Enneagrams for Character Development

Greetings, internetizens! Soooooo today I have some writing stuff.

In the past, I’ve used worksheets for character development. Basically, you lay out your character traits: name, appearance, stuff they like, stuff they don’t like, tidbits about their past and their family, etc.

Lately, I’ve been looking at personality enneagrams. They give a good idea of how certain personality traits can work together in real life humans, kind of like gears in a machine. There are 9 personality traits according to this system. Here’s a quick peek, courtesy of The Enneagram Institute.

The Nine Enneagram Type Descriptions

1 THE REFORMER
The Rational, Idealistic Type: Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic

2 THE HELPER
The Caring, Interpersonal Type: Demonstrative, Generous, People-Pleasing, and Possessive

3 THE ACHIEVER
The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type: Adaptive, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious

4 THE INDIVIDUALIST
The Sensitive, Withdrawn Type: Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental

5 THE INVESTIGATOR
The Intense, Cerebral Type: Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated

6 THE LOYALIST
The Committed, Security-Oriented Type: Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious

7 THE ENTHUSIAST
The Busy, Fun-Loving Type: Spontaneous, Versatile, Distractible, and Scattered

8 THE CHALLENGER
The Powerful, Dominating Type: Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational

9 THE PEACEMAKER
The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type: Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent

You may notice that not every one of the personality traits is good. That is an excellent thing for writers because that makes it easier to construct a balanced character. Nobody wants to read about Mr. or Ms. Perfect. That’s boring.

A similar option for this kind of info is the Myers Briggs Types. That one offers more types, maybe more in-depth information. Personally, I prefer the relative simplicity of the enneagrams.

If you’d like to read more about the enneagrams, here’s a link to the Enneagram Institute.

For the Myers Briggs Types, here’s a link to The Myers Briggs Foundation.