I recently interviewed Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer over on my YouTube channel, which you can watch here. We talked about many things but I wanted to share with you here, the conversation we had about dictation for writers. Sarah explains how dictation will make our writing not only easier on the body but also that little bit faster as well. 

Below is the transcript of some of our conversation but make sure to head over to my YouTube Channel for the whole thing. 

Dictation for writers

Emma Dhesi: I’ve used dictation in the past. I’m a pantster, so I would just go, ‘Bla bla bla bla bla’ and speak into it but you’re more experienced at dictating than I am. What have you found to work? Do you plan your stories so you know what you’re going to be talking about or do you just fly by the seat of your pants? 

Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer: I used to be a pantster. 100%. I would try to outline because I’m like, ‘It’s such a big mess from doing the pantster thing’ so I was like, ‘I need to outline.’ Then I would outline and then I wouldn’t stick to my outline because I’ve got to follow the characters and I’ve got to get to know them and I’m halfway through before I even know what this story’s about. 

I do a simple three act structure outline and don’t do anything too elaborate but it does help me stay on the timeline, especially since I write historical fiction, so there’s a lot of elements. 

“With dictation I find it so helpful to have an outline”

With dictation I find it so helpful to have an outline. As a pantster, you can still absolutely use dictation and if pantster is the way you want to stick with, you certainly can. I do recommend giving outlining a try, I think it will be beneficial for authors. Again, not to mess with anyone’s creative process but I think there are a lot of benefits of that, especially when it comes to dictation. 

I do know what each of my scenes are going to be. Sometimes I’ll throw in an extra scene or I’ll eliminate one from my outline but, in general, I have a good idea of where I’m going. I may not know exactly what the ending is or what that climax is going to look like, so there’s still the element of discovery but, with dictation, it is just so much less effort physically and mentally. 

There’s still that emotional and mental aspect that we’re always going to have as authors because we are creating and that’s a good thing but, with dictation – I don’t want to say it makes it effortless – but certainly, when you finish, it feels much more effortless versus typing it. I’ve heard from a lot of authors who have taken my trainings and are now dictating that it’s more effortless to get it on the page. 

ED: I started doing dictation. I think I tried it years ago and just found it a bit difficult and so gave it up, but then I get so much shoulder pain, so many migraines, I was like, ‘Okay, needs must. I need to try something new. I don’t want to have to give this up,’ and so I have started dictating. 

There’s a freedom that comes with dictation for writers. Your imagination can take you away without having to be crossing things out or rethinking things or editing as you go along. You just go for it. 

Do you find that you edit as you go along or are you quite good at just going with the flow? 

Your first draft is faster with dictation

SES: That’s the other reason why dictation is faster for getting your first draft. It’s not so much just that you can speak faster than you can type, it doesn’t let you really go back and edit. 

I wanted to dictate on my phone because I wanted to get away from my desk. It’s like what you said, it’s your shoulders, your back, your body and you’re just sitting, so I wanted to have that flexibility and so I wanted to dictate on my phone and, like you, I tried and failed. I tried and failed. Brain doesn’t work this way. I can’t speak fictional worlds. 

So for authors out there and you, yourself, if that feels like, ‘My brain just doesn’t work that way,’ know that your brain can be trained. Just like you trained it to type on a keyboard, you can train it to do dictation. 

What trained me to not edit as I go is, I wanted to do it on my phone but my old iPhone would cut off after 30 seconds of dictation or after the speech-to-text and so I was like, ‘This isn’t going to work,’ so that was another thing that made me give up and put it to the side. 

Then I discovered this recording app and I was using it for recording other stuff. I was just recording story notes on it and then taking it to my computer and typing it up. They came out with a transcribe option and I was like, ‘It will transcribe it in the app?’ This was some years ago, there’s even better tools available now. 

“My word count doubled with dictation versus typing”

So I started recording it and then I would transcribe it. When you’re recording your words, you don’t have the option of going in and editing. You have to just keep going with the story, so if I’m sitting down for an hour writing, I am just writing for that hour. I can’t go back and edit and so that’s where my word count doubled with dictation versus typing. 

ED: Were you able to sit down and dictate for an hour straight off? 

SES: I do want to say that I recommend, when you’re starting out, start out with just a little bit of dictation and then go back to typing. That’s a part of the training process of dictation for writers and no, I did not start out just sitting down for an hour and dictating. It was something that took a lot for my brain to get used to and to train it to be able to do that. 

I don’t always get an hour writing session, it may only be 15 or 20 minutes, but in that 15 or 20 minutes, I can get in the same words that would normally take me an hour of writing. If you only write 500 words in an hour, typing, you may be able to get that 500 words in 20 minutes or 30 minutes versus it taking you that hour. 

Don’t jump in and think, ‘I’m going to dictate for 4 hours and write 20,000 words starting out.’ Build up to that. The most writing I’ve ever done – I had a deadline – I wrote 11,000 words in about 4 hours and that was with interruptions and breaks but I basically had it done by noon. 

ED: In terms of handwriting or typing, I talk about muscle memory and how writing does get easier the more you do it because you create those neural pathways, you get that writing muscle going and I’m guessing it’s the same for dictation as well. 

You can train yourself to dictate

SES: That’s something I cover in my Fictation course, about creating neural pathways. I call them trenches. You’re digging a trench in your brain to let those fictional words flow through. Just like you trained yourself to type, you can train yourself to dictate, even in using punctuation. 

I say ‘period, question mark, new line, exclamation point, open quote, close quote’ all of those things while I’m dictating. Once you’ve trained your writing muscle and you keep that in practice, dictation for writers becomes as natural to you as typing. 

Fictation: Dictation for writers 

ED: You mentioned your Fictation course. I know not only do you do dictation yourself but you help other writers adapt to this new technology and take advantage of it. I’d love to hear a little bit about your course Fictation. Please do tell us. 

SES: Fictation Dictation 2.0 is a digital course. It’s self-paced, so you can go through it as slow or as fast as you want to. 

Module 1 covers all the technical tools. How do you actually fictate? Do you need a microphone? Do you need software? I’ll go ahead and let everyone in on this. You do not need expensive software to do dictation.

Back in the day, Dragon Dictation was your only option. You had to spend hundreds of dollars on software. I was always hesitant to do that because I was like, ‘What if I can’t actually train my brain to do this and I’ve spent all this money on software?’  I take you through whether you’re on a Macbook, a Windows PC, an Android phone or an iPhone. I cover all the different tools that you likely already have, whether it’s a phone or a computer. 

I talk about microphones and then I talk about how to fictate. How do you actually do it, what is that process, how should you get yourself ready to dictate? What’s a start up routine and ending routine?

Module 2 is your fictation in action. Exercises to begin training your brain to do dictation. We’re used to dictating text messages and emails, a lot of people use that already in their author business, but when they go to dictate fiction, our brains tend to freeze up. It’s a different neural pathway, it’s not the same neural pathway as dictating an email or a text message. When you’re moving it into fiction, that’s when you experience the freeze and that’s what held me up for the longest time. 

Watch a novella being dictated

Module 3 is my fictation in action. I wrote an entire novella – it was my 12th book to write via dictation – but I wrote this one live on camera, recording my phone, recording audio and teaching through that process of here’s what it actually looks like to dictate an entire book. I edited that down and took the best parts and that’s module 3 with the course. 

Module 4, I talk about fictating with non-fiction, how you can use it in your author business to get your emails done faster and to stay on top of your author business using dictation.  Module 5 is your bonus module. Bonus tips and tricks, bonus exercises and ways that you can use fictation in your author business. I wanted to pack it with everything that authors need to finally master dictation with their fiction. 

ED: That sounds so comprehensive. I love that you’re starting with the technical side of it. Just easing people in with what equipment they need and reassuring people as well that we probably have what we need somewhere on our desk or on our phone or our device. I started with Dragon many moons ago, that was the one I bought and trying to train my Dragon was quite tricky but now we don’t need to do that. 

SES: Dragon Dictation is still absolutely a viable way of doing your dictation. The accuracy is still way up there, it’s probably going to be among the highest accuracy you’re going to have in the transcription process. I do cover Dragon in the course so if you have Dragon and it’s gathering dust on your computer because you weren’t able to begin using it to dictate your fiction, this is the course that will help you train yourself to use your Dragon. 

This edited transcript was taken from my YouTube interview with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer 

About Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer

Sarah is an author and writing instructor who takes authors struggling to master the tools and knowledge of their author journey and help them become confident in their writing books.  She has been featured on Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn podcast, Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Show, Jane Friedman’s blog, writersdigest.com and more. 

As a tribal member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, her signature course, Fiction Writing: American Indians, is equipping authors to write authentic stories that honour Native American history and culture. Her Fictation: Dictation 2.0 digital course takes authors through the exact process of mastering dictation to write fiction.

Sarah’s website: http://fictioncourses.com/dictation

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer's block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

Dani Abernathy recently came onto my YouTube Channel to share her expertise on Enneagrams. I thought it would also be helpful to share the transcript here as a series of blog posts.

In today’s post – Part 3 – Dani goes through Enneagram Types 7-9 but, if you missed Parts 1 and 2, you’ll find them here:

Part 1 – Enneagram Types 1-3
Part 2 – Enneagram Types 4-6

Alternatively, you can watch the whole conversation here on my YouTube Channel. 

I’d love to know which type or types you recognise in yourself, so let me know in the comments! 

Enneagram Type 7 – The Enthusiast, or The Adventurer

Dani Abernathy: The 7 is called the Enthusiast, or the Adventurer, and they’re the last type in the head centre. They are afraid of being stuck in painful or boring situations so they do their best to avoid them. 

All of the head types – 5, 6 and 7 – are always scanning and planning. 7s are always planning the next exciting thing because, even if they’re in a moment they’ve planned, they’re like, ‘Okay, this is boring. I’m losing interest in this so let’s plan the next thing.’ They tend to move from adventure to adventure. 

They are visionaries, they are often eccentric or trendsetters. They can be really funny, so can the 6. Actually, a lot of comedians are the 6 because they feel really comfortable treading the line between humour and darkness. 

7s can also be quite funny, they’re very vibrant and high energy. They know how to make everyone have fun but then they want to keep staying in the fun. They have a hard time finishing things, they have a lot of ideas but they’re not great at executing and following through so, in writing, they might have a lot of started projects but not finished projects. 

Emma Dhesi: Shiny penny. 

DA: That’s the biggest challenge for the 7 and also sometimes accessing that deeper, more raw layer of emotion and conflict and truth can be challenging. 

Enneagram Type 8 – The Protector

DA: 8 is the Protector. They’re in the gut type. 8, 9 and 1 are in the gut type and they move through the world through their instinct. 

8s are afraid of being vulnerable or taken advantage of. They try their best to be invulnerable and to be in control. I think 8s are sometimes misunderstood because 8s can be very aggressive and controlling and like bears barrelling through a china shop. 

But they’re not always that way. They tend to have really strong beliefs and this intuitive knowing. They’re either protectors of the weak or they really disdain people who appear to have vulnerabilities and weaknesses and they can actually take advantage of those and push those buttons. 

They want to know the truth and so they will push people to reveal the truth. So, while the 9 is like the peacemaker, ‘Let’s be chill and have no conflict,’ the 8 is like, ‘Oh, conflict is where we live.’ They’re very comfortable being confrontational and saying the thing and having those conversations. 

I don’t think I’ve had any 8 clients. Perhaps because 8s don’t want to ask for help. That’s very challenging for the 8 because it is a weakness or a vulnerability. I think probably the biggest challenge for the 8 would be getting feedback, getting help on the book because, to say that they don’t know or to see that it isn’t working or that they need to be vulnerable and let someone in, that is very, very challenging for the 8. 

ED: That’s a hard place to be. I’ve certainly had times like that in my life and it’s only when you come out of it you realise, ‘If only I’d just asked for help, I’d have solved that problem much sooner.’ It can be a difficult thing to admit that we’re fallible. 

Enneagram Type 9 – The Peacemaker

DA: The 9 is the Peacemaker and they want to have peace in their lives. They want things to be in harmony, they don’t want there to be conflict and so the 9 tends to always speak to themselves to their own desires and just be like, ‘Whatever you want. Whatever you want is fine.’ 

They actually have really strong preferences on thoughts and personalities, but they appear to not, so they can sometimes be stubborn. 9s tend to be kind of dreamy, they really enjoy video games for example and they will get lost in world building because it is safe and they can create the world they want. 

Sometimes, especially if the client also happens to have ADHD, it’s really hard for them to pull back and actually write the story because there are so many ideas and it’s so enjoyable to be in the ideas without having to commit and choose because that can potentially cause conflict. 

ED: I’m curious then, from a coaching point of view, is that quite tricky? Obviously, as coaches, we want the writer to write their book, not lean into what they think we want. We can guide people, we don’t have all the answers for their story. 

DA: The thing with the 9 is that they will be like, ‘Yeah, yeah, sure. For sure, yeah, let’s do that,’ but then they’re not actually going to do that. They’re going to dig their feet in and they’ll be like, ‘No, no, no. I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m just not going to acknowledge it to you.’ 

The way I work with people is a really slow, deep, writer-centred process and it’s really about who are you? Why are you writing? What do you care about? How do you want to speak to your reader and impact the world through your book? 

For all of my clients, it is a slow process of discovery, finding the courage to acknowledge what you’re really writing about, what you really want to say. But the 9 can jump ship and switch to something else if it starts to feel dangerous. 

ED: It is a bit of danger, isn’t it, when you write a book. You’re creatively putting yourself out there, the plotline itself might be going into dangerous territory that you often didn’t know you were going to end up in. It’s not what you thought you were writing about.

Which Enneagram Type are you?

ED: So that was a whistle stop tour and I’m guessing that our listeners, our viewers, they can see themselves in at least one of these. They’re going to recognise, ‘I do that. If something’s not working, I will stop it and I will move on. Perhaps I’m the Achiever, I’m number 3.’ 

I’m sure a lot of people will be recognising themselves in 5 and perhaps 9 and staying in that research rabbit hole where it’s fun and it’s all creative and not the graft of having to put the words down and write the story. 

If we can see this in ourselves and we see, as you said in the beginning, why we do what we do, the ways in which it drives us, then I can absolutely see that this could be a wonderful tool to use in the writing itself and developing our characters. 

Live Workshop: Using the Enneagram Personality System to Develop Unforgettable Characters

ED: You’re very kindly coming in to give a presentation about the Enneagram and how we can use it in our fiction and I wondered if you would just tell us a little bit about that. 

DA: We’re going to have a workshop, The Personality of Fiction: Using the Enneagram Personality System to Develop Unforgettable Characters. 

The wonderful thing about the Enneagram in your characters is that it gives you a shortcut to who they really are deep down inside. A lot of character tools are like, ‘What time of day do they get up? Do they like cats or dogs? What’s their pet peeve?’ and those things don’t really matter that much. 

What really matters is who they are deep down inside, what they want, what they fear. When you know that, it changes the way you write them. It changes the way you think about their character arcs, how they interact. 

It’s also a great tool because you can differentiate your characters. You can make them each distinct and individual. When you know their type, you know how they’re more likely to communicate or respond in a situation. Your characters are much less likely to conform to whatever the plot needs and really be consistent within themselves. 

In this workshop, I’m going to tell you all about the Enneagram and I’m going to tell you about the types in detail. I’m going to give you some examples but I’m also going to give you tools to think about based on what you’re writing or who these characters are, how you can find their Enneagram types and use them to deepen your story, to write a more impactful story. 

Workshop details: 

The Personality of Fiction: Using the Enneagram Personality System to Develop Unforgettable Characters 

When: Thursday, July 25, 2024 

Where: Live on Zoom

Time: 11am Central Time, 5pm UK time, 2am Australian time (a replay will be available). 

How to register: https://emmadhesi.thrivecart.com/enneagram/

If you love personality stuff and you’re the person who takes all of the personality tests, come to the workshop, you’re going to love it and it’s going to give you some new tools and also some new insights into yourself. 

This workshop is going to revolutionise the way you’re writing, so sign up here: https://emmadhesi.thrivecart.com/enneagram/

If you missed the first two parts in this series, you’ll find Part 1 (Types 1-3) here and Part 2 (Types 4-6) here. The whole of our conversation is on my YouTube Channel.

Find out more about Dani Abernathy at www.daniabernathy.com. 

I’d love to know which Enneagram Type you are, so let me know in the comments!

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer's block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

Last week, I published part of the transcript of our discussion where Dani covered Enneagram Types 1-3. You can read that here. 

In today’s post, Dani goes through Enneagram Types 4-6. The post for Types 7-9 will be published next week but, if you can’t wait that long and want to find out about all the different types of Enneagram now, head over to YouTube to watch our whole conversation. 

Enneagram Type 4 – The Individualist

Dani Abernathy: The 4 is the Individualist and the 4 wants to be significant, they want to be important but they fear they’re not. They also feel they have this deficit internally. 4s use mystery and intrigue and these curated emotions to draw people in. They’re part of this heart centre and they need people to reflect back to them their specialness, their uniqueness. 

4s are the most comfortable with their dark set emotions. 4s think, ‘If I have needs, if I am broken and vulnerable, then people will be drawn to me and they will help me and they will love me.’ 

4s, unlike the 2, which dwells in its happy place, are like, ‘I’m going to use my sadness to form relationships and find love.’ As a writer, the 4 is very comfortable writing these deep, dark, intense, intellectual things but they very much follow the muse and so if the muse no longer wants to write this, then they’re not going to do it anymore. They’re just going to abandon it. 

The 4 really feels misunderstood easily, so if someone, whether that’s a critique partner, or their partner, or a reader, or their editor, doesn’t get it and they don’t feel heard, then the 4 will withdraw and often abandon the project. 

Emma Dhesi: I’m hearing myself in a lot of that. Especially the dark side, wallowing in the dark, that’s fun. 

DA: It’s so fun to wallow in the dark. 

Enneagram Type 5 – The Researcher

DA: Next we have the 5 and we’re moving into the head centre, which is all about intellect and using knowledge to navigate through the world. 

The 5 is the Researcher. They want to understand the true nature of everything. They fear they won’t have enough to navigate the world and so they gather knowledge as a way of figuring out how to move through the world. 

All the head types – 5, 6 and 7 – do this but 5s can be hermits. They can really go into their research hole and not come out. They want to observe without changing what they’re observing and, just like 4s can go to this deep, dark, emotional place, 5s can go to this deep, dark, mental place. They can be like, ‘This is the truth of what’s happening and it’s really terrible,’ but they’re also experts and scholars. 

The 5s I work with are often fantasy writers and so they build these huge worlds. 5s and 9s both tend to do this, they get lost in the world building and they build these intricate systems and histories and all these things because that’s what’s fun for them.  

They want to understand how everything fits together. They also tend to write to explore, express something they’re interested in or exploring or have learned. 

ED: I’m thinking sort of epic fantasy people, like George R.R. Martin, somebody like that. 

DA: Or J.R.R. Tolkien. 

ED: That’s actually a question I was going to have for you. I wondered if you have noticed different types prefer different genres or is there a broad spread? 

DA: It might be a genre thing. 

Enneagram Type 6 – The Loyalist

DA: 6 is the Loyalist. If you hear people talk about 6s, you often talk about how they are afraid but the 6 does not identify with being afraid. The 6 is actually afraid of being afraid and so the 6 wants security in their life, they want assurance but they don’t trust themselves to know what’s right and so they look to other systems or people to help them find that certainty and to tell them what to do, how to behave. 

The 6 is constantly scanning and assessing and thinking forward to, ‘Okay, what might happen here and how do I deal with that?’ because they don’t want to be afraid, they don’t want to be caught off-guard. So they’re always scanning, doom-forecasting, looking for danger, they’re kind of the alarm system of the Enneagram because they can be like, ‘Hey, did anyone notice this huge thing over here that might come and kill us all?’ 

They tend to be us versus them. They find their group that makes them feel secure and they really cling to that but they’re also constantly testing it to see, ‘Is this true? Is this real?’ but also if that is threatened, if someone threatens their group, then they are going to, from the back, rally the troops to go attack that thing. 

They have this kind of hot and cold feeling. They can be one moment really bold and facing the danger and then at other moments, really fearful of it. The 6 themselves have the most rapidly changing emotions, which is interesting. Often, if they test as a 6, they’re like, ‘No, I’m not a 6,’ because their experience is so dependent on the circumstance in that moment. 

I suspect I work with more 6s than I’ve realised they’re 6s. They have a hard time committing to a story because they can see so many possibilities and they feel they need to speak to every person who might read their book. They need to read all the caveats. It’s hard for them to narrow in and be okay with just saying the one thing because there are always so many possibilities and options and caveats. That can be challenging for the 6 and they also tend to doubt themselves a lot. 

Live Workshop: Using the Enneagram Personality System to Develop Unforgettable Characters

DA: In this workshop, I’m going to tell you all about the Enneagram and I’m going to tell you about the types in detail. I’m going to give you some examples but I’m also going to give you tools to think about based on what you’re writing or who these characters are, how you can find their Enneagram types and use them to deepen your story, to write a more impactful story. 

Workshop details: 

The Personality of Fiction: Using the Enneagram Personality System to Develop Unforgettable Characters 

When: Thursday, July 25, 2024 

Where: Live on Zoom

Time: 11am Central Time, 5pm UK time, 2am Australian time (a replay will be available). 

How to register: https://emmadhesi.thrivecart.com/enneagram/

If you love personality stuff and you’re the person who takes all of the personality tests, come to the workshop, you’re going to love it and it’s going to give you some new tools and also some new insights into yourself. 

This workshop is going to revolutionise the way you’re writing, so sign up here: https://emmadhesi.thrivecart.com/enneagram/

Find out more about Dani Abernathy at www.daniabernathy.com. 

If you want to find out about Enneagram Type 7-9, the next in this series will be published next week or you can watch the whole of our conversation over at YouTube now.  

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer's block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

Below, you’ll find the transcript of our discussion in which Dani covers Enneagram Types 1-3. 

Enneagram Types 4-9 will be covered in later posts but, if you can’t wait that long and want to find out about all the different types of Enneagram now, head over to YouTube to watch our whole conversation. 

About Dani Abernathy

Dani is an Enneagram teacher but she’s also an Author Accelerator Book Coach, who helps novelists write the stories they need to tell, so their readers can feel seen and can see others. She specialises in fantasy, soft sci-fi and Young Adult, and Dani merges how story works but also with how people work and this helps to create books that help readers have more empathy for themselves and also for others. 

Through her Rooted Writers Mentorship, Dani helps novelists embrace, plan and write the books they are proud of. Dani is a Capricorn, Manifesting Generator, INFJ and Enneagram Type 4. 

What I love about what Dani does is she really, really believes stories can change the world one reader at a time.

Today, we’re talking about the Enneagram, how it can influence a writer and how it can help a writer. 

The transcript below is taken from our YouTube interview.

What is an Enneagram and where did it originate?

Emma Dhesi: I suspect how we respond as writers may be impacted by the Enneagram type we are. I’m intrigued to know a little bit more about that but, just before we do, for those who don’t know about it or haven’t heard of it, could you give us a flavour of what it is? Do you know where it originates from? Where it came from? 

Dani Abernathy: The Enneagram is a symbol, it’s a circle with a bunch of lines, and the Enneagram is a psycho-spiritual personality system that helps you understand why people do what they do. 

Each type is a number, so Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, all the way to 9. There’s not a progression from worst to best, each type is valid. We actually have all 9 types within us but we have one dominant type and so that type is the type that holds the motivations, the desires and the fears of that type. 

The Enneagram is less about behaviour like you’re an extrovert or you do this thing, but it’s more about why do you do that thing? Lots of different types can have the same behaviour but the reason they do it is different. 

The Enneagram symbol

This symbol has been around a long time and there’s lots of math in it and stuff. It’s been around for centuries but the modern version of the Enneagram started in the 60s in Chile with a guy named Oscar Ichazo, then it migrated to the United States with a guy named Claudio Naranjo and it became popular in the 70s and the 80s. 

Since then it’s been picked up by cushion groups who have used it for growth and then also it’s become popular just as a psychological tool. 

ED: You did say one thing there which I love and I think absolutely resonates with what we do as coaches is that the Enneagram helps you understand why you did something, not what you did. 

That’s a question we’re often asking our clients, ‘Why has your character done this? Why has your character done that?’ and so we get to apply that to ourselves. 

DA: I use the Enneagram in my coaching both to help writers understand themselves and to build their characters. It’s such a powerful tool because it’s like you get a fast-track into what’s really motivating your characters, which is so important for writing an impactful story. 

Enneagram Type 1 – The Perfectionist

DA: Type 1 is called the Perfectionist but they don’t identify with that word because the 1 isn’t about nitpicking their life. They want to be perfect on the inside. They want to be morally good, so they fear they are not good, that they’re actually evil or corrupt deep down inside. 

They do their best to be good, so they are their own harshest critic, they have very high standards for themselves and that can turn into high standards for other people. They always know the right thing to do and they are very responsible people. They’re always going to do the right thing because they demand it of themselves. 

As a client, as a writer, the 1 wants a system. They want to know the right way to do things, they’re the type who’s most likely to – maybe not the only type – but they want their book to be perfect, to be the best it can be, so they’re going to put in all this time and energy, to follow the system, to revise until it is perfect. 1 often struggles to say, ‘Okay, this is good enough. I’m done.’ 

Enneagram Type 2 – The Helper

The 2 is the Helper. Type 2s, 3s and 4s are part of the heart centre and all of these types need other people to reflect back who they are. The 2 really hates to admit this but they give love, they’re so good at loving, and they give love in order to get love in return. 

They think, ‘If I love you and care for you then you’re going to love me and care for me back.’ But the 2 doesn’t express their needs, they think it’s not okay for them to have needs and so they have all these unspoken expectations of people, of how people should be caring for them and so that can cause some conflict. 

The 2 is really warm and friendly and charming and they are the type that makes you feel the best about yourself. They know how to help you and make you feel good. They’re called the Helper but they don’t necessarily want to help you move to a new house, they want to help you emotionally. 

I haven’t worked with a lot of 2s in my coaching but those that I have, sometimes 2s struggle to acknowledge the darker parts of themselves, the negative emotions, the sadness. That can be challenging for the 2, to go to those places in their book because they think it’s not okay to be sad. That can be a challenge for the 2. 

ED: We need to go there in our writing and I’m thinking particularly of memoir writers and I’m thinking of one in particular who just wants to tell the story but we know that story’s going to be so much more powerful and help other people more if they get messy and sticky and dark. 

Enneagram Type 3 – The Achiever 

DA: The 3 is called the Achiever. They think they are not worthy of love and so, in place of love, they want to get respect and admiration. They think, ‘If I can be the best, then people will at least admire me and respect me.’ 

They pick an area of their life where they’re going to excel and they excel in that area, so a lot of time 3s are pro athletes or doctors or attorneys or really successful business leaders. Whatever their field is, they excel in that. 

Jennie Nash is a 3, she runs Author Accelerator. Dallas Travers is my business coach, she is also a 3. They’re really smart. They are great leaders and in writing, 3s value efficiency and they don’t want to get stuck doing something that doesn’t work because it threatens their achievement, their success. 

If they’re doing something that doesn’t work, they want to move on from it and so it can be challenging for a 3 to do the long process of writing a book because it’s not always linear, it’s quite iterative and it’s a lot of rethinking and struggling in a lot of ways, especially if they’re trying to write something that’s personal to them. 

That can be challenging for the 3 and 3s often want to just move through the list and check things off and get things done when they need to go a little deeper and sit in that discomfort more. 

Also, 3s really want their book to be successful. They want to have a bestseller, they want to be thought of as a good writer and all that stuff. 

Using the Enneagram Personality System to Develop Unforgettable Characters

DA: The wonderful thing about the Enneagram in your characters is that it gives you a shortcut to who they really are deep down inside. A lot of character tools are like, ‘What time of day do they get up? Do they like cats or dogs? What’s their pet peeve?’ and those things don’t really matter that much. 

What really matters is who they are deep down inside, what they want, what they fear. When you know that, it changes the way you write them. It changes the way you think about their character arcs, how they interact. 

It’s also a great tool because you can differentiate your characters. You can make them each distinct and individual. When you know their type, you know how they’re more likely to communicate or respond in a situation. Your characters are much less likely to conform to whatever the plot needs and really be consistent within themselves. 

Live Enneagram workshop

DA: In this workshop, I’m going to tell you all about the Enneagram and I’m going to tell you about the types in even more detail than I did here. I’m going to give you some examples but I’m also going to give you tools to think about based on what you’re writing or who these characters are, how you can find their Enneagram types and use them to deepen your story, to write a more impactful story. 

Workshop details: 

The Personality of Fiction: Using the Enneagram Personality System to Develop Unforgettable Characters 

When: Thursday, July 25, 2024 

Where: Live on Zoom

Time: 11am Central Time, 5pm UK time, 2am Australian time (a replay will be available). 

How to register: https://emmadhesi.thrivecart.com/enneagram/

If you love personality stuff and you’re the person who takes all of the personality tests, come to the workshop, you’re going to love it and it’s going to give you some new tools and also some new insights into yourself. 

This workshop is going to revolutionise the way you’re writing, so sign up here: https://emmadhesi.thrivecart.com/enneagram/

Find out more about Dani Abernathy at www.daniabernathy.com. 

If you want to find out about Enneagram Type 4-9, the next in this series will be published next week or you can watch the whole of our conversation over at YouTube now.

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer's block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!