I’m reading Dialogue by Gloria Kempton and in the chapter I just finished, she talks about the Enneagram and how to use it to create appropriate dialogue for our characters based on which personality they fit into. What amused me while reading the different Enneagram types (numbers 1 through 9) was that I immediately knew which one my main character Libby from Something to Blog About was. She’s #4, the artist (I’m using the type names that Gloria Kempton uses in her book), and this part of the description is what stuck out at me:
“That’s what artists do–they love making mountains out of molehills, and they really don’t understand how others can just see a molehill when the situation is clearly a mountain.”
Definitely Libby. I can even picture her saying just these words, flailing her arms wildly and stressing the “clearly a mountain!”
Then I tried to figure out which other types the characters of STBA fit into:
- Angel – Clearly a questioner, #6. She has a deep need for security, but since she doesn’t have it, she turns her insecurity against others.
- Roger – I think he’s #9, the peacemaker. He cares a lot about others and tries not to rock the boat too much.
- Keisha – #1, the reformer. She believes what she believes is right and she kind of thinks everyone else should believe the same things she does.
- Seth – I see him as best fitting into the observer role, #5. The one standing off to the side, watching, absorbing, thinking.
I, personally, seem to be the observer, like Seth, although I have my artist moments like Libby, especially when I’m faced with new situations. Then every tiny molehill becomes a mountain!
I can never really decide if I fully believe in all of the “this is your type and this explains why you do the things you do” stuff because I don’t think people easily fit into boxes, but I do find it interesting. This site has great descriptions of the nine types if you want to read more.