Using a Personality Test to Flesh Out Your Characters
This article was written by Nim, creator of the OW Community Platform & Engines of Chaos.
After a substantial amount of peer pressure, I finally took a personality test called the Enneagram. I didn’t really expect anything to come out of it, but the results actually surprised me with how true they rang. I then proceeded to read the descriptions of the other eight personality types (called enneas) and I realized just how much a person’s personality has the potential to affect their worldview. I then had another interesting idea. Could I use the Enneagram to get into the head of my characters in order to try to understand how they might view the world?
I decided to try to take the test as one of my characters, Aiden Brennus. On top of forcing me to think about things like, “Is he an optimist or a pessimist?” and “Does he prefer to rely on others or himself?”, the results told me a bit about what Aiden’s attitude in certain situations might be, as well as a subconcious reason why he might me so hellbent on accomplishing his goals.
The test usually only takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. If you guys would like to give the test a shot and see if it helps you understand your characters better and write for someone who’s worldview differs from your own, I would love to see the results. I haven’t actually written anything for Aiden since I took the test, but I can keep you guys posted once I do and let you know if I think the test actually helped me write him at all.
A link to the test I used can be found at https://www.eclecticenergies.
This article was written by Nim, creator of the OW Community Platform & Engines of Chaos.
