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The Enneagram for Character Writing
Patterns exist everywhere — in nature, in our environment, and in just about anything if you look hard enough. People aren’t excluded from this either. Human nature is a thread that connects us all, so we all have similar traits and the same blood running through our bodies.
As a writer, I recognize that these patterns can be helpful in creating characters. When first looking into it, I stumbled across the 16 personality MBTI types, and I thought that was what the enneagram was. The 16 personalities cast a wider net while enneagram focuses on one of the most important things in writing, the core motivation of your main character, that internal struggle they go through. The enneagram allows for more freedom when creating characters because it gives you a jumping-off point. I found this really helpful in this ghostwriting project I’m doing because I was having trouble getting my client to give me motivation for their character, and having these nine categories as a jumping-off point was really helpful, especially since most information on the types show what these types look like at their worst and their best. One of the best things about this style is that it answers the big questions.
How do the characters see themselves?
How do the characters see each other?
