Nietzsche said, “What does not destroy me makes me stronger.” I’m not sure if that is strictly true. Sometimes that which doesn’t destroy us makes us makes us weaker because it makes us fearful of living, fearful of more trauma, fearful of fear itself.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”
In life, we often have to do the thing we think we cannot do. Too many times during the past eighteen months I’ve felt that I can’t survive the pain of losing my life mate (we were together for 34 years). Panic kept washing over me, as if I’d been set down in the middle of an alien world with no idea how to deal with all the horror being thrown at me. I feared every new step, every change. I’d been especially fearful of growing old alone. Sometimes I still am. I’ve seen what dying can do. It’s a terrible way to end one’s life, and it seems even more terrible when one has to face it alone. Of course, there’s a chance that it will be decades before I have to face the grim reaper, and who knows what will happen until then?!
Well, I do know one thing that will happen: this discussion about life, writing, and the writing life!
So, what do you fear? How does that fear work its way into your stories? What do your characters fear? How do they deal with the fear? Is the fear a plot driver, something that drives the story forward or is it more of a subplot, a way of developing your character? Is the fear justified? Is the fear realized? (I mean, does the thing the character fear happen, and if not, why not?) How does the character deal with the fear? How does the fear change the character? How does facing his/her fear change the character?
As always, any topic that will help us improve our writing is fair game in these discussions, so feel free to bring up any of your writing concerns.
Let's talk.
The group No Whine, Just Champagne will meet here at this article for a live discussion about writing and the writing life on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 9:00pm ET (8pm CT, 7pm MT, 6pm PT). Hope to see you, but if you can't make it then, the discussion will continue during the days afterward, so please stop by and tell us what you think.
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Comments: 40
There is the fear of appearing to be weak and in not living up to one's potential. There is the fear of betrayal in Disco Evil that leads to a lot twists and turns in plot. In Ghost Dance there is the fear of not being able to live up to a prearranged destiny. Yes, a lot of fear around and it is quite useful in getting the writing up and running.
Another possibility is that if a character has a phobia, you can weave it into the character's overall psychology and use it as one of the factors that keep him from doing what he knows he needs to do.
The fear of the dark, which boils down to a fear of the unkown.
The manic fear, the unreasonable phobia of something.
The fear of change, stepping into that big unkown new future and doing something new.
The fear of rejection.
The fear of loss.
The fear of worrying over a young child going through surgery.
The list could go on, of course, but you get my drift.
Most fears can be put into categories of just a few fear type categories.
I think of how I would feel and react in the situation, and about how I think others might, and then how I think the character likely would.
Victims who let the fear and trauma become their lives.
Survivors who face it head on and learn to live with and through it.
Like people, some characters are destined to become one while others are destined to survive and live on.
A character who lets fear and trauma become their life wouldn't be a very compelling character -- it's hard to read about someone who gives up. And there's not much story in it. On the other hand, eventually the character has to deal with it in order to solve the story problem, in which case, he or she will learn to live with it.
The weak character may not be saveable, but they can be a motivating factor for the hero. They can even be a character flaw for the main character, his/her flaw being that link to the weak character that keep pulling the hero back and getting in the way of achieving what he/she must.
Like anything else, if you overuse it it will become boring.
Different types of fears for different reasons and used to work different purposes.
It's not only the big plot and character drivers that can bring a story down. Sometimes the little things can make or break a story.
The characters always do what I want them to do -- I created them after all -- but subtleties show up all the same. It's why show don't tell is so important. If I tell about my characters, all that can be told is what I know. If I show, then I can tell more about the characters than I know.
That comes out when I put myself into the story to the point where you almost feel like you are one of the characters, feeling everything they do with the emotional rush of writing the scene.
Subtlety is important. It's what gives a story staying power. If everything is overt, then by the time a reader finishes a story, they know everything there is to know. But subtlety allows a second and sometimes a third reading, while the story remains fresh.
I'm with Rod in thinking that people fear pain more than death. I certainly don't like pain. But since I have some idea of what's on the other side of death, that's not so scary.
Yes. I've looked death in the eye, resuscitated at the scene, and better for it, I think? I am still having fears of death, though, unlike others I've heard tell. Heights particularly are scary to me, though; I've tried to over come them at previous places of employment, ect. Don't like airplanes anymore, never really did, and plan on traveling to Australia soon. Unfortunately, I'll be flying, and I am not going to like it, so keep the cocktails coming. LOL :) Hi Pat B