by Lisa Binion
Even though some phobias may appear
unreasonable or silly to those who don’t have any, they are no laughing
matter. When someone encounters something he has an excessive fear of,
he experiences the following: rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath,
trembling, anxiety, panic, terror, and/or dread.
Phobias are a like a mine full of treasure for writers. These fears add
both depth and uniqueness to our characters. Use the following phobias
and come up with at least a story or story line for each one of them.
Once you have a story line, or choose to use the one that I suggest, try
writing a story.
Anablephobia is the fear of looking up. It could be a fear of
looking up at the sky, or it could be a fear of looking up at the
ceiling. It could be a fear of looking upwards at all.
How would one develop such a fear as this? Maybe your character saw a
loved one killed by a huge hailstone falling out of the sky. Maybe your
character saw a ceiling fan fly to pieces and seriously injure someone
close to them. Pick one of the previous situations, or a situation you
dream up, and develop a story line for it.
Anemophobia is fear of the wind. Your character could fear just
gentle springtime breezes or it could only be a fear of really strong,
almost tornado strength winds. Or it could be a fear of any kind of
wind movement at all, even if it comes from just a ceiling fan.
Your character has experienced a severe trauma and there was a gentle
breeze blowing at the time. That is one thing that seems to stand out
in her mind – the breeze. Now, anytime she feels even just a gentle
breeze she has a panic attack because all of the memories of her
traumatic time revisit her. Develop a story about how this fear
developed and how she manages to overcome it before she becomes
housebound.
Auroraphobia is the fear of the Northern Lights, either the
Aurora Borealis or the Aurora Australialis. The only reason I can think
of for having of fear the Northern Lights would be if something
extremely traumatic happened while they could be seen.
I think that I would have my character witness a murder taking place in
the light of the Aurora Borealis. When the murderer turns and looks at
the character, she recognizes the murderer and he recognizes her. She
stands there, frozen with fear, when someone yells her name and breaks
her trance. She shakes herself out of it, turns and runs away. She
doesn’t remember anything she saw, but for some reason now she is scared
to death of the Nothern Lights.
Write a story where she confronts her fears to find out the reason why.
Along the way, she also puts a murderer, someone she thought to be a
close friend, behind bars.
Barophobia is the fear of gravity or the fear that gravity will
fail. Maybe your character fell from a trampoline and was seriously
injured because of it. Maybe your character has read a very detailed
science fiction novel or watched a movie about a planet where the
gravity just disappears for no reason. The consequences shown are
horrible. Or maybe your character simply does not understand exactly
what gravity is.
Your character’s fear of gravity is so strong that it begins to make
this character fear for his or her own well-being, so he seeks help.
Develop a story or story line that details how he developed this phobia,
how he finds help, and whether or not he is cured.
Blennophobia is a fear of slime. Slime is disgusting and there
probably aren’t many of us who actually look forward to touching
anything, no matter what it is, that is slimy. There are people that
slimy objects cause serious problems.
What if you were a lady whose job it was to clean houses? Not just any
houses, but houses that were holiday rentals. Not all travelers are
slobs, but let’s face it, a good portion of them can be. Her job is to
go in and make the houses spotless once again. Half-filled glasses of
breakfast orange juice that look like science experiments make it hard
for her to breathe. Wet towels that have been left lying in the
bathroom floor for weeks and weeks not only smell, they have begun
turning color and cause her heart to race. She has to have this job,
there are no others available and she has many bills to pay and a young
child to support. Does she find relief from this phobia or not? Write a
story telling how or how not.
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