Showing posts with label Enneagram. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enneagram. Show all posts

Monday, May 7, 2012

Enneagram

Enneagram
I've been working my way through some craft books, the latest being Write Great Fiction - Dialogue by Gloria Kempton. There are lots of great tips and tricks in the series. One in particular stood out to me: The Enneagram.

Basically, Ms. Kempton argues that people fall into categories, and based on that, a writer can immediately spot dialogue which is out of character. The idea intrigued me, especially since there's a nifty test to type yourself and your characters. (I'm an investigator-achiever.)

Per the Ennegram Institute:

Type One is principled, purposeful, self-controlled, and perfectionistic.

Type Two is generous, demonstrative, people-pleasing, and possessive.

Type Three is adaptable, excelling, driven, and image-conscious.

Type Four is expressive, dramatic, self-absorbed, and temperamental.

Type Five is perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated.

Type Six is engaging, responsible, anxious, and suspicious.

Type Seven is spontaneous, versatile, acquisitive, and scattered.

Type Eight is self-confident, decisive, willful, and confrontational.

Type Nine is receptive, reassuring, complacent, and resigned.


The types are also grouped into centers according to strengths and weaknesses:



So if I'm a 5-3, my thinking center motivates me, then my feeling center kicks in. Anxiety is a driver for me, followed up by shame. So I'm an introvert who wants to "perfom well and overcome".

*ahem*

This is getting a little personal, so I think I'll stick to evaluating my characters instead.


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