Character from the Inside Out: The Enneagram as a Fiction Writer's Tool — One-Day Online Fiction Workshop with Leslie Hinson Starts Saturday, February 6th, 2027
Enneagram Fiction Workshop: Believable Arcs | Feb 2027 Online
Character from the Inside Out Writing Workshop: The Enneagram as a Fiction Writer's Tool with Leslie Hinson
Saturday, February 6, 2027
One-day live seminar via Zoom, 11:00 AM – 1:30 PM ET
🌍 Class Times by Time Zone:
- Los Angeles (PST): 8:00 AM – 10:30 AM
- Chicago (CST): 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM
- New York (EST): 11:00 AM – 1:30 PM
- London (GMT): 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM
- Berlin (CET): 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Now Enrolling!
Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us.
Instructor Leslie Hinson is the author of the debut novel Salomé, published by Putnam in May 2026 under the name Leslie Baird. She works as a professional ghostwriter, editor, and book coach and holds an MFA in fiction from Sewanee, University of the South. She ghostwrites for organizations such as Gotham Ghostwriters and Kevin Anderson & Associates, specializing in memoir. She has taught craft and writing business classes in the United States and abroad, and recently began teaching and editing for the London Writers' Salon. She now lives in Lisbon, Portugal, where she is active in pigeon rescue, and always has a number of temporary resident pigeons in her home, along with two permanent resident cats. For her own writing, she is represented by Mackenzie Williams of Janklow & Nesbit.
Who is this class for?
This one-day fiction workshop is for writers who want characters who feel real and arcs readers believe. It is open to all levels, and narrative nonfiction writers will find plenty to use. You don't need to know your own Enneagram type, or put any stock in personality tests at all.
What to expect:
Sometimes we have to do terrible things to our characters. But terrible is relative. Some characters wouldn't mind being shipwrecked alone on a remote island. Some wouldn't mind getting canceled online, as long as it got them attention. The Enneagram gives you a map of how a particular personality comes apart under pressure and how it grows when things go right, which is exactly what you need when you're planning a character's dark night of the soul or their climb back out of it.
Leslie starts with each of the nine types' core misbelief. Type 1, for instance, believes it is not okay to make mistakes. From that single mistaken belief you can build a backstory, a way of dealing with other people, a deepest fear, and a deepest want. Once you know a character's real strengths and weaknesses, you can also build a plot that presses on exactly the right spot.
This online writing class runs as a live Zoom seminar: a lecture with examples from well-known characters, a group discussion, and time to work on your own project in class. You'll leave with a character-building roadmap and a plain-language breakdown of all nine Enneagram types to keep at your desk.
What are the writing goals?
In this course, students will write a character sketch of their protagonist, or any character in their current project, using a character arc worksheet completed during class. The goal is a believable arc that fits the genre, time period, and particular demands of your book. Students share and discuss their work briefly as a group at the end of the session. This seminar does not include individual written instructor feedback.
COURSE OUTLINE
Hour One: A brief introduction to the Enneagram, with each archetype shown through a well-known character. We'll look at how each type behaves under stress and how each one looks when it grows.
Hour Two: What if Dorian Gray hadn't been a 3, but an 8? What if Hamlet hadn't been a 6, but a 9? Often the answer is that you no longer have a book, and that's the point. We'll talk through how putting characters in situations that are stressful for them in particular drives a story.
Final 30 minutes: Students spend 25 minutes on a character arc worksheet for their own project, followed by a short group discussion.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- A working knowledge of the nine Enneagram types and how each behaves under stress and in growth
- A method for building backstory, fears, and desires from a character's core misbelief
- A character sketch and arc worksheet for a character in your own project
- A character-building roadmap and Enneagram type breakdown to use on future books
- A sharper sense of which plot pressures will break your character, and which ones won't
PAYMENT OPTIONS:
Tuition is $99 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.
ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:
- Instructor: Leslie Hinson
- Saturday, February 6, 2027
- One-day live seminar via Zoom, 11:00 AM – 1:30 PM ET
- Tuition is $99 USD.