Episode Description:
In this episode of What If? For Authors, Claire completes her exploration of writer orientations by diving into the world of emotion-oriented authors. If you lead with the heart when writing, this episode is for you. Claire explores how the emotional orientation manifests in different Enneagram types (especially 2s, 3s, and 4s), the unique strengths and challenges this style brings, and how emotion-driven writing can both elevate your work and stall your process if you’re not careful. Plus, get insights on how to balance emotion with action and logic to bring your stories to life with impact and clarity.
In This Episode:
What makes someone an emotion-oriented writer
How the Enneagram heart types (2, 3, 4) each engage with emotion in the creative process
Why 3s avoid emotion—and what happens when they slow down enough to feel
How 2s' people-pleasing tendencies can derail their writing
The way 4s can get stuck in emotional complexity and how to access universality through others
What to watch out for if your emotion center is strong but action or thinking is underdeveloped
Tips for managing overwhelming emotions that block progress
How to differentiate between emotions that need to be observed vs. acted on
The importance of emotional discernment for creative sustainability
Practical Takeaway:
Emotion-oriented writers don’t need to tone down their feelings—but they do need to balance them with thoughtful structure and forward momentum. Learn to discern which emotions are fuel for your writing and which are simply data to be acknowledged and released.
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Join the Conversation:
Are you an emotion-oriented writer? What challenges or strengths have you noticed in your process? Share your experience by replying to this episode post or tagging Claire on social media.
Happy Writing!
TRANSCRIPT:
Claire: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of What If For Authors. I'm glad you're here. My name's Claire Taylor and I'm an Enneagram certified coach for authors as well as a humor and mystery writer. My latest book, sustain Your Author Career is all about how to root out the unsustainable practices and our writing life and how to spot the right opportunities for us when they come along.
Check it out by going to FFS Media slash Sustain. Today we're finally getting to the topic that some of you might have been waiting for since I released the episodes on being a thinking oriented writer and being an action oriented writer. Yes, there is one other orientation that we'll talk about writers, and today we're gonna dig into it as we ask the question.
What if I'm an emotion oriented writer?
When we think of the stereotypical writer, we may think of someone who's, you know, bleeding onto the page, so to speak, pouring their heart out each time they sit down. Now, as authors, we know better, but this is probably what the general public thinks [00:01:00] of. \ That's not actually most writers, but it's certainly a thing for emotion oriented writers. You might not even feel like you're bleeding onto the page because leading with emotion is so natural for you that it seems like, well, duh. What are other people doing when they sit down to write?
When we talk about emotion in the Enneagram, we're often led to the heart center of intelligence, which is made up of type two, type three, and type four. Now, threes don't generally think of themselves as heart-centered people. They tend more toward action, but that's a reaction to how utterly unproductive feeling our feelings consumed to us if we measure our worth by results.
I mean, when that's the case, like who has time to feel their feelings when you're on a deadline? So threes reject emotion for the most part. Of course, it catches up with them eventually. And if a three really wants to transcend into their full power, they have a lot of unlearning to do around their narrow beliefs concerning productivity to make room for emotions to enter the [00:02:00] equation of their daily routine and creative processes.
Now, most threes don't do that because it scares the shit out of them to consider slowing down. So instead of admitting that it scares the shit out of them, which would damage their image of having it all together and being a well-oiled machine, they will sometimes pretend that it doesn't scare them, and then they'll let that sort of constant action.
Instead of emotion be an ever-growing unaddressed issue, eventually it brings the whole thing down. I've seen it over and over and over again. So three is if you take one single thing from all these episodes, let it be that you don't have to understand how slowing down and connecting more with your heart center will take you to the next level for it to be true.
American society and capitalism in general rewards so many average and unhealthy behaviors of the three that generally this type stays stuck in average and low levels of health. As a result of that, we rarely get to see healthy threes in the wild. So if you [00:03:00] wanna stand out three, which I know you do, this is the path to it.
Slow down. It seems counterintuitive, but slowing down and feeling those feelings and incorporating them, integrating them into your process. Is the path to that big success that you've been looking for?
Type twos and type fours are much more obviously feeling oriented types. So twos, these are the helpers. They tend to feel more comfortable in the world of other people's emotions. And fours, the individualists tend to feel more comfortable in the world of their own emotions. Now these approaches both have gifts and drawbacks that come from them.
So if you're two and you ignore your needs and emotions too much. What can happen is that you start to project them onto other people and try to respond to your emotions in that way. Try to tend to them through other people. It doesn't work. It doesn't work no matter how hard you try, and the result is often very subconscious, emotional manipulation of other people via people pleasing.
This will trip up your writing [00:04:00] life in a heartbeat as you think about how everyone else will feel about your book. Unfortunately, not everyone else will feel the way you want about any given book. So the people pleasing tendency starts to go haywire, which makes getting the words down really difficult if that's a pattern that you have.
But when two start to tend to their own emotion, they really unlock a world of self-healing that shines through in the books and makes it easier for them to decide what to write next. They start by policing themselves confident the the result will please some people, and those are the right people.
Forests can become so interested in their own emotions that they get caught in a cycle of trying to express something truly unique. And this can turn into overcomplicating and obfuscating what universal thing wants to be expressed through the writing. By turning their attention more often to the emotions of others, type four, the individualists will start to find.
Those interesting universal emotions and experiences to depict in their book with their unique voice layered over it. Of [00:05:00] course. So it's still unique, it's just also universal. Without tuning into the emotions of others, the fours writing can feel a little bit like, aren't I special? Tell me how special I am.
And that's like, you know, why would others wanna read that? I hate to be so blunt, but sometimes, you know, you gotta hear it. So just because a type isn't in the heart center doesn't mean that it can't be an emotion oriented writer. For instance, I find a lot of sixes, sevens and nines tend to be emotion oriented in their writing, and you might be thinking sixes.
Really? Yeah. I've noticed a sort of weird trend where a lot of authors who are sixes will mistype themselves as fours. So this sort of emotional orientation is probably why the doubt that sixes get stuck in the self-doubt, doubting of others. That can create a torrent of emotions and often at the heart of it is fear and doubt, but it can be an overwhelmingly emotional experience.
Now, that's not the same deep emotions that we see with the fours, but it can make sixes, [00:06:00] emotion oriented, writers all the same. Their protagonists will tend to be full of doubt and wondering who they can trust as well. So you can, if you're not sure if you're a four or six, take a look at the protagonists you've been writing.
Sevens can be extremely passionate about a lot of things, and those are the emotions that they often bring. So if you're a self-preservation seven, for instance, that's a subtype of seven. The enthusiast, . This subtype, the self-preservation seven is sometimes called a network subtype. So you're likely to focus on your social connection with others, and this can bring you more into the world of emotion.
There are a lot of emotions that you won't feel comfortable bringing into your books in your writing life, but you can still be an emotionally oriented writer as this as a seven, or as you know, specifically a network subtype. But. Uh, one to one. Seven is the fascination subtype also. Uh, very much. They look like fours sometimes because they're in this sort of fantasy.
They like to find the weird, odd things, but they like it for the sense of novelty. , more so than the fours looking [00:07:00] for a sense of identity. And then nines tend to be emotional oriented writers as well. So the attunement of a nine to emotions is usually a result of wanting to monitor everyone's emotions to diffuse those that may be on the verge of leading to open conflict.
So nines get quite skilled at that kind of emotional work, and you can really feel it in their writing. They're clued into other people's worlds when it comes to their own emotions. Hmm. It's really only the more peaceful ones that are allowed free reign for the nine. The peacemaker, things like anger, disgust, or even ecstatic joy, pose a possible disruption to things and are sort of held at bay.
Now, this also comes through in the writing,
okay? So if you're an emotion oriented writer who writes your characters from what they're feeling outward, you probably. Don't need as in depth of a character sketch ahead of your first draft that might actually trip you up if [00:08:00] you assign things to the character that turn out to be emotionally incoherent.
As you write, you don't wanna block your progress by realizing in a scene that the outline had a character getting pissed and storming off. When your emotional attunement is telling you that they would actually shut down Andro into themselves instead. So that conflict of what you've planned for them versus what you're actually sensing from them as you attune to them as a character, can lead you to feeling stuck and you know, moving on to other things.
Instead of writing that scene. You may also encounter an editor that tells you to pull back on the mellow drama. And while you could always take a step back and ask yourself if you filled the pages with so much emotion that nothing is. Externally happening. You might also consider the benefits of writing melodrama so romantic.
That's a sub genre where the authors who write the best melodrama tend to sell the most readers of that genre are looking for the deep angst and longing of the heart [00:09:00] dragons. Sure. Faye, yes, please. But without the deep emotions that connect us back to those tumultuous teen years. The books feel, they feel very tropey and flat.
So melodrama exists for a reason. Plenty of readers want to dive into a book that emotionally wrecks them, and then maybe if they're lucky, builds them back up again. Most people have trouble accessing their emotions, and you as a heart oriented type, you provide the remedy. So give yourself the opportunity to push back against any sort of advice telling you to tone it down.
They may have a point, but they may just not be a very emotional person themselves, and it may make them uncomfortable, so you can push back there.
If you are an emotion oriented writer, then probably your action center or your thinking center is likely to be your least developed. If action is your lowest orientation, then it might be that your story gets bogged down from time to [00:10:00] time by emotional language without enough happening externally to balance the stakes and keep readers turning the pages.
So be careful that you're not trying to drown people in an emotion for too long without a break. If you're a four, especially, you're gonna be more comfortable soaking in an emotion for a long time than most people. And your need to keep drawing people deeper and deeper without a break can actually undermine your intended effect.
It may overload people and then they just wanna like get on with it. Maybe they put the book down or they just skip to the next chapter, or they get frustrated, which is not a great experience. If thinking is your lowest orientation, then you might have accidentally filled your pages with characters who act emotionally and dramatically, but none who really have any sense in them.
So readers will start to pick up on this and get frustrated that everyone seems to be acting irrationally. You may also get so caught up in the emotion of a scene that some of the basic logic ends up missing. So like, why did they do that? [00:11:00] Right? Why did they feel that way? Exactly. They know the reader's clear about how this character feels, but why do they feel that way?
Is it the character that feels that way or are you projecting your own emotions onto them? That happens sometimes with emotion oriented writers. Um, emotions without thinking can lack clear continuity for readers too. So you may forget to wrap up plot points or develop the story world into something with its own order and logic behind it.
If your thinking center is your lowest orientation.
Now the antidote to these possible pitfalls is to first recognize that you might be falling into them, and then possibly add a round of revisions to check specifically for those issues.
Or you can hire an editor that is oriented toward that lowest center of yours.
They'll catch the things that you don't, but again, you wanna value that emotional orientation, so it's okay to push back against that editor
in so far as your writing process. Emotional oriented [00:12:00] writers can sometimes let those emotions dictate when they can and cannot write. To an extreme that it becomes a problem for meeting deadlines or finishing the manuscript. I mean, sometimes you just have an absolute shit day no matter who you are, and you can give yourself a little bit of compassion and you know, let it not be a writing day.
That's okay. That's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about when it becomes a problem. If you're an emotion oriented person, it's important to learn that not every emotion you feel needs to be totally believed for it to be important information that you observe. So feeling victimized isn't marching orders to strike back, right?
Feeling inadequate doesn't mean that you're not qualified for the task. Feeling resentful doesn't mean that you've necessarily been wronged. Our emotions are this sort of chemical reaction between what we perceive in the world, our beliefs about how the world works and our place in it, and everything that has ever happened to us leading up to that [00:13:00] moment.
For example, if you sit down to write and you feel like, oh, what's the point? I can never do this I justice. That doesn't mean it's true. That doesn't mean the emotion is true, right? It's valid that you felt it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the thought associated with it is true. , and it doesn't mean that it would be harmful for you to try to write the damn book anyway.
You feel inadequate. That is a product of a chemical reaction side of you. What beliefs are behind it? Maybe you believe that real writers are already up to the challenge before they start, or that if you were talented enough, you wouldn't feel this way. Maybe you believe that you should be able to nail it on the first draft.
Now, none of that is strictly true, but that doesn't mean that it won't lead to that emotion of inadequacy.
Whereas thinking centered, people generally need to learn the skill of feeling an emotion rather than thinking about it. Your crucial skill as an emotion oriented person is to [00:14:00] develop discernment about which emotions aren't worth taking the time to sit in. And ought to be noted, deconstructed, and then set aside.
Meanwhile, there are probably emotions that you experience frequently that are calling you to action, but you're not listening. So those emotions will keep coming back. Emotions aren't reality, but they are important information that helps us connect more to reality. So for example, let's say you sit down and write and you're feeling resentful that you only have half the time you'd planned for writing because your stupid husband can ever be bothered to create a system where he puts his things in a specific place.
So he couldn't find his cell phone this morning and was getting angry and worked up about it because it was making him late to work, right? So you went and helped him find it, and by the time he was at the door, your writing time had been eaten up. You resent him for that.
So let's hit pause because there are multiple paths forward. When we meet the emotion of resentment, we can [00:15:00] decide that we'll make it the other pers, oh wait, we can decide that we'll make the other person pay for the way we feel, maybe with passive aggression or other forms of punishment. Now, this will hurt the relationship, not strengthen it, but when we're considering it as an option, we're not usually thinking about that.
We're thinking about control, trying to regain control, not. Strengthening connection. Another option is you can do nothing about this resentment and let it build until you explode with it. You can maybe try to force the other person to do things differently so you stop feeling resentful. All of these things are externalizing the problem, assuming the issue of your emotion is a result of another person's action and not a chemical reaction side of you.
So there is another option. It's a less pleasant one, but more emotionally mature one, and that's asking yourself what actions you need to take for yourself to protect from letting things get this far Again, that might look like [00:16:00] doing less for the other person. Don't help him find a cell phone next time.
Maybe even express to him because expression is really important when it comes to managing. . Emotions in the sort of anger family. Maybe even express to him that his grunting and frustration is interfering with your ability to focus on your writing. Then decide how you will meet your needs next time he does that.
Even if he doesn't like the way you do so, right? This is not telling him what he needs to do and making sure that, well, if he doesn't do it, then I guess it just won't get done. This is you telling yourself what you need and enforcing that with yourself next time. So this could be closing the door when he's making a fuss or going to work outside the house somewhere.
And when you do that, be sure to buy yourself a nice coffee or tea or something to make it a better situation than the one you have at home. So you don't resent the time spent moving somewhere else. Resentment is a call to action from the person feeling it, not justification to punish [00:17:00] others. But when we're in it, we completely believe, wait.
When we're in it, if we completely believe that emotion, we might not take the action needed to keep it from visiting us every morning.
Resentment isn't the only emotion like this. Of course, there are lot of others that are calling, not for you to sit in them and stew on them, but calling for you to step back and examine what beliefs you have that are causing them and what healthy, productive action they're calling for you to take. So sometimes we don't want to take the action that our emotions are calling us to take because it pokes at our core fear.
So maybe the action the emotion is calling for would lead you to disappointing or upsetting people. If one of your patterns is people pleasing and the idea of action that will cause people to be mad or dislike, you will be terrifying. That does not mean it's not the healthiest course of action for you and your [00:18:00] wellbeing.
When an emotion calls us to action, but we refuse the action, we end up stuck with a lot of that emotion. It just keeps coming back. The emotion of loneliness, for instance, may be calling us to take a risk and meet new people, some of whom we'll have conflict with or who may not like us. Loneliness often calls us to reconnect with parts of ourselves that we've cut off or stifled, which can be a really scary thing to do.
You cut off those parts of yourself for a reason that made sense to you at the time, right? Sometimes loneliness is actually a call to end a relationship with someone who is bread crumbing or neglecting you to make space for a relationship with someone who is ready to connect deeply with you and make you feel truly seen and important.
But all of that shit is scary. All of the action that that loneliness is calling you to take is scary. It doesn't change the reality of what you're being called to do. By the loneliness though.
Even if you're an [00:19:00] emotion oriented writer, there will undoubtedly be emotions that you're not comfortable feeling, and therefore you suppress or avoid them. So sometimes the emotions are darker, ones like embarrassment or remorse, but sometimes they're lighter ones like joy and excitement. An emotionally healthy individual isn't someone who feels the quote unquote good emotions only.
If there's someone who can feel all the emotions without running away and can observe those emotions and validate them without automatically believing them and discern what action the emotion is calling for, and then of course, take that action.
What I love about emotions is that they push us toward our higher self. Things like loneliness, sadness, and overwhelm. Push us toward connection with others if we know how to interpret them. Things like joy, amusement and awe. Remind us what's waiting for us when we get out of bed each morning. Anger, irritation, and resentment.[00:20:00]
Call us to establish boundaries to protect ourselves and others from harm. Now all of these emotions can also call for us to try to control other people instead. But if we take that off the menu trying to control others so that we don't have to deal with our own emotions, then those emotions call us toward healthier things when we sit in the emotions without heeding their wisdom.
We end up with this excess of the emotion that doesn't do us any good at all and can very quickly lead us to making foolish decisions for our lives. This is where a lot of authors start to burn down their career. Emotions are this magic power that we must each learn how to wield, especially emotion oriented writers.
The magic can build beautiful worlds or it can destroy everything in its path.
If you're an emotion oriented writer, learn to use your [00:21:00] emotions as a gift. Value your connection to them, and listen to the ancient wisdom they're passing along to you. If you do this, you'll bring something special to your readers that they can't get anywhere else, but you have to be willing. To do the scary thing that your, your emotions are calling for you to do or else you're not using them.
That's it for this week's episode of What If for authors, if you enjoy the content I provide for free on this show, please take a moment to leave a review on iTunes, Spotify, pod Bean, or wherever you listen. I very much appreciate it. Until next time, thanks for listening. Happy writing.