JENN McKINLAY: If you read my post yesterday, you know I was recently at a reader author gathering called RAGT. One of the high points was spending time with my long time author friend Lori Wilde. Luckily for me, she is also a writing instructor and she graciously listened to me whine (and wine) about my recent issues in crafting "the same but different" romantic comedies.
We discussed various ways to break through my mental block and one of them was using the Enneagram Personality to test to help inform my characters and give them more natural conflict. She also advised me to take the test because she suspected I was a 7.
Naturally, I took the online test, which our assistant Christie Conlee found for me here: Enneagram Test
There are 9 personality types and the test tells you the strongest to the weakest in a handy pie chart (mine is below).
As you can see, I'm a 7 (Lori was totally right!) 9 and 3 for my strongest traits. Well, I read the descriptions -- enthusiast, peacemaker, achiever -- and thought WOW! That's me, totally me!
Lori's point was that I could use the Enneagram to flesh out my characters and give them natural conflicts (which I struggle with because I generally like my characters and don't want to torture them) but as I read the descriptions of my personality traits, I realized THIS IS WHY I STRUGGLE WITH CONFLICT FOR MY CHARACTERS!!!
The combo of enthusiast (always striving for positive experiences) followed by the peacemaker (always going with the flow to keep the peace) make it such a challenge for me to torture my characters as one must. This is why LOVE AT FIRST BOOK (aka the book that about killed me) was so difficult to write. I leaned into conflict and pain and, boy howdy, did that feel uncomfortable and difficult!
So, now that I know this about myself, I feel as if a world of self-awareness has opened up for me and I can approach my writing much more intentionally (thank you, Lori!) and I can use it to craft characters who have authentic conflict. Straight up, I am super excited about this!!!
Your turn, Reds and Readers, have you taken a personality test (hit the link above if you want to) and what did you learn? Reds, do you use personality tests to inform your characters?
How wonderful that this worked out so well for you, Jenn! I've never taken a personality test, but I'm going to try this one and see what it reveals . . . .
ReplyDeleteReport back, Joan!
DeleteI'm a nine, with one and two the next highest traits . . . .
DeleteI’m apparently a 9. I didn’t unlock the full results but what I read seemed pretty accurate. I have taken the Myers--Briggs test years ago and thought it was also pretty on point. — Pat S
ReplyDeleteI didn't unlock the full either.
DeleteAny time I've tried to take a personality test, I've been paralyzed by the first question. "Sometimes, I'm this way. Other times, I'm that way." We've discussed that I'm the world's most indecisive person, right? Well, maybe I am. Let me get back to you on that.
ReplyDeleteMark, I feel your pain.
DeleteRight. Which "me" do they want me to answer as?!
DeleteFrom Diana: Same here. Just took the test again and now I am an Eight - the Challenger. First time I took the test, I was a Six - the Skeptic.
DeleteAnd these tests ask the same question different ways. Sometimes I answer one way and the next time I’m more independent/empathetic/indecisive than my first answer. — Pat S
DeleteYes! I struggle with that as well.
DeleteI need more coffee before I dive into the test. Like Pat, I've taken the Myers-Briggs test, although it's been years and I was never quite sure if I agreed. Maybe I'm in Mark's indecisive club.
ReplyDeleteI just now took the quiz and I'm pretty equally split between 1 and 6, which makes me a skeptical perfectionist? Hmmm.
DeleteFascinating, Annette!
DeleteOK, that took a while.
ReplyDeleteI am a 1,4 and 5: The Perfectionist, The Individualist and the Investigator. That is pretty accurate!
I am a "recovering perfectionist". I no longer seek perfection. Instead, I seek excellence.
FYI, here are the 9 ennegram personality types on a (FREE) web page:
https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/enneagram-types/
thanks for the link Grace, I see there's another test for the Egram that's 175 questions. Probably more accurate, but will have to do that later!
DeleteI can see that, Grace. Thanks for the link!
DeleteWow, Jenn. Without taking the test, I feel like I'm going to come out exactly as you did. I also have trouble writing my characters into trouble, and when I tried to write darker, I just couldn't. Glad you discovered it and think it will help you. I will give it a try!
ReplyDeleteI did the Meyers-Briggs years ago in a course training non-techy people to work in hi-tech. It was a way to help us understand our coworkers. Like Mark, I wanted to scream at whoever wrote it. Sometimes I'm this way, sometimes I'm that way. In that past I've done it a certain way, now differently. So it was hard for me to give the results credence.
I remember taking the MB before Hub and I got married. We were a perfect fit.
DeleteI don't think I will do it. I don't want to confirm what I know about myself, especially now when it is much too late to accomplish anything. Whew.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting, Jenn. I would love to know how you will use those results. Some writers have no trouble torturing their creations. I think that I am drawn to your books and to your characters because you do not have a lot of conflict. Some of us need that. I just listened to a book that was about 13 hours long, with hours of angst filled soliloquys of self doubt before the HEA. The book would have been even better if it had been 10 hours dropping about 100 pages of self torture.
What is HEA?
DeleteLOL Judy, some days we definitely need Jenn's books! Grace, HEA=happily ever after
DeleteThanks. I don't read enough romance/rom-coms to recognize that acronym!
DeleteFrom Diana: I am a big fan of Happily Ever After or at least a solution at the end of a mystery. Right now I’m reading an ARC and I suspect this novel is going to have a big cliffhanger that is NOT going to resolve the original mystery. This author wrote many novels and most of the novels have Cliffhangers. Maybe some people like Cliffhangers yet I do not love Cliffhangers. Yes, I can see why Cliffhangers are there to get readers to buy the next book in the series. That would make me give up on the series after being disappointed more than twice!
DeleteJenn, perhaps there can be a future JRW post about Cliffhangers in Novels? yay or no?
I find too much angst in characters to be very trying. Probably, why I'm not a CoHo reader. She delivers the emotions but too much internalizing stuff for me.
DeleteI agree with you, I do not like books ending with cliffhangers. It is so alienating in some cases I do not continue reading the series.
DeleteMay I ask what is CoHo?
DeleteAnonymous, thank you! Looks like there are more than one person who is not a fan of cliffhangers.
DeleteJenn: Is CoHo in reference to Colleen Hoover?
DeleteMany years ago at work, we all took the Myers Briggs personality test. At best, it's a snapshot in time but I will say that it helped me better understand some of my colleagues. It gave us some language to talk about different ways of approaching tasks or projects.
ReplyDeleteWe also had to take the Myers-Briggs personality test at work. It was for a course on "how to build successful teams".
DeleteFrom Diana: Yes, that fellow, whom I dated years ago, used the Meyers Briggs tests for building successful teams. He worked with teams for a computer engineering company, Grace.
DeleteI’m sensing a theme for the Myers-Briggs test. I took it while working at a computer software company. I was definitely not a techie; I worked as administrative support. As Amanda said, it helped me communicate with the software engineers. — Pat S
DeleteYes, I think it can be very valuable.
DeleteVery interesting, Jenn! My results did not surprise me at all, which maybe means by now I know myself pretty well.
ReplyDeleteI still remember a test I took as an eighth grader to discover what sort of field I'd like to enter. (I'm a country girl so that would be alfalfa, not corn. Joke!) We were presented with 3 choices and had to choose the one we would most like to do and the one we would least like to do. Turns out I would mostly like to read books!
Judi, that would be my chosen field, too. And I liked your “corny” joke! — Pat S
DeleteWHY isn't that a job? LOL.
DeleteFrom Diana: Wonder if reading is part of the responsibilities of a literary agent? A book editor? Someone at a publishing company ?
DeleteReally interesting! I have read about the Enneagram over the years, but can't remember actually doing the test. I'm not surprised that you are the Enthusiast! I came out 9, followed by 2.
ReplyDeleteI did Myers=Briggs for work years ago and my result was INFJ. I don't like to think of myself as a judgy person. but it's definitely there. I'm not sure why they wanted us (the supervisors at 9-1-1) to do the test. Cynical me says maybe it was part of our Operations Manager's work towards her Master's degree. It didn't seem to make the slightest bit of difference in how they worked with us or the decisions and mandates that were handed down.
You're probably right. Managers always have an angle - in my experience.
DeleteHere's my completely unscientific test: people who enjoy being slotted into categories, and those who dislike it intensely.
ReplyDeleteSee above for answers about our friends here.
Because I majored in Police Science, and later sold insurance for close to a decade, I took every self-improvement course known in the 1968-86 era, including Myers-Briggs. It was more for how to relate to others, including potential customers, and I found it fascinating. Not just how different we all are, but how psychologists came up with the questions and categories, and how they made the conclusions they did. There was another test that required carefully observing others as they spoke, and where their eyes went as they did so. Straight ahead, to the upper or lower right or left, each way meant something different. I still get insights about others this way, but less consciously now. And probably not as accurately, since I've largely forgotten what it's supposed to mean.
Real human beings are too complex to really fit into rigid slots, but it has to be a major task to create believable characters on paper. And so satisfying when you get it just right, so right that your readers care deeply about them.
Yes! To all of the above, Karen. You're so right.
DeleteJenn, I spent time taking the test and at the end it asked for my email address. I was concerned about giving this out as I often get a lot of ads or spam. Did you have to give out your email address?
ReplyDeleteI think I skipped the email and then the chart came up but I'm not positive. Anyone else?
DeleteI saw my enneagram chart results graphic for free. The explanatory text was greyed out, though, after the first paragraph. I did not supply an email address.
DeleteEnter a phony email address. ;)
DeleteTook it, but the free version only. Enlightening - I had taken one years ago for a writing class, and I'm sure it's still on my computer. I'll have to look it up and see if the results are similar! Fun time. Thanks, Jenn
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteFrom Diana: Oh dear, I just took the Enneagram test. I think it depends on which mood I am in at the time I take the test. And I got the results, though IF I WANT the full results, it will cost 29 DOILLARS AND 99 CENTS to get the full results. I did what Kait did - I took the Ennegram test but the free version only.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how I feel about the Ennegram results, It said I am mostly Sixes, meaning that I am a Skeptic. Oh dear. I think that my Ennegram results were influenced by several things: my inborn personality, my life experiences and my current mood.
For example, I found a photo of my Dad holding me a month after I came home from a 7 week stay at Children’s Hospital. I had FOUR brain surgeries to take out the fluids caused by Meningitis. My Dad was holding me in one arm and the new puppy in another arm. The new puppy was given to my parents while I was in the hospital. In this photo, I am looking at my Dad while he is talking. To me, that is an obvious Clue that I was lip reading my Dad. No one knew for a few months that I had lost my hearing because I could lip read. While I could lip read my parents, I did not always understand what other people said. I had that determination to relearn everything that was “lost” while I was in the hospital. I was determined to learn how to walk again.
Years ago, I was dating an Engineer who took the Meyer Briggs test and I took it. It said that I was both an Extrovert and an Introvert. A friend in graduate school and her husband took the MBTI tests. My friend took it and it said she was both Extrovert and Introvert. Her husband said that was Impossible. She said to me “My husband does not believe that it is possible to be both Extrovert and Introvert” then she asked me what I thought. I said “It is possible to be both”.
Thinking about how my Ennegram results can be applied to my characters in my novel. I have some good ideas of the personalities that I want to create for my characters. Thinking of the personalities of the characters created by JRW authors, I love how the women are NOT damsels in distress types.
Jenn, I LOVED loved loved loved your Irish bookshop novel LOVE AT FIRST BOOK. The character of Em is realistic. I have known brilliant women like Em. I get what you mean about the book being difficult to write. There are several sad passages yet I felt hopeful reading the book. I bought the ebook and now I want to buy the hardcover ? Paperback ? If there are print copies.
Wow! This was a very long comment this morning!
I think that's fascinating about how you were lip reading so young. Thank you for the kind words about LAFB - it's in trade paperback but not hardcover.
DeleteFrom Diana: Thank you. I just ordered the paperback from my favorite bookshop to accompany the SUMMER READING novel that you published last year. It is funny about lip reading because when I lip read, it feels like I have Telepathy. It is too funny.
DeleteWell, 9,6,5,4 - Sceptic, yes. Individualist, sorta, maybe. Investigator? I like to read mysteries, so maybe. Peacemaker? Didn't see that one coming. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteInteresting...
DeleteNope, nope, nope. I hate standardized tests and even questions like, "on a scale of 1 to 10 what is your pain level? Long ago in college I took a test to see what occupations I might be fit for. I don't remember what came out of that but I do remember looking at choices on some questions and thinking "none of those."
ReplyDeleteLOL - yes, for some of these questions I was nope.
DeleteFrom Diana: Eight on the free version of the Ennegram test is more accurate for men because I have always been independent .
ReplyDeleteAt the age of Five when I was at the after school Day Care with other children, even though I was the Only Deaf person there, I managed to lead other children into playing games. My Day Care teacher recently told me that I always invented games and that I was a natural leader. Somehow other children seemed to understand my Deaf accent. I am trying to remember if other children knew sign language or if we somehow communicated.
And I remember wanting to do things for myself like putting my clothes on by myself at the age of four.
Children are much more intuitive than adults, don't you think?
DeleteFrom Diana: So true that children are more intuitive than adults. I remember watching a rerun of Adam -12 where a young child helped Kent McCord and Martin Milner identify the getaway car.
DeleteJenn, I match you in two categories: Peacemaker and enthusiast. My second strongest trait is Giver, which explains why I'm always rushing in to "take care of" my adult children - and why I'm really having to work hard to stop that trait!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you ‘take care of your adult children’ and of Celia and Victor and probably many others. Just be giving enough to hear “no thank you, not this time”. Elisabeth
DeleteI can totally see this about you, Julia.
DeleteThe biggest challenge for me in my first serious fiction writing effort (a debut novel about two amateur senior sleuths who did not plan to be detectives) is, as Jenn has described, letting conflicts drive the plot. I am (by personality type) such a confict-avoidant, solve-the-problem, optimist. But I've discovered (in my mid-70s) that I need to outgrow this trait to write and it has made me braver elsewhere in my life. It has been fun though to start looking for when conflict can be generative and shape a good outcome.
ReplyDeleteYes!!! You are my people, Carol.
DeleteI think the trick may be to not overthink it when answering these tests. Go with your first thought.
ReplyDeleteAchiever, challenger, perfectionist. I’d rather be a peacemaker but I do step up when people do what I think is wrong!
ReplyDeleteI can't think of anyone who excels at as many things as you do, Rhys. Dance, sing, write, more! "Achiever" and "perfectionist" are not at all surprising traits.
DeleteI just did the basic test and I'm a 3. Which seems to be the Enneagram equivalent of the ambitious beeyotch on a soap opera!
ReplyDeleteGee, Ellen, I would have pegged you for peacemaker. All of your characters who start out antagonistic towards one another, particularly in your Bayou series, end up as friends.
DeleteFrom Diana: There is nothing wrong with being an Achiever, Ellen. My first result was Skeptic then the second result was Challenger. I think it depends on the current mood?
DeleteNo worries, Jen, about how hard it was to write Love at First Book - the result was excellent! This blog is kind of thought provoking. I have done the Myers-Brigg process twice in my corporate days, had identical results. I've never thought at all about how it might apply to writing process...but I will now. The big surprise is that I came out - by a tiny thread - as more Extroverted than Introverted. (It means, here, that you get energy from human interaction not solitude) Odd for a writer and reader, isn't it? :-)
ReplyDeleteI once took the Myers-Briggs, and now I can't remember what my four letters were, except that I was definitely an extrovert = E. Guess what? I didn't need M-B to tell me that! Still, I'm not knocking tests like these--I do think they can provide useful insights.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried to use personality tests for characters, but I used to use a passing interest in astrology to pick traits and even birthdays for them. It made for a nice focus to remember they might be inclined to think this way instead of that way, etc.
ReplyDeleteOh, I do that, too!
DeleteI'm a 1 and a 3, equally. Surprise. AND I forgot to look at my lowest score, which I bet means something, too. I truly love how we try to understand each other and ourselves. xoxoxo
ReplyDeleteI'm a 9 with 6 & 7 close by
ReplyDelete