The Artist - Enneagram Type #4

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! I know you've all been waiting for this one, being writers and all. Enneagram type #4 - The Artist. Would you believe there's only five more types? Well, believe it. Remember, you can delve into awesome things with my writing class over on INDIE Books Gone Wild. You'll learn so much! Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

As always, I'll begin with links to the first posts of the series:
Type #1 - The Reformer
Type #2 - The Giver
Type #3 - The Achiever

I'll be using definitions of each type from a book titled: The Enneagram Made Easy: Discover the 9 Types of People. That's the link to the Kindle edition, if you choose to check it out for yourself.

Today, we talk about #4 - The Artist.
Definition: Artists are motivated by the need to experience their feelings and to be understood, to search for the meaning of life and to avoid being ordinary.

Artists are drama queens. They tend to make tsunamis out of every wave life rolls at them. In addition, they have a difficult time understanding how others don't see the tsunami. These people tell everyone they meet  about accomplishments, failures, and confusions in an effort to identify.

When I typed ordinary, above, it almost felt like a dirty word. I can't imagine being just like everyone else. I suppose most people would call that being normal. What the heck is normal, anyway? A house with a white picket fence, two and a half kids, and a golden retriever? I have all that but the golden retriever, and I'm far from normal. But I also don't like confrontation. That very firmly puts me out of the artist category.

Have you been trying to identify yourself as we go along?

Creating a character that's an artist requires you to be overly sensitive to the emotions in the world around you. But they have the potential to bring a whole new level of emotion to a story. Used wisely, these characters are confrontational, fun, and very rounded. They can also piss your reader off with their dramatic ways. Ah well, at least they'll be remembered. After all, that's what we strive for, right?

Time for today's exercise!
Put a character who's an artist into the following situation with a reformer: It's a Friday and both are waiting for an interview for a big job. While sitting in the holding area, these two strike up a conversation. Using what you know of the artist's tendencies to tell everyone everything about themselves, create a scene where the other people sitting nearby want to flee. Have some fun with it.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo