I was thinking about my characters’ fears and how each of them express it, or not.
My characters
Marcus, the self-exiled prince, is always honest about his fears because he thinks he’s a weak prince and hence, he plays into that role. He’s also used to running away from his fears. His fear is the fall of the kingdom.
Bethany has been a leader type all her life, so she doesn’t show her fear and has learned to deal with it when it comes around. She fights the fear of being all alone or friends dying. Unlike Marcus, she faces it head on.
Tar’s fear is dying from his curse and he’s accepted his fate, hence, he doesn’t fear his inevitable death anymore even if he were to die in the war. So, he has this calmness about him for the most part.
Scorvius deals with his fear in the form of jokes. He’s avoiding the number of deaths around him and the actual war going on by laughing. He would still face it, but pretend it doesn’t bother him that much.
So, what are your characters afraid of? Do they ever admit it to others? Do they fight the fear or run from it?
Nirvana is a weird case.
She fears losing, but since she is prone to always winning she is afraid of that too.
Nirvana sees no need to do that because she is too prideful of a woman.
Nirvana is trying to come across opponents she felt were strong enough to kill her. Yet she gets either disappointed or finds someone worthy then ends up killing then and still gets disappointed.
Genesis is not easy to unleash, but she will reveal herself in due time. It is just a matter of when that will happen.
Another character with fears is Jorildyn.
Jorildyn fears that she will never truly be happy and not bored.
She comes from a highly rich family where she has everything almost handed to her.
She got a bit bored then left home to become a member of the Knighthood Federation, to try and do something else with her life.
Even though she is steadily but slowly climbing the ranks, she is sorta happy being a Knight because it comes with outstanding perks and benefit.
Still, she is starting to get bored and becoming unhappy with certain things.
So, Jorildyn is recklessly in a sense searching for way to kill her constant boredom and find ways to make herself happy.
That’s all I got. Wow, I didn’t realize I was trying to make Jorildyn a somewhat copy of me far as mental health issues.
Alma is afraid of mortality, just like anyone, but more so of losing the one’s he loves to death rather than his own demise. He knows he will live a lot longer than most of the people he loves, and he’s terrified of the day he starts to lose them. He copes with this by simply pretending it will never happen, putting it out of his mind and refusing to think about it too much. But that isn’t exactly healthy, because it’s going to leave him severely unprepared for when it does inevitably happen.
He’s also terrified of becoming like the person he most fears and hates. Which is probably his greatest fear, and unfortunately, also something that is going to happen in the story. At least to a certain degree. He will take on some ugly traits that his enemy has and will have to overcome these flaws that he inherited from the person he most despises. He knows that he is prone to picking up these specific traits, which is why it scares him so bad, but can’t prevent it. Eventually he has to face this fear and accept that he let it happen as a sort of self fulfilling prophecy so that he can work to change it.
Well her sister and girlfriend know, since her sister is cursed for the same reason, but she’s realized she can’t do anything about being un-cursed lol.
Thank you! He is the protagonist, but I plan to have him flip back and forth between hero and villain, because he does get misguided and takes on some of the views his enemy has. In the end he learns from it and swings back around to be a hero, but it will take learning the hard way for him to get there.
He hasn’t yet. I’m still working on the first book and intend to write three, so it’s possible he will tell someone in the later books. But as of my plan for the first book, he keeps this fear to himself.
Alma does want to talk about it with someone, but he’s not good at dealing with his emotions and is afraid to bring it up with anyone that matters.
I don’t think anyone suspects that he has this fear yet, but I do intend for a more intuitive character to eventually figure it out and have an insightful moment with him where they discuss it. But, again, this will probably happen in the later books rather than the first one. Unless my plans change, which they do tend to do sometimes!
Doing something she has never done and something that will be so different than the norm.
I believe Jorildyn a bit exaggerated because she wants the most outrageous turn in her life where she can never be as bored as she is now.
For example: If Bob is a struggling office worker who has a mundane and dreary life, that changes drastically when an alien invasion happens and he is the chosen one to save humanity from ruined.
Jorildyn has such boredom fits that she is looking for things like in such a way as the example I’ve listed to see if that will cure her boredom enough.
Scorvius was just going to be a character that doesn’t take things seriously But he turned into a character that deals with fear with laughter that eventually turns into an instance of insanity.
I can only think of a couple of people who have chronic fears:
-Cabal - (The Only Half Saga) he has two fears, one is following his mother’s footsteps into madness and a very real fear of drowning. Both could be considered mental disorders really. He’s very strong and athletic, but never had the opportunity to learn to swim (living in a post apocalypse environment, there never came the need)
-Steve - (Brothers Martin) - Steve’s crappy past has made him afraid of giving his love to others for fear of losing them tragically.
-Tom - (also of BM) - He has a phobia about being physically touched, much due to how touch would most likely illustrate to another that he’s a cyborg - a fact he’s been trying to hide from people for years.
Sara is afraid of anything to do with her old family. She actively avoids this until her work needs her to confront her brother in law. And eventually, for the same work, she has to willingly go back to her old house and family.
Malika is afraid of upsetting the balance of the court - so afraid, that even though she’s technically the highest authority, she barely does anything - she’s all talk, no work, but she has to come to terms with and change this in the story.
In this world, cyborgs are extremely rare, and usually found in military experiments (Which technically he was - against his will). It’s also a reminder of a VERY dark time in his life - and a reminder of how a part of his life got lost in the process. He had to rebuild his memories (Which never came back completely) and he hasn’t felt normal since.
She really doesn’t care to get over it - for a long time it wasn’t even a consideration that she has to get over it. She just wants to learn to live with it, and attempts her very best to ignore it. And of course, that does not work out.
Malika doesn’t even realize she has this fear. She’s been talking about changing things up, ruling with an iron fist and what not, but she actually doesn’t do anything substantial, nor will she, if left to her own devices. She thinks her position will protect her no matter what happens, but when she sees that her position actually makes her more vulnerable and that there are people out for her blood, and some stuff goes wrong, betrayals happen, she sees a choice before her: to stay the coward or to fight for the truth - cement her position and protect herself, or risk it for Sara and her gang, and do what should’ve been done years ago (she basically cuts off her state from the empire and hands it over to rebels). And this choice is ultimately the climax of the story.
But he turned into a character that deals with fear with laughter that eventually turns into an instance of insanity.