A blog detailing my writing over the next however long. |
October 13, 2023, 9:30am Friday the 13th! I have to admit, as a kid, this day freaked me out because I'd heard so much about it. But, really it is just another day, and those with Friggatriskaidekaphobia (also apparently known as Paraskevidekatriaphobia) are afraid of an anomaly created by an arbitrary setting of dates by people some hundreds of years ago. And Friday the 13th where? As I write this, it's still Thursday the 12th in the USA. So, what does this hardly unique combination of numbers and days have to do with writing? Well, because these are the sorts of irrational fears that can really help flesh out a character. Not only the MC in a story, but also secondary or tertiary characters. Strange, irrational fears are such a nice foible. And they can even have effects on the way the story progresses. Here's some more: ablutophobia: fear of bathing achluophobia: fear of sitting in the dark acrophobia: fear of heights agoraphobia: fear of open spaces; fear of being alone in a public place ailurophobia: fear of cats (actually, this might be rational) androphobia: fear of men (the gender) anemophobia: fear of wind or drafts; by extension, fear of air arachnophobia: fear of spiders arctophobia: fear of bears; by extension, fear of teddy bears astraphobia: fear of thunderstorms or lightning; fear of being struck by lightning batrachophobia: fear of frogs bibliophobia: fear of books; also used to refer to a hatred of books bromhidrosiphobia: fear of body odour bruxophobia: fear of grinding one's teeth (also hatred of the sound of grinding teeth) catotrophobia: fear of mirrors; can also refer to the fear of breaking a mirror chianophobia: fear of snow claustrophobia: fear of closed spaces coprophobia: fear of faeces; by extension, fear of dirt, filth or contamination cynophobia: fear of dogs demophobia: fear of crowds enissophobia: fear of criticism epistemophobia: fear of knowledge erethophobia: fear of the colour red ergasiophobia (ergophobia): fear of work; by extension, fear of responsibility erotophobia: fear of sex And I'll stop there. Yes, I have collected quite a few in my years as a strange old man. So... an irrational fear. Got one? tried one? Given a character one? |