Fear and All It Pertains

Fear is what makes us human. It separates us from machines, guides many of our decisions, and dictates when we're gonna go to bed at night. Because let's face it;  if you watch a good horror movie at midnight, chances are you're not gonna go to bed before dawn. Anyway I digress, the point of this post is exploring the fears that your characters have. And I don't mean the typical ones like 'loosing a loved one' because unless you're a demented sociopath everyone has this. No, I mean something like a fear of the dark or a fear of spiders. I also want to take a look at how characters should/could react to their fears.

I always find it amazing that a ton of characters just don't have basic fears. All their fears have to be this noble bullcrap that makes them seem like a good person, as if it will help us like the characters more. Well you know what, the entire emotion of fear is a completely selfish thing! When you're truly afraid of something you rarely compromise with the people who need you to get something done. You're gonna do everything and anything in your power to avoid making contact/looking at/interacting with whatever it is you fear. So even though the pretty red-headed gypsy girl may be drowning in a pond full of filth, if your hero is a total germaphobe, he's probably gonna keep going on his merry way or not give his 100%  if he helps her.

Now that sounds terrible doesn't it? That poor guy I just created sounds like a total bastard but Joe, that'll be his name for now, could have other traits that balance his mysophobia. He could be a very giving person that would give the shirt off his back to save a sickly orphan that'll die anyway, he could clean the local poorhouse twice a week, all things that would generally make him seem like a good person. Balancing out traits is super important, and is slowly becoming this thing I say in a crazy tone whenever I read books. If you don't balance out his mysophobia with something like...a strong work ethic, then he's going to topple over into a character that will be seen as completely miserable. However if this is your goal then good for you, in fact you should just ignore a good chunk of this post and go do something else. Go bake a pumpkin pie, clean your refrigerator, or read and comment on another one of my other blog posts...Please?

Anyway, my obnoxious suggestion aside, this entire time you're probably wondering why Joe just doesn't get over his fears. After all, there's gonna be something in his life that he needs to deal with that also involves his phobia. And that's true, because life really doesn't care about our comforts and wants. However, people are ridiculously stubborn and selfish. Going outside your comfort zone is a hard thing to do, and takes a toll on a person mentally and sometimes physically. So even if Joe wanted to save our red-headed gypsy, it'd make his stomach twist in knots, his mind go back and forth on his moral responsibilities, and make him sweat freaking him out even more. Thinking back on all this, I wouldn't want to deal with my fears either. Three cheers for cowards!

I'm gonna go bake an apple pie now...