As a writer, Enneagram can be a very valuable tool for determining your character’s goals and motivations. Although their motivations within your story will be far more complex than the simplistic explanations the enneagram types provide, giving your character a motivation that can easily be broken down into one of the nine types ensures that your character will come across as realistic and relatable.
The easiest way to determine your character’s enneagram type is to use an online test. My personal favorite is from Truity. However, this only works if your character is already fairly developed; otherwise you’re shooting in the dark.
The alternative option is something I call the “why” method. You know, the annoying game curious children like to play? That. This works better for less-developed characters, but it does require a better understanding of your overall plot. Here is how it works:
- Start from the biggest decision your character will make in your story. This usually takes place as a direct result of the inciting incident, but not always.
- Ask yourself a series of “why?” questions, keeping the answers focused on the character until they cannot be asked further without changing the character being discussed. If you change the subject of the sentence, restart from the beginning.
- Read back through what you have. Is there a statement that points directly to an Enneagram type? If not, back up to your first answer
