Fictional characters don’t only have wants and needs, often their actions are driven by three types of fear. It’s classic human behavior. We all have them, whether we admit to them or not. And fears make for relatable, sympathetic characters. Unless the fear drives something mean, horrific or downright evil.
Psychology 101
The things we fear in some way threaten a loss of control. Fear is a driver, both positive and negative. Fear can make us hide away, lack commitment, refuse to try for fear of failure. It can also drive us to extreme efforts, some extraordinary, some desperate, dangerous, destructive to ourselves or those around us.
Fear breeds irrational behaviors that bring consequences, sometimes the very thing we try to avoid.
For each of the fears listed here, you can think of examples and the kinds of behavior that results. Rarely good, rarely productive, rarely kind.
Physical fear
Injury and illness, the fear of handicap or incapacity. They threaten our independence, livelihood, our ability to take care of loved ones. Often they threatens our identity as a ‘whole’ person.
In bad environments, physical fears include confinement, incarceration, torture.
Physical fears include vertigo and the fear of falling, water and drowning; attacks by wild animals, or other people in unsafe neighbourhoods. Perhaps it’s a fear of infection and contamination.
Moral or existential fear
Fear of death is the classic. It drives people to extreme lengths to avoid or defer. For some, it is existential dread. Is life meaningless? Will we leave no legacy of mark on the world? Some people fear an unremarkable life of ordinariness, never rising to their potential. Perhaps we fear what comes after? Is it heaven, hell or the void of nothingness?
Persons of faith take a double hit when it comes to the spiritual punishment of ‘sin.’ When everything is sinful, and no one is perfect in the eyes of the deity, the path to redemption is always out of reach.
Moral fears cut both ways. What we do to other people and what others may do to us. All those moral failings, lying, corruption, treachery, betrayal. We fear falling victim to others. Conversely we fear the consequences when our own failings are exposed.
Morality plays on the disconnect of outward appearance and inner reality. How can we ever trust in others? And will they see through the mask to our unclean souls? To our lack of moral fiber? It’s not just what we do ourselves, complicity or collaboration in the crimes of others threaten ruin.
Of course, you have to believe in a moral or societal code to begin with, and feel the weight of judgement of other people.
Emotional fear
So many fears, so little time: intimacy, rejection, abandonment, humiliation, dependence, isolation, inadequacy. Then we get the social fears, the loss of status or respect, making mistakes in etiquette or social codes.
The emotional fears do so much lasting damage. A fear of intimacy causes us to push people away. A fear of betrayal turns to jealousy. Fears of abandonment, inadequacy and dependency create toxic relationships that break down precisely as imagined.
Fully loaded
Only in editing the current work have I discovered my protagonist is fully loaded with all three types of fear.
Yari has to navigate a dangerous world filled with people determined to inflict a violent death. That’s her physical fear. While she learns to fight, she teeters on the brink, reluctant to harm or kill anyone, justifiable as it is. That’s her moral fear.
She’s also dealing with abandonment issues. These are false, both parents were taken, one by sickness, the other by the Empire, but the trauma manifests as abandonment. This makes forming new relationships hard. Her talent to sense lies reduces her ability to trust others or to open up to intimacy. These are her emotional fears.
In another story, Aeryn has actual abandonment issues with all the consequential damage to relationships, trust, and intimacy. Physically capable and trained for combat, violence is a hazard rather than a fear. It’s a complex moral issue she has to navigate on her own terms. Drafted into a religious order, she questions the faith, but it’s difficult to reject such indoctrination. She desperately wants to leave, but fears for the children with no one to save them. Her fear for the safety of others is one of her redeeming characteristics.