by Christina Westcott
In my latest book,
the villain, Janos Tritico, is so driven by the desire to gain
ultimate control of the Scyran Empire, that he’s willing to form an
alliance with the alien Tzraka. Half a century earlier, humanity
waged a devastating war against these creatures, a conflict in which
Tritico himself was nearly killed. What type of person would lust for
power so fiercely that they would be willing to destroy everything
they sought to gain total control of it?
That answer can be
found in an intriguing personality typing system called the
Enneagram. Its origins are thought to date back to the ancient Middle
East, but it came into modern prominence in the self-help boom of the
1980s. A fellow author turned me on to a book entitled Personality
Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery by
Don Richard Riso as a guide to put together believable personalities
for the people who lived in my books. I’ve used it so often my copy
is dog-eared, held together by tape and full of underlines, yellow
markers, tea stains and cat hairs.
The Enneagram
separates personality types into nine distinct numbered groups and
this book further divides them by Healthy, Average and Unhealthy,
with personality traits and motivations listed for each. I chose to
make my villain an Eight, often called the Leader or the Boss. Oddly,
this is the type where we’re most likely to encounter the Alpha
Male. Healthy Eights are magnanimous, heroic and able to inspire
others. They seek power, but to use it for the good of humanity.
Conversely, the Unhealthy Eight also seeks power, but for his own
twisted reasons and he doesn’t care what he has to do to achieve
his goals. The two sub-groups are mirror images. A Neurotic Eight is
the most destructive of all types, while the healthy individuals can
be among the most magnanimous and heroic.
We want our
characters to grow, or disintegrate, in response to the changes we
put them through, but to transform in a way that is consistent with
their personality. After all, an introverted artist type wouldn’t
deteriorate into a megalomaniac—or if they do, you’d better give
us a good reason why it happened. The Enneagram supplies us with a
glimpse into our character’s personality traits as he rises to
become the hero (Luke Skywalker) or steps to the Dark Side (Darth
Vader).
These are a couple
of sites to take the Enneagram Personality test for yourself, just
for fun, and then as your character. Once you’ve established their
type, you’ll be able to find a wealth of information on how they’d
behave and craft a richer, more complex character.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this guest post are solely that
of the author and not of the SFR Brigade
A Hero for the
Empire: Book One in the Dragon’s Bidding Saga
Warning:
Space is no place to go it alone. We recommend taking along a
telepathic cat, an immortal mercenary, and a cybernetically augmented
Imperial SpecOps agent. You never know what kind of trouble you’ll
run into…
Blurb:
Commander
Kimber FitzWarren is running on borrowed time. The cybernetic
augmentations that give her superhuman strength and speed have also
shortened her life. The success of her next mission is imperative,
not only to save her Empire, but because this operation could be her
last. She and a cabal of idealistic officers are plotting to topple
the corrupt Imperial government. The key to placing missing military
legend Arianne Ransahov on the throne lies with the one man who can
find her, mercenary Wolf Youngblood.
Having
just survived an Imperial assassination attempt, Wolf is
understandably on edge when Fitz shows up in his bedroom at
0-dark-30. Except she isn’t there to kill him, but to plead for his
help. Help he’s reluctant to give—until another assassin pushes
the issue. Pursued by Imperial forces, left with no one to depend on
but each other, a passion grows between them that even their secrets
can’t destroy.
But before they
can explore what’s left of their futures, they have to survive this
mission.
Bio: As long as she can remember, Christina Westcott has had imaginary people living in her head. Cyborgs, mercenaries, wizards, dragons and cats. Lots of cats—shape-shifting cats, talking cats and telepathic cats. After continual nagging from this weird cast of characters inside her, Chris decided to turn them loose on the world in her science fiction and fantasy stories.
She’s
been an collector of not only books and cats, but of experiences,
riding in rodeos, driving racecars and flying airplanes. All good
experience for becoming a writer.
She
lives in sunny Southwest Florida where she delights in telling all
her friends “up north” the local temperature in the middle of
January and she proudly wears the moniker Crazy
Cat Lady.
She and the cats are hard at work on Cypher,
the second book in the Dragon’s Bidding Saga, where we find out
what happened when our heroes returned to the Empire and tried to
live their happily ever after—not an easy job for two Imperial
cyborgs.
You can catch her on her website at http://www.christinawestcottauthor.com or at http://www.facebook.com/chriswestcott33
Barnes
and Noble.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hero-for-the-empire-christina-westcott/1119633306?ean=9781619223547
Great post! I'm off to take the test as different characters and see how they fair :)
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