“Your threats are meaningless,” croaked Baron Deathgrimace as he aimed his particle cannon. “Your fate is sealed, Captain Chiseljaw.” The Baron laughed menacingly, then fired.
How many times have you read a story where the villain is just a thin spread of menace-jelly on a predictable plot sandwich? In order to make a plot interesting, the hero has to struggle to step up to a challenge created by a worthy antagonist.
Duh. That’s written in every how-to book you’ve ever read. Okay, great information, but how can you create an antagonist with depth?
I’m so glad you asked. Behold, the Enneagram Matrix.
Yeah, I know it looks like the window in Game of Thrones, but the Enneagram is a very ancient symbol – much older than GRR Martin. For this article, I will be using the Enneagram’s self-help personality growth and integration attributes to help you create strong and believable characters.
Here is a link to a simplified list of the personality types and their traits. A new page will open so you can compare as you read.
Eye-roll-able Psychobabble
You probably have a story that has stalled. Every writer has at least one work-in-progress that is quietly whimpering in some corner of their mind, neglected and covered in bugs. You’re not motivated to get into writing that next chapter because there’s not enough for you to latch onto, or you don’t know how to climb out of the layers of convoluted storytelling that have already been written. Some people call that ‘writer’s block’.
I don’t believe in writer’s block. I believe that plotting and creating backstory will always give the writer something to write. The plot should always be an extension of the hero’s flaws, and every character around them exists to demonstrate variations in how to deal with their own shit.
Oh, here we go with the real psychobabble. Light some incense.
If your hero doesn’t have any bad traits, they’ll never evolve. They’ll never find a suitable challenge, and your readers will be bored as your hero does nothing more than grimace and fight, and yell and fight, and do all the things that everyone has seen a thousand times before, with explosions or some kind of arbitrary melodrama. It is the personal struggle that makes things interesting, because people want to relate to a real character encountering a genuine struggle.
Unless you are writing a memoir, you’re just making shit up like the rest of us, and you’ll need a framework to build your characters. With a complex and interconnected framework, a writer can simulate believable emotional conflict. A true master storyteller integrates their own emotional experiences into their fictional struggles to make those simulated conflicts seem more genuine, and these masters will always have better reviews than the writer who creates superficial bad guys like my Baron Deathgrimace. Always.
So, if you have a story idea that has either stalled or is in an early stage of development, give this framework a try.
The Enneagram Matrix is designed to account for nine levels of emotional health, from Buddha-like idealism down to homicidal paranoiacs. This framework even accounts for the ways unhealthy personalities can manifest: obsessive-compulsive behaviors, alcoholism, schizophrenia, crippling phobias, martyr complexes, and all kinds of fun stuff.
It’s so easy to find flaws in others – that’s what makes us human – now EMBRACE IT! Use your cynical, judgmental nature to your storytelling advantage! That hero of yours you’ve bubble wrapped in gentle plot twists? That one you love so much? Time for your hero to grow up.
Write down 3 to 5 of your hero’s worst (non-physical) traits. Push the extremes! How much of a bastard can he be? How manipulative can she get? Get harsh. Get brutally honest.
I’ll wait. Just 3 to 5 words.
Okay. Stop crying. It’ll be okay.
As a demonstration, I’m going to use the character of John Wick from the eponymous movie as my hero.
Volitile. Suspicious. Defensive. Adheres to strict laws.
If that is all I had to work with, I’d look up John Wick’s bad traits in the Enneagram Matrix and find the best fit:
6 - LOYALIST
BASIC TRAITS: Security-focused. Vigilant. Defensive. Dualistic. Fearful of but attracted to authority. Suspicious. Cautious.
BAD TRAITS: Unpredictable. Panicky. Volatile if unsafe. Inferiority complex. Sarcastic. Belligerent. Attach to authority standards. Militaristic. Persecution complex. Fanaticism. Hysterical to escape punishment. Paranoid. Alcoholic. Passive-aggressive.
WHEN STRESSED: Jealous of others’ success. Strive to maintain their illusion of superiority. Devious. Deceptive. Sabotaging others’ success. Arrogant. Phony. Narcissistic. Psychopathic.
You don’t have to use all of the traits when you create your character, just find the closest fit.
Because John Wick is the hero of the story, he chooses to not fall to the worst of his worst traits, which would be, according to this personality type, hysterical, paranoid, and alcoholic. Occasionally in the movie, we saw him dip into his ‘stressed’ state when he sabotaged his ex-Boss’s success by burning his assets, and Wick was devious and arrogant at times. I have no idea if the scriptwriters used the Enneagram chart to develop his character, but he certainly fits within the Loyalist personality type.
John Wick also showed signs of having evolved state of the Loyalist:
Optimistic. Supportive. Healing and calming influence. Mediator. Communicator. Serene. Trusting of self and others. Patient.
Pieces of this play out in scenes when Wick was interacting with other trusted members of his underworld society, but if the scriptwriters wanted to make him less of a hero, they might have shown his not-so idealized traits, like when he was stressed. Could you imagine a scene where he acted phony or narcissistic, or jealous of others’ success? It would be hard to root for that character if he was acting like a complete douche. So, using this framework you can fine tune which traits you want to share with your readers.
Your hero should ultimately be likeable.
The Strong Connection
While revising this system for use in character development – the Enneagram Personality Matrix is supposed to be a self-help guide, so be careful, you might learn something painful about yourself – I decided to use the ‘when stressed’ link between the personalities as a guide for either strong allies or for the Prime Antagonist. It turns out that most of the supporting characters can fit into Wick’s ‘strong connection’ type.
The main bad guy – Wick’s ex-Boss – had the traits of the Loyalist’s strong connection, the Achiever personality:
3 - ACHIEVER
BASIC TRAITS: Focused on performance and maintaining self-worth. Social climber. Urge to be the best. Polished facade. Grandiose. Charismatic. Independent.
BAD TRAITS: Jealous of others’ success. Strive to maintain their illusion of superiority. Devious. Deceptive. Sabotaging others’ success. Arrogant. Phony. Narcissistic. Psychopathic.
WHEN STRESSED: Dissociates from all conflict. Numbs self out through drugs or alcohol. Catatonic. Schizoid/Multiple Personality.
EVOLVED STATE: Dedicated to individuals and movements. Community builder. Hard worker. Sacrifices for others. Lovable. Strong alliances built on mutual trust. Cooperative toward a greater good.
The female assassin who tried to kill John also demonstrated traits particular to the Achiever. The Boss’s son also had negative Achiever traits, which he demonstrated with his grandiose, jealous, and alcoholic behavior. Conversely, so did John Wick’s guardian angel, played by Willem Dafoe, who personified the evolved and basic states of the Achiever personality.
To close the circle (or, rather, complete the triangle), the strong connection to Achiever is the Peacemaker. Other characters who emulated the Peacemaker’s evolved traits were connected to the underworld’s ‘Management’:
Ambitious to be the best. Motivational to others. Self-assured. Energetic. Competent. Charming. Gracious. Authentic. Modest. Charitable. Gentle. Humor about self.
Specifically, Ian McShane’s character parsed out gracious assistance to help Wick. The strong connection of a Peacemaker is… Loyalist.
Boom. Triangle complete. McShane’s character provided balance and made sure that the playing field was even by letting Dafoe’s character know about the hit on Wick. The owner of the chop-shop, played by John Leguizamo, acted like a counterbalance to the injustice initiated by the spoiled kid.
Fear, Desire, and Need
John Wick became a feared assassin while in service to his Boss, and remained so until he encountered something greater, a higher purpose – love. According to the backstory, Wick did the impossible in order to leave his Boss’s control (killing a bunch of people, some with a pencil), and Wick earned himself the name ‘Boogieman.’ John Wick had become death incarnate in order to pursue life.
Ooh, that’s deep.
Let’s look at the Loyalist’s Fear, Desire, and Need:
FEARS: Not being supported. Having no guidance.
DESIRES: To find security and support.
NEEDS: Push through phobias and trust issues
‘Need’ in this context is what the character needs to face within themselves to evolve into a higher state – to become a better person. When Wick’s wife died, he was without guidance, and without a connection to life. It took the ex-Boss’s son breaking into Wick’s home, beating him up, stealing his car, and destroying the only connection Wick had left to his dead wife, a puppy, to force Wick to reclaim his role as death incarnate, and a reconnection to something greater than himself – vengeance.
The Need in Wick’s story is not explicit, but it is demonstrated in his connection to life through the puppy. Wick has issues trusting the living. He had invested all that trust into his wife, who died. And just when he transferred that trust into a dog sent to him through his dead wife (a symbol of her love, and life in general), the dog was taken from him. Once again, Wick had to face his Need—to trust the living.
Let’s face it, the entire movie is one long temper tantrum acting out of Wick denying his Need. Wick’s return to embracing life by voluntarily connecting to another dog at the end of the story is, symbolically, his embracing his Need – overcoming his trust issues he has with the living.
Wick’s Fear is having no guidance or support. When what little he had was torn from him, Wick reacted true to his stressed state and behaved like a psychopath. When the Boss learned what his son had done to Wick, the Boss tried to use his charisma to charm his way out of a bad situation, then he resorted to hiring assassins to stop Wick from seeking revenge.
Here are the Boss’s (Achiever’s) Fears, Desires and Needs:
FEARS: Being worthless
DESIRES: Feeling worthwhile. Has a purpose.
NEEDS: Learn to be internally-centered and other-oriented
He’s the Boss, and if it became apparent to the rest of this underworld society that the Boss couldn’t control one man’s behavior (first his son, then Wick), the Boss would seem to have no worth as any kind of valid leader, so he acted out of his Fear. To maintain his Desire to have a purpose – to be a leader – the Boss put out a hit on Wick, to try to erase the problem.
The female assassin who attacks Wick repeatedly is also an Achiever personality. She puts so much value on her skill as an assassin she breaks some core rules of this underworld society to prove her worth. She is also jealous of Wick’s status as being the best (see Achiever's Bad Traits).
With such a simple plot – kill all the bad guys – this move had to invest some kind of depth for the villains. The spoiled rich son of the Boss is clearly a worthless person with no redeeming value. Fearing (knowing) his worthlessness, the kid doubles down on acting on his worst behavior in order to try to prove he has worth – throwing money around and taking whatever he wants to prove he has power.
Dafoe’s character, our fourth Achiever personality is in touch with his Need and is acting as an ally to Wick, proving his worth while protecting Wick, and achieving his Need as being other-oriented. Dafoe’s character sacrifices himself for Wick, fulfilling his Need.
Can this work for your characters?
When your characters invest in their Fears and Desires, they fall away from their Need, and that’s why they’re the bad guys. When characters face and embrace their Needs, they no longer fear their fears, and that’s what it means to be a hero.
The plot is all about revealing how all the characters reveal their relationship with their Fears, Desires, and Needs.
Next Step
Take your hero and flesh out which of the positive and negative behaviors they might demonstrate. How evolved are you willing to make them? How unlikable are you willing to make them?
Whatever your hero’s personality type is according to the Enneagram Matrix, look at the ‘strong connection.’ How can the Prime Opponent fit into your Hero’s strong connection personality type? What about the other supporting characters? Can you make a triangle? Which of the other supporting characters have a strong connection to the Prime Opponent? How will they play off of each other?
Now, go play!
