Using the Zodiac to Develop Your Characters

I have a love-hate relationship with the zodiac system. I will tell anyone who cares to hear it that I’m a Leo, but I never look up my horoscope and I definitely don’t think that my entire personality can be summarized by the typical Leo characterization. In short - I think that the zodiac is a fun window into someone’s personality, but I don’t think that it’s the end-all be-all of who a person is. For that exact reason, I love using the zodiac system as a launching point and touchstone for my characters.

For one, there are a million websites that offer deep perspectives on the signs that are very useful. If I’m stuck on a certain aspect of a character’s personality, I might go back and do a quick search of the zodiac sign I’ve given them, and something I read can trigger my creativity and solve the problem. More helpful - at least to me - the zodiac gives me a great base to write characters who are different from me. As I’ve said, I’m a Leo - a fire sign - and I tend to process the world through my own lens. The zodiac gives me a cheat sheet into someone else’s head and allows me to step outside of myself and imagine how someone different from me might process the world. I love that it allows me to imagine and perceive life from another perspective, as well as giving me something to check my writing against when I worry that I’m having my character act as I would instead of how they would. This is a great tool when developing characters, and a great tool to help keep your characters consistent.

Another thing I love about the zodiac is that there are also a million sites that give insight into how people with various zodiac signs might interact with each other. Not only can I use the zodiac to help me write my headstrong Taurus heroine, I can also do some research to help me imagine why there’s a gap in the relationship between her and her Aquarius mother and the challenges and strengths in her relationship with her Sagittarius love interest. I can set up relationships for success using personality profiles that the zodiac suggests would be very compatible, set them up for failure by putting two dissonant signs together, or give a relationship some depth by reading how two signs that maybe on paper aren’t a perfect match might still form a strong bond - and the sacrifices they might have to make to be able to do it.

For these and many other reasons, I love using the zodiac to help me develop characters. The “obvious” way to do this might be to research every sign and then pick the one that sounds the most like what you want your character to be and go from there. But over the years, I’ve refined a process that allows me to get very quickly to one-to-three zodiac signs for each character that needs to be fully developed, and then go from there to craft their personality.

Air vs. Water vs. Fire vs. Earth Signs

If you don’t know much about the zodiac, here is a quick summary of what you need to know to use it as a character guide. There are 12 zodiac signs in all - which are supposed to be based on the relative position of the sun when you - or in this case your character - were born. Each of these 12 signs falls under one elemental category: a water sign, a fire sign, an earth sign, or an air sign. Though each zodiac sign is unique, the element that it falls under has characteristics that are universal to that element. An easy way to have compatible characters is to have each character fall under the same element, since zodiac signs with the same element tend to understand each other the best. Alternatively, an easy way to have conflict between characters is to have characters fall under the element that does not border their element.

The 3 Air signs are Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra. Air signs tend to be intellectual, analytical communicators. Though each has a heavier affinity to certain traits and a weaker affinity to others, these are your intelligent and creative signs who seek very balanced lives. They tend to be calm and collected, fair and impartial, and able to make decisions based on reason rather than emotion. Your air signs are most likely to focus on rationality in their lives and in the lives of others, prioritizing what is just or fair for the group and what makes the most sense. When aggravated, air signs can tend towards being cold and distant, and their idealism about a situation can sometimes blind them to reality. Still, at the end of the day, these signs are problem solvers and great abstract thinkers who are capable of finding the best option to keep everyone happy.

The 3 Water signs are Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio. Water signs are supposedly the emotional signs of the bunch, though how outwardly emotional they are depends on the sign. They’re characterized as fairly intuitive signs who have high levels of compassion and understanding for other people, making them good at tasks like negotiating or navigating the emotional states of others. Water signs are also often characterized as artistic, fond of colors and aesthetics, and are known to be fond of helping others and making a difference. However, this element can also be categorized as broody, moody, and emotionally unbalanced - swinging easily from happy to melancholy when the provocation arises. Overall though, they are the deep, altruistic, and often romantic signs of the zodiac.

The 3 Fire signs are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. Fire signs are categorized as the big personalities of the zodiac, the most outwardly confident and thrill-seeking signs. Though each sign manifests it differently, fire signs are known to be creative signs who are constantly moving and working on something new. Their emotional control is variably volatile, with quick-flaring reactions and even tempers. Fire signs give 100% in every aspect of their lives, from their jobs to their relationships with others. They tend to be driven by strong convictions and unwavering senses of morality. Aside from overreacting, fire signs can also struggle with how they are perceived by others - coming across as too vain, too strong-willed, etc. as they might steamroll over others. However, fire signs are ultimately fun-loving spirits who live life to the fullest and can be wonderfully self-sufficient.  

The 3 Earth signs are Capricorn, Taurus, and Virgo. Earth signs are known for their dependability and practicality. They are the cautious, careful signs of the zodiac who think before they speak and act while remaining true to their word. Earth signs tend to be creators and builders who are adept at formulating a plan and seeing it through to action, whether with literal buildings or in a more subjective sense. Earth signs like to live comfortably, accumulating possessions or wealth as a safety net and take the time to appreciate the finer things in life like a good meal or good company. Earth signs might struggle when being asked to take a risk or go out on a limb, and in their big-picture approach might struggle with considering the feelings and perspective of others. Despite this,  no matter what an Earth sign faces, they have a wonderful ability to bounce back and keep moving forward.

Just by understanding the elements above, you can cut your research time in ¼. As long as you have an idea of who a character is supposed to be, instead of researching every sign, you can choose the element that seems the most accurate.

Birthdays, Relationships, and Relative Ages

So - you have 3 signs that you’ve narrowed 1 character down to, but you actually have 6 very-important characters that you’d like to use the zodiac to build profiles for. They also fall across all 4 elements. You could go back to the beginning and look up all 12 zodiac signs again, but something that could be helpful is to take a step back and look at the relative ages and birthdays of your characters to see if that helps you take a shortcut.

Now, I know that especially for sci-fi, fantasy, or historical novels, the calendar base might be different. But for the sake of this methodology, examine the characters on a traditional January to December calendar. First, regardless of age, if all of your characters were to celebrate their birthdays in one year do you have an idea of where you’d like them to fall? That can help you eliminate zodiac signs that are not an option for certain characters. If you have an idea of the relationship you’d like two characters to have, you can use this as well: figure out one character first and then use that choice to drive the other character. Then, for characters born within a similar age window, do you know who should be the oldest, youngest, etc? Knowing that one character should be older than another can help you determine what zodiac signs are and are not an option for you.

To illustrate, let’s say that the 6 characters I mentioned above are A - your main character, B - her mother, C - her first love interest, D - her second love interest, E - her secret older sister, and F - her mentor. I know that I want A to be a water sign, and because I want her to be close to her mother and mentor, B and F are both water signs as well. Because her mother and her secret sister don’t understand each other, I might then decide to have E be an earth sign, the opposite. Lastly, I don’t want her relationship with either of her two love interests to be straightforward or obvious, so I might make C a fire sign and D an air sign.

Then, I might consider that even though they live in a fantasy realm that doesn’t have birthdays, if they were in our realm, A’s birthday would fall before her mother B’s, and E’s birthday would fall at the end of the year so her mother could celebrate it in secret without A knowing. Also, though D is older than C, C’s birthday would happen before D’s, temporarily lowering their age gap to 1 year.

So, I know that in order to give myself room to explore my main characters’ personality I want her mother to be the last water sign of the year, which is Scorpio, and my main character is either a Pisces or a Cancer. The last earth sign of the year, Virgo, I would assign to E. Then in order to give the widest gap between C and D, I’d make C the first fire sign of the year (Aries), and make D the last air sign of the year (Libra). Now, though F’s relative birthday is not relevant to the story, I want those two characters to be even closer than A is to her mother, so I might make them the same sign.

Now, instead of looking up all 12 zodiac signs I’m only looking up Scorpio, Virgo, Aries, Libra, Cancer, and Pisces. And - the only two signs I need to decide between are Cancer and Pisces. Taking it one step further, if I look up zodiac compatibility, Cancer isn’t considered compatible with Aries or with Libra. So in order to make my job easier, without even reading a single profile I might just decide to make A, and therefore E, a Pisces. Even though some of this logic might not make it into my novel at all, it gave me a good base to narrow my choices and minimize my research workload.

Nuances of the Signs

Once I’ve done all of the narrowing down that I possibly can, I might still be left with a few decisions. At this point though, because I’ve narrowed it down, the only thing left to do is to actually read some information on different signs and make a decision. At this point, I have 2 sites that give good, detailed explanations of each sign that I use to make my choices, but if you’re just starting out, it might be helpful to browse a few sites to find one that gives you the level of detail that you need to make a decision.

For reference, the websites I use are www.astrology.com.au and www.cafeastrology.com but like I said, really any zodiac site that gives you the level of detail you feel you need is the right choice!

You might read 2 or 3 descriptions of different zodiac signs and instantly feel that one just fits the character the way you imagined them. But if not, it can be helpful to think of each profile as a different version of your character and put them into a situation that is a key plot point in your novel. Each one would react slightly differently. Imagine how they would react to the situation you’re putting them in and most likely one interpretation will stand out as the way you’d like your character to react.

Cusp Zodiac Signs

Let’s say that you have a character that you’re stuck on. You know that for the most part you want them to be one sign, but there is something not quite right about that sign from what you’ve seen. At the end of the day, the zodiac is only a tool anyways, and you should obviously feel free to modify a character however you’d like. But, if you’re looking for a bit more support, the last thing to do is to research the cusp personalities of that sign.

A cusp is someone born in the first few or last few days of a zodiac sign. Because the position of the sun is never exact, people born in the first few or last few days of a sign can end up falling somewhere between one sign and the sign before or after it. For example, a Cancer born in the last few days of that date range might have aspects of their personality that more closely align with the personality of a Leo, even though their overall personality still more closely aligns with Cancer. Or vise versa, they may find themselves embodying most of a Leo’s traits, but with an undercurrent of Cancer as well.

If you’re stuck, looking at the Cusp personalities is a great way to attempt to find a happy medium for your character while still being able to access a wealth of resources in times of need. If I’m considering a cusp character, I’ll go back to the element I chose and look at its adjacencies. Because the zodiac always follows the same element progression of Air → Water → Fire → Earth it is impossible to have certain cusps. There will never be an Air/Fire cusp, or a Water/Earth cusp. But every other combination is possible, and might be exactly what you need. If you’ve already selected the main sign, you research its two cusp personalities and see if any of those are more accurate. If you’re stuck, even just selecting two elements that both feel like they could pertain to your character might be a good place to start. There are even websites that take into account Cusp personalities when considering compatibility, so this can still be a great way to frame a character with easy access to references.

Worst case scenario, if you’ve done as much narrowing down as you possibly can and nothing is jumping out at you, and you don’t want to consider another methodology such as Myers-Briggs or another personality type, then roll a dice. At the end of the day, this is only meant to be a guide to help you in your character development and consistency. Whether you’ve found the “perfect” zodiac sign or not, truly making your character three-dimensional takes more work and more development than what a zodiac profile will be able to give you. The zodiac is simply an efficient and easy place to start.

If you use this or other methodologies to develop your characters - please let me know in the comments, facebook, or instagram!