Posts by Natalie Colgate:
Five basic human emotions
Emotions are obvious and everywhere, but if you narrow them down, most emotions can be slotted into one of the following boxes:
GUILT
HATE
SHAME
REVENGE
LOVE
Your character’s main driving force will essentially encompass one of the above emotions. On the surface your character’s reactions could appear to be linked to an entirely different emotion. Defining your character’s underlying motivational factors will enhance their realism and will take your reader on a discovery as the character’s traits are exposed.
GUILT – depression, defensiveness, shyness, etc.
HATE – obnoxiousness, shyness, depression, etc.
SHAME – shyness, depression, fear, etc.
REVENGE – hate, introvertedness, obnoxiousness, etc.
LOVE – lust, fear, extrovertedness, etc.
See how they link up to each other on the surface, yet on closer inspection can mean very different things depending on what’s underneath?
Enneagram character types
The Enneagram is a system of defining personality types. Most of us have a mixture of about 3 of the main personality types, but are dominated by one. Personalities are, according to the Enneagram, divided into 9 categories. The reformer / perfectionist (type 1) Realistic; conscientious; principled; strives to live up to their own […]
NLP (neuro linguistic programming)
Neuro linguistic programming is the result of years of study of human reactions and reasons for reactions. It can be useful if you are stuck on how to portray a character’s reaction by referring to body postures and gestures. The easiest body part to monitor are the eyes. They can reveal a lot about […]
Six thinking hats
Applying the six thinking hats is a powerful technique to look at decisions from a number of perspectives, forcing you to move outside your regular thinking style to get a more complete view of a situation. The tool was created by Edward de Bono in his book ‘6 Thinking Hats’. Although this tool was designed […]