SEVEN HEARTS

The personalities of the characters in my novels are broadly based on the seven spiritual gifts listed in the 12^th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans and my own experience with people having these gifts down through the years.

I have found this seven hearts concept to be a useful character development tool for my writing. It helps me get inside the head of a character I myself am nothing like and write them as realistically as possible. However, this is still a work in progress, so please feel free to email me with your suggestions on how I can improve this concept.

I describe each personality by the job I think best fits this gift, the element I use in my novels as a symbol for this type, a famous person with this gift, their chief motivators and personality traits.

Soldier. Fire:

Samson is a good example in the Bible as is John the Baptist. General George Patton. General George Custer. Hillary Clinton. Madonna. John Wayne, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Connery, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (Most stars in Hollywood seem to be either this personality type or the physician/diplomat shown below). Edmund Rostand’s character Cyrano de Bergerac as an excellent example of this type.

In my Sword of Fire novels the following characters are Fire people: Moor, the Etruscan swordmaster. Gath, eldest of the Anakim.

Fire people are often aggressive, outspoken, stubborn, courageous and disciplined. They have a desire to dominate and/or be the center of attention. They have little or no filter between the heart and the mouth. They are quick to anger and quick to cool off. They can be abrasive, dogmatic and are often not well liked by the people around them, but are the one you want by your side in a fight. They make a good drill sergeant, but are not the type you want deciding if we should have a war in the first place. They are better at implementing policy than making it. People with this gift often have a commanding voice and a persistence that demands your attention (whether you wish to give it or not :-).

Physician/Diplomat. Water:

Abraham. Moses. Oprah Winfrey. Robin Williams. Bill Clinton. J.R.R. Tolkien.

SOF characters: Argeus, father of Daniel. Simon the priest and Nathan, brother of Rachel. Shammah, youngest of the Anakim.

Water people are merciful, softhearted, and empathetic. Diplomatic to a fault, they are slow to anger, but once angered, look out. They hate conflict and will avoid making a tough decision if they can. They are usually a “people person” and feel a real need to be liked by those they meet. Their moods can be a bit of a rollercoaster ride and they can be susceptible to bouts of melancholy. They are capable of being very skilled and intelligent in their professions and, at the same time, often not very wise when it comes to in their personal relationships.

Leader. Steel:

Joshua. Nehemiah. George Washington. Ronald Reagan.

SOF characters: Eleazar, second eldest of the Anakim.

Steel people have natural leadership skills and inspire confidence in those they lead. They are capable of making quick decisions based on gut instinct and still manage to get it right. They are very respectful of authority and often spend a good amount of time as second in command learning their craft. Van Johnson’s character in The Cain Mutiny was a good example of this type.

While the Soldier/Fire type makes a good sergeant, the Leader makes a good king. Their strength lies in knowing how to rally and inspire the troops. They lead from the front and by setting a good example, but they won’t take your load from you as a helper would. Because they have such a high respect for authority, they can take it personally when their own authority is questioned.

Teacher. Earth:

Solomon. C.S, Lewis. George W. Bush.

SOF characters: Daniel, prince of Asulon. Isolde’, Daniel’s mother. Dvorah, wife of Nathan. Abishai, third eldest of the Anakim.

Desires wisdom. Loves learning. Enjoys teaching. This type is called the Gift of Exhortation in Romans. They enjoy encouraging others. Teachers would rather prevent a problem before it occurs than solve it after it has grown large. They are at their best once they have dissected a problem and understand it before giving their opinion on it. Capable of making a wise decision if time is taken to analyze the problem and get good council from other personality types who can see things from other angles. While a fire person can be a great orator and make you believe something, a teacher can be a great communicator and help you understand it. When giving advice, they like to show a practical, real life example of the principle they are talking about. However, they are often the absent-minded professor type and will often have their mind so much on the things of tomorrow that they forget the needs of today.

That nerdy science or history teacher you had in high school who really enjoyed teaching and made the class fun was probably this personality type.

Helper. Wind:

Martha in the gospel of Luke. Laura Bush.

SOF characters: Rachel, princess of Eretzel. Uriah, fourth eldest of the Anakim.

This type wants to help others in practical ways. Humble. Likes to keep their hands busy and see to the needs of today. A good worker. Not very exiting, but has a steady, cheerful personality. Boy Scout and Girl Scout leaders, the moms who make all the kids costumes for the school play, the dads who repair all the kids bikes in the neighborhood are often this type of personality. Has a hard time saying no to requests and can get overworked or taken for granted. The nicest, most helpful of your elementary school teachers was probably this personality type.

Merchant. Gold: *

Joseph, the son of Isaac. Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

SOF character: Benaiah, fifth eldest of the Anakim.

Has the skills to make a business work, but also has a real desire to do good with his money. A gold person must remember to not get so focused on his business that he neglects his family. Sam Walton is said to have taken a six week vacation each year to help make up for the time he spent away from his family.

Scribe. Paper: *

SOF charater: Asahel, the sixth oldest of the Anakim.

This gift type is called teacher in Romans, but I think in those days this term inferred a teacher of the law. Those with this gift like order and things put neatly in their place. A good recorder of information, file clerk or librarian. Can get so focused on details that they forget the big picture. This is the person on the Titanic who stops and straitens out the deck chairs on their way to the lifeboats. Would not make a good boss as they can make dotting every “i” and crossing every “t” in their paperwork a priority over the practical needs of the job. Can become legalistic, capable of telling you what the letter of the law is, but not its spirit. Think of them as a human reference book. Can do well with long hours of research that would bore everyone else.

* Note: You may notice that I am a bit thin in describing the last two types, merchant and scribe, since I don’t know many self-made millionaires or librarians. If you recognize yourself among these types (especially the self-made millionaires;-) and find that I have gotten something wrong, or at least given an incomplete picture of this type, please feel free to email me with your corrections.

Opposites attract (usually):

I have a set of seven brothers in my novels who wed seven sisters. Here’s how I match their personalities in my novels when they marry.

Leader with Diplomat.

Teacher with Helper.

Merchant with Scribe.

Soldier with Soldier.

In the first three matchups I have a hard personality matched up with a softer person. Each personality is strong were the other is weak and vice versa. The exception to this in my novels is the Soldier/Fire personality.

In real life, the Soldier/Fire person usually marries a Diplomat/Water person (believing that this personality is the only one patient enough to put up with them-and they may be right), but the Fire person usually ends up bullying the softer personality to some extent. In my experience, the Fire personality is the type whose marriage most often ends in divorce. Therefore, I think a better match is Soldier with Soldier. If they can survive the early days of the marriage, then a mutual respect develops into a functional and equal relationship.