits have spiraled into type 3 (her stress point). Her fear is so strong that she attempts to ignore or rationalize legitimate threats; she becomes a chameleon, desperate to convince herself and others that she’s someone she’s not while ignoring her true feelings. On the other hand, toward the end of the novel she shifts to a 9 (her growth point). She is finally able to accept herself, relinquish her fear, and relax.

5. Brainstorm past wounds. What could have happened in the character’s backstory to shape her personality type? This could be a single traumatic event or a lifelong relationship with a parent or guardian.

Example: My main character lost her best friend as a teenager, and she blames herself for her friend’s death. Now she is constantly doubting herself, worried about hurting someone else she loves, and feeling lost and insecure.

6. Don’t pigeonhole your character. Most people exhibit elements of multiple personality types. Choosing one primary type can help you narrow down your character’s traits and make her feel more cohesive, but incorporating elements of other types will make her well-rounded.

Example: My main character is primarily a 6, but she also has traits of a 4. She feels unique and, as a result, misunderstood and isolated. Dissatisfied with her present life, she fixates on the “better days” of the past. Over the course of the story, this element of her personality will become more pronounced as she learns to let go of her fear and accept herself the way she is.

The Enneagram isn’t the only way to develop characters, but it may be a useful tool in your writing toolbox. If you have other suggestions for character building, share them in the comments below!