There are so many more phobias in existence than I ever thought
possible. I found out in an unusual way. I was mucking around with one of those
apps for writers where you can look through lists of names, occupations, body
types and all sorts of things supposedly to help you get over any writers block
that has you wondering - 'just who is the character?' Or else when on page
63 you suddenly think you need to know the occupation of one of your characters
and for the life of you can't think of one ...
So anyway there's an app for that. But what this app can also
provide you with is a list of phobias. What if you decide one of your
characters should have a phobia? I mean spiders is a bit obvious as is heights.
So instead why don't you try finding an unusual phobia even if the particular phobia you
choose might never actually become at all relevant in your story? Here's a few ideas to get you started.
How about auroraphobia? Which is the fear of the Northern Lights.
Presumably this happens to people who live where the northern lights can be
seen and have some terrible childhood memory of thinking the lights indicated
the sky was falling or something. So the minute they were old enough they fled
to more southern areas of the globe and now tell everyone they meet of their
terrible phobia and how it nearly ruined their life. Or maybe people simply
develop the fear spontaneously never having seen the Northern Lights ...Which poses its own
set of problems.
How about barophobia? That's fear of gravity - no I didn't make
that up. Where are these people? How do they survive from day to day?
Then there is something that some of you might actually relate to
which is syngenesophobia; the fear
of relatives. Thinking of setting your book around Christmas time? What
a perfect phobia for someone to have. The hilarious scenarios write themselves.
Now here's a good one - xanthophobia which is the fear of the colour
yellow or the word yellow. Throw in a scene featuring a beloved
childhood big bird toy along with a disastrous visit to a paint shop. Or else
an unsuspecting partner suggesting Yellow as a safe word? Pizza and Movie
night? Just remember nothing with Minions in it. It is probably also a good
idea to hide that Minions onesie.
Then there is plutophobia;
a fear of wealth which
would be an interesting one. At least you could actually introduce a character
happy in a low paying job they love. There’s a character you could do something
with. His plutophobia might mean he is constantly giving away his possessions
much to the disgust of his other half ... If he has one.
Now how do you make someone housebound? Perhaps you need a device
in order for them to require someone else to do all the leg work but
agoraphobia is too obvious? Simply give them a fear of walking or ambulophobia. This could work too if you have an ongoing
theme of delivery drivers you want to introduce into the story.
You could try for irony and have an archaeologist as a
protagonist who tragically suffers from atephobia - fear of ruin or ruins. Or a farmer with alektorophobia
- which is a fear of chickens.
What about a lighthouse keeper with climacophobia - fear of stairs, climbing, or of falling downstairs?
Then again it would be easy to slip in a character who suffers from epistemophobia - fear of knowledge
as I believe many people in the world seem to suffer from that ... Alas.
Not quite sure how you could write this one in - euphobia which is a fear of hearing good news but it should be easy to have someone
with ergophobia or a fear of work - especially if
you fancy writing a few good arguments.
Let's face it - you name it and someone somewhere has a phobia of
it. Fear of wind, flowers, and garden gnomes to name just another 3. All manner of things send
otherwise ordinary people into a spin. All writers need to make their
characters interesting. They need to have flaws or eccentricities, face
challenges and even have severe emotional conditions in some cases. So why not
throw in an unusual phobia? At the very least it will give your agent or editor
a good laugh.
