What my Enneagram Number Reveals about My Writing Process

Several years ago, a writer friend read a draft of my novel-in-progress, Shakespeare in the Glen, which I’m still working on and plan to return to after I finish Hello, Honeymoon. I love the characters and supporting characters in that novel, which of course is why I’m writing about them. When I read her comments, I discovered a theme: 

“Where’s the conflict? Where’s the story?”

This was eye-opening for me. Why, you may ask? Because that year, some of my day job colleagues had gotten really into the Enneagram. In case you’re not familiar with it, psychotherapist Ian Morgan Cron defines the Enneagram as “a personality typing system” which people can use as a tool “to cultivate self-awareness and emotional wisdom.” 

I’ve explored a number of different personality typing systems over the years and the Enneagram has by far and away been the most helpful for me. 

The Enneagram has nine basic archetypes: 1-The Reformer, 2-The Helper, 3-The Achiever, 4-The Individualist, 5-The Investigator, 6-The Skeptic, 7-The Enthusiast, 8-The Challenger, 9-The Peacemaker. There are books to read and tests you can take to figure out which type you are, but the general theory is that the archetype that makes you cringe with self-recognition is most likely your type. 

The first time I took a test, I identified as a 2-Helper. I read about the characteristics of a healthy, average, or unhealthy Helper and was pleased to discover how healthy I was, how many positive traits I had and how many unhealthy habits I didn’t have. About a year later, I took the test again, and this time my dominant type was a 9-Peacemaker. And reading about the characteristics of a healthy, average, or unhealthy Peacemaker, I cringed in self-recognition. 

On the positive side, I recognized that I am diplomatic, caring and compassionate, and that I seem to have a calming presence on others (an enigma for me given my generalized anxiety, but I’ve heard it from enough people that I believe it). Some of the less healthy behaviors are: being passive aggressive, conflict avoidant, and having a peace-at-all-costs mentality. (Problems? There are no problems here. We’re all getting along. Everything’s fine just like it is. Don’t rock the boat!) 

Well, I’ve lived with myself long enough that I thought, that’s just who I am. So, I hate conflict. So, what? 

And then, I got the feedback from my fellow writer on every chapter of my novel: “Where’s the conflict? Where’s the story?” And I had this horrifying realization that my unwillingness to deal with conflict in my life was having a spillover effect on my stories, and the correlating realization that if I was ever going to figure out how to write conflict into my stories (which is the basic ingredient that makes a story interesting) I was going to have to learn how to deal with conflict more directly in my life. 

When I say horrifying, I mean the kick-in-the-gut and I’m going to be sick, kind of horrifying. I do not like conflict! But if there is one thing that can motivate me to take on this challenge of facing conflict more directly in my own life, it’s my desire to write stories that people want to read, which is something I’ve felt since I was a child that I’m supposed to do with my life. So, I’m a work in progress, and so are my stories, and I’m working hard on trying to figure out how to deal with conflict in life and in art.