Twin Post Thursday:Fear Mice and Giants

December 15, 2016 at 7:31 PM (The Life, Twin Post Thursday)

Hey! Twin Post Thursday so head over to Ashley’s blog at Circle of the WordWitch to check out her twin post on the topic.

Today we’re talking about fear in writing. Now I love trying to generate fear in my readers but today I wanted to talk about generating fear in my characters. Fear is an excellent motivator. Fear that something will happen to you, fear that something will happen to those you love, or just a general fear of the inevitable heat death of the universe. All these things are great for helping move your characters along.

Finding out what your characters fear can be a way to figure out what they would be willing to try for. It also is good because it tells you what you can threaten. A character won’t move if they don’t feel threatened by something.

Some examples of things I’ve used fairly successfully in the past:

A daughter’s fear that she’ll lose her father’s love motivates her to become a spy.

A mother’s fear that her daughter is in danger sends her on a trip across the world to save her.

A man’s fear of his own power sends him to a university to learn magic.

A woman’s fear that her husband will die sends her to another world.

Each of these characters fears are what catalyzes them to action.

What do your characters fear?