Rapid Story Development
How to Use the Enneagram-Story Connection to Become a Master Storyteller

This book offers a unique approach to storytelling, connecting the Enneagram system with classic story principles of character development, plot, and story structure to provide a seven-step methodology to achieve rapid story development. Using the nine core personality styles underlying all human thought, feeling, and action, it provides the tools needed to understand and leverage the Enneagram-Story Connection for writing success.

Author Jeff Lyons starts with the basics of the Enneagram system and builds with how to discover and design the critical story structure components of any story, featuring supporting examples of the Enneagram-Story Connection in practice across film, literature and TV. Readers will learn the fundamentals of the Enneagram system and how to utilize it to create multidimensional characters, master premise line development, maintain narrative drive, and create antagonists that are perfectly designed to challenge your protagonist in a way that goes beyond surface action to reveal the dramatic core of any story.

Lyons explores the use of the Enneagram as a tool not only for character development, but for story development itself. This is the ideal text for intermediate and advanced level screenwriting and creative writing students, as well as professional screenwriters and novelists looking to get more from their writing process and story structure.

Table of Contents

Dedication

List of Figures

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1: The Enneagram for Writers

Chapter 1: It’s All About Development

Chapter 2: What Is the Enneagram for Writers?

Chapter 3: The Enneagram System Essentials

Chapter 4: The Enneagram Model

Chapter 5: Enneagram Character Styles

Chapter 6: Character Communication Styles

Chapter 7: Character Conflict Styles

Chapter 8: Character Evolution and De-Evolution

Part 2: The Enneagram-Story Connection

Chapter 9: Character Beginnings and Endings and Change

Chapter 10: The Moral Component

Chapter 11: The Moral Enneagram

Chapter 12: The Middle: Moving the Story Forward

Chapter 13: Building the Supporting Cast

Chapter 14: The Structure of the Opposition

Chapter 15: Enneagram Story Teams

Chapter 16: Enneagram Story Team Roles

Part 3: The Seven-Step Rapid Story Development Process and Case Studies

Chapter 17: The Rapid Story Development Process

About the Author

Appendix 1: Quick Reference—Rapid Story Development Standing Definitions

Appendix 2: Quick Reference—The Nine Character Styles

Appendix 3: Quick Reference—The Enneagram Wings

Appendix 4: Example—Team Development in the Action-Adventure Genre

Appendix 5: Example—Team Development in the Romance Genre

Appendix 6: Enneagram Resources

Appendix 7: Writer Resources

Appendix 8: The Conscious Writer Manifesto

Appendix 9: e-Resources

Index

Jeff Lyons is a published author, screenwriter, and story consultant in the TV, film, and publishing industries. He is long-time creative writing instructor through Stanford University’s School of Continuing Education and is a regular guest lecturer through the UCLA Extension Writers Program. His writings on the craft of storytelling can also be found in leading industry trade magazines such as Writer’s Digest Magazine, Script Magazine, The Writer, and Writing Magazine (UK).