Seems like an easy question, right? As writers, we come up against this one a lot, but do you always go deep enough? Do you stop at “bees”, or “heights”, or other such things? Or do you go deeper?
One of my favorite episodes of Star Trek is the Next Generation is the episode, “Coming of Age”. In it, Wesley Crusher is participating in a competition to get into Starfleet Academy. For one of the tests, he must face his greatest fear. While he’s going through rats and lightning storms in his head, the test is actually whether or not he could choose to save one person over another, because in his words, “someone made that choice, and my father died”.
This is one of the best moments of character I have seen in many years of TV, and even books. In that moment, you understand so much of who he is, and how his past has left a mark on him. You can see that this one thing affects so much of how he thinks. It begs the question; “what is my deepest fear?” More than simple things like bees, or heights, that deepest fear can be so much more. It can lay the ground work for so many things a person does.
A prime example; One of my characters is a fighter pilot who is never more than three feet from his side-arm (unless he has no choice). He hasn’t told me why yet, but I wonder if part of it has something to do with HIS deepest fear.
It’s a level of character development that isn’t easy to achieve, because it can be hard to find the answer in ourselves. Do we know what our deepest, greatest fear is? And do we really know how we’d face it if we were to run into it? Wesley was surprised to find that he didn’t hesitate to make that choice. He faced his greatest fear, and charged right through it.
Can your character do that? Why or why not? And what led to the creation of this fear? How does it affect their behavior and thinking? As you can see, by answering this one question, “What is your greatest fear?”, a dozen more answers can easily come with it. And your character will be the better for it.
Forest Wells: Impressions 
Welcome to blogging. Let me know if you have questions or need answers. I’ll help if I can. Feel free to stop by my blog and subscribe to be notified when I post (Thursdays and one other day).
You are off to a good start!
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I appreciate that, though I think right now the biggest thing I need is exposure. More people to read my somewhat infrequent posts as they come.
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Great question!
Personally, my greatest fear is that I will inconvience or burden someone. I still struggle to ask someone to hand me a box of kleenex!
My main character? She’s a special forces soldier, who has no idea how to live in the social world outside of her missions. Her greatest fear is that her wartime experiences have robbed her of her humanity, and left her permanently unfit to be a vialble part of society. All kinds of room for internal conflict, emotional scenes, and attempts at resolution on her part.
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My greatest fear is forgetting who I am.
And woah, just writing that there has opened a huge can of worms!
I always thought that really my greatest fear was about doing something wrong. Making wrong choices.
My character is a 12yr old who has been abused by her parents her whole life so the fear of doing something wrong makes sense.
But the fear of forgetting who I am, where does that come from?
I have no real medical issues, and yet I permanently wear an ID band. I have always known on the surface that I do this because I’m frightened of being in an accident and waking up with no memory of who I am, no one being able to contact my loved ones and having to build a new life again from nothing.
But if I actually think about the depth and root of this fear?
Wow, what a question! One I will now be working through. Thank you!
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Glad to be of help! Interesting how things can pop up like that, isn’t it? As a “pantser” (AKA; A writer who writes “but the seat of their pants,” as in without an outline or plan), a lot of my insights into my characters and worlds have come this way. I had no idea my commando leader would vastly prefer scotch to any other kind of liquor, until it came up in a thread on Facebook where people asked questions of characters. Sometimes, it seems like we know the answer, but we don’t know we know until the question is asked.
Sounds like you’re digging beneath the surface of the character though. That’s the kind of thinking that makes for deep characters. Even if the reader never sees it, it’s always there, leaving it’s mark in ways even we the writer don’t realize.
Hope the writing goes well from here for you!
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I hope you don’t have a fear of people offering constructive criticism! Just because I am also a writer, and care about grammar etc and thought you might also, note that the first word, second paragraph needs fixing!
I think people are afraid of identifying their faults and fears sometimes. I also believe that life is too hurried, and time to sit and reflect is minimal. Perhaps we have more than one fear, and it’s not easy to identify them in order of significance.
Personally, I have many fears, some easily identified and spoken, while others tucked safely inside where they hopefully won’t be noticeable enough to prevent me from at least trying!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Best wishes with your writing!
Regards from Canada! … Nadine
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Lol, only a slight one. I still feel new to the whole writing thing some times, so having errors pointed out still gets me tense now and then. It threatens to trigger strong bouts of doubt. “What if I’m not good enough yet?” Mind you, it’s not strong enough to get in the way anymore, so I appreciate the note on that error. I try to catch as many as I can, but they’ll probably pop up more in my blog than they will in my novels, since this is meant to be a little more informal. That and I can’t exactly afford to hire a content editor for my blog posts. 😀
Anyway, I like your points about people not wanting, or not being able, to look into themselves enough to find those answers. Admitting weakness is a terrifying prospect on its own. I could see many people, real or fictional, not wanting to face it. You also touched on an interesting thought; multiple fears. Wesley may have dealt with the one, but what other fears might be hiding beneath the surface? To say nothing of that fighter pilot of mine. Perhaps his need to be near his weapon is not from one fear, but from several.
I like the way you think. Thanks and welcome from the States!
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My greatest fear? Being forgotten (and I mean by those I love/am loved by, not by the general public). I have saved a jpeg of a raggedy, well-loved teddy bear, with the caption “I’ve always been afraid of losing the ones I love. Sometimes I wonder, is there anyone out there afraid to lose me?” I think about my “pre-need” (dear lord I hate that phrase) options at the cemetery where so many of my family rest, and I wonder why I should bother, who’s going to come visit me anyway?
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I think, as a writer, discovering your character’s greatest fear is so difficult because it forces you to dig into your own heart and admit to being fearful on paper. That’s always so hard for me. I want to make my characters complex, but I’m always worried to let details of my own mind slip.
I’d say my biggest fear is failure and disappointing people that have placed stock in me to succeed.
I haven’t written in awhile, but I’m currently reading an amazing book called The Atomic City Girls. The main character has the same fears I do, which is maybe why I connect to her so much.
Thanks for
The thought provoking post!
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My greatest fear is to trust, and the ensuing betrayal.
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Boy can I understand that one.
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