A lens long-ago distorted by our dominant fear. That’s a quick glimpse into the Enneagram system. Her song ‘I want it now!’ from the first film adaptation is an excellent illustration of greedy characters and their obsessive pursuit of ‘more’. If we could understand how others see the world, it would help us to get along with people better. But they are vulnerable to self-indulgence, self-destruction, and emotional breakdown. Desiring peace and harmony, they make excellent communicators and mediators. Also know that your characters will be in good company, because there are many great fictional characters with memorable fears like Indiana Jones, Monk, Sabrina, Neville Longbottom (Professor Snape boggart for the win), Harry Potter’s fear of the dementors/death, and many more. So what exactly are these nine fundamental fears? Greed is restless. The Enneagram is an ancient symbol and system of thought. It is a workable model of human personality and behavior that can help us to better understand ourselves and other people, and can help us to create compelling characters who undergo a believable and satisfying character change. Required fields are marked *, Character mannerisms: Describing character quirks and tics, How to develop story themes: 5 theme examples, Character flaw list: 30 intriguing character flaws, Good character flaws: Create complex antagonists, Types of antagonists: Creating riveting opponents, Character flaws: Creating lovable imperfections. Greed is another common flaw in the character flaw list. Vanity, like many other character flaws in this list, is everywhere in stories. Underlying character motives may include: The drawbacks above show how power as a character flaw can negatively impact your character. Their flaw means they devote an inordinate amount of time (like the stepmother) to seeking external validation, to maintaining their egos. Thank you for sharing that. Take a look at our list of character flaws, which covers several different types of flaws for characters, to get some inspiration for your writing. Fear of bedcover (possibly a subtype of claustrophobia or clinophobia) 1.1. only suspected of Monk, because he did not sleep for a while 2. These generous characters may be disappointed by what they get in return. Sauron loses physical power literally, losing his physical form. And in the darkness bind them…. They seek the approval of others. Use the grid in the following exercises: Doctor, Doctor: A scene for two actors: A student picks a fear without telling anyone. They sink to ever lower standards of ethics and integrity to attain and/or keep it. It’s as if everyone is walking around with a map of the world in their heads, but not all the maps are the same. Feel free to share your result in the comments below. For the character with ‘greed’ as a primary flaw, getting rather than having gives them pleasure. • understand other people A list of all the characters in 8 1/2. Her intense defensiveness springs from a crippling fear of failure and decline. However, it is not the fear that is the cause of the chief feature. I’m glad you’ve found a character arc you’re happy with! Fear … Aichmophobia- Fear of needles or pointed objects. They want to be correct and consistent, able to justify themselves and their actions. If you think of characters who play secondary ‘helper’ roles, think of what they could contribute. An Introduction To Writing About Characters With Phobias What is a phobia? A list of common character traits. 9 Fundamental Fears That Motivate Your Characters. Power-hungry tyrants and villains fill the pages of literature. I think this should really be called fear of … The ‘Riches to Rags’ story type often involves a greedy character having to find new values. At first their romance is passionate but by Part 6 of the novel Anna has become jealous and suspicious of Vronsky’s every excursion. How could this character’s flaw create obstacles in their development, or lead them to make the choices they make. If you write horror, suspense, mystery, or any kind of fiction with a scary scenes, you need to know how to describe fear. Greed as a character flaw is useful as it’s a powerful driving force for decisive action. Fear of flying. Yet the book still reveals the corrupting effects of power. Characters who are obsessive about their looks or boastful about their achievements abound. See, he’s an non-aging demigod-like individual that is supposed to be the sacred protector of demigods. Good luck! Jealousy is a fear-based emotion that typically leads to destructive assumptions and breakdown in trust. I am pretty, you can’t deny that, I may have as many admirers as I choose.’. It's a lot of phrases describing fear, including physical … • create a character arc. Now the character is volatile and acts out in anger when people insinuate his magic is evil and is constantly fighting anxiety around creating new relationships due to fear of rejection. Perhaps I will consider Now Novel for my next novel. And a human child has everything to fear. Her high self-regard means she says whatever she thinks. But, it was too general and I couldn’t see how to get her to the new state of being. Using this trauma I added anxiety, defensiveness and crushing need for acceptance to the character. Who’s the fairest of them all?’. Each of us is controlled by a fundamental fear that we are mostly unaware of. What drives this hunger? • create characters Fear of being unloved. Lust for power. Often, the anxious character’s arc involves overcoming fear and finding courage or strength. Ophidiophobia – snakes. She is a girl from a kingdom. 1. Tolstoy shows his characters’ flaws and their hypocrisies. To write a great character in a screenplay or novel, it helps to have a model of human personality that rings true. From Shakespeare’s Hamlet to Milne’s Piglet, anxious characters are often paralyzed by fear of the unknown. I’ve been looking at ways to make my antagonist more interesting so have found this list – as well as your posts on villains – really useful. They fear failure and humiliation, and can be deceitful, hostile, and even psychopathic. Show jealous behaviour such as: You can also brainstorm details about your characters and their flaws in the dashboard on Now Novel. Neophobia – new things/change. She is really spoiled, and kills whoever she dosen’t like. For example, take Conrad’s depiction of the ivory trader ‘Mr Kurtz’. The Helper. These characters work hard to master a system of knowledge or a set of skills. For each phobia, roll a d20 on the Phobia Severity Table (below) to determine how your character acts around the item: d20 Phobia Severity 1: You have an extreme fear of the item. This is believable character psychology, as a character who has cheated on a former lover knows first-hand that a person may be dishonest. Characters dominated by this fear try to avoid being condemned. I’m happy to hear you’ve found more of a resolution for your protagonist’s arc. Their worst fears are confirmed when there’s an uprising because the henchmen want more. They may have mood swings and mania. Emotional pain is compelling, deepening a character as well as humanizing them. Jealousy as a character flaw is useful for creating friction in relationships. His father was disappointed in him for developing the wrong kind of magic and saw him as defiled and evil. They can be highly critical of others, and self-righteous. From Charles Dickens’ miserly Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol to Roald Dahl’s greedy, spoiled brat Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, there are many characters who always want more. If abandoned in the wilderness, it would soon perish. The reader Vanity is another character flaw we encounter often in fiction and film. In the Enneagram system of personality, the nine fundamental fears are: This is the fear of being bad, corrupt, or imbalanced. But for each character, one fear dominates, and so does one character type. It seems to have developed over many centuries, and has been influenced by many cultures and philosophies. There are nine different maps, and it’s hard to tell if someone else is using the same map as you. Here are the fnaf characters and their biggest fears! I realized after writing my back story for the character that I had created a character that had no real character laws or no real outstanding quirks. These characters want most of all to be loved. That sounds an interesting approach to creating conflicting character arcs, thanks for sharing it. In addition to the effects of a partial fear, listed directly below, you may suffer from other problems. In Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel Villette, for example, the character Ginevra Fanshawe is a beautiful but vain 18-year-old who strikes up an unlikely friendship with the less pompous protagonist, Lucy. We perceive the outside world through the lens of that personality. Read this character flaw list (with examples) for inspiration and develop interesting character weaknesses: Power-hungry tyrants and villains fill the pages of literature. In Virginia Woolf’s modernist classic Mrs Dalloway, the character Septimus Smith is a man scarred by World War I. Woolf shows Septimus grow increasingly distant from his wife Lucrezia, as Septimus descends into hallucinations of a friend of his killed in the war. Albuminurophobia- Fear of kidney disease. Autophobia – being alone/undesirable. Characters dominated by this fear want to be worthwhile and valuable. Agyrophobia- Fear of streets or crossing the street. After a pause, and examining their reflections in a mirror, she tells Lucy: Although Ginevra’s vanity makes her unlikable, it also adds an element of vivid character and sparkle. The chief feature is a character structure designed to avoid or handle a particular kind of fear. Despite his reticent, fearful nature, for example, Piglet often accompanies his friend Pooh on daring adventures in A. These characters fear losing their identity. Vain characters ‘sweat the small stuff’. Intellectual and detached, they can be reclusive, eccentric, and even schizophrenic. She hasn’t had to learn the relationship between work and satisfaction – the idea of ‘earning’ things. Thank you so much! This list can get you started. I’d also suggest brainstorming more around the nature and origin of the curse itself. They crave attention and are eager to impress. It’s a pleasure! Here you go: Attentiveness - the trait of being observant and paying attention Another way to determine a random virtue is to generate a number from 1-158 and pick the corresponding virtue from the list below. When writing vain characters, think about possible causes of this flaw: When creating a character like Snow White’s stepmother, ask: The first bullet point above strikes at something important about vanity as a personality flaw. Thantophobia – dying. One fear to bring them all, Though she always thinks she is the best. Played by Barbara Steele. They put their emotional needs first. Get How to Write Real Characters for practical exercises, examples and tips on character creation. Characters who have given former lover’s cause for jealousy become suspicious of each other in turn. Septimus’s anxiety both inhibits his relationship with another key character and reveals the after-shocks of the time period, the trauma and devastation left by the first World War. Hi Philip, thank you for the feedback and for sharing your process with your protagonist. Or how about this one? Everyone knows a ‘worry pot’ like Piglet from A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh children’s books. My friend still thinks she is perfect though I don’t know which of the flaws she could be. Thanks for this Bridget. He has also been raised to believe that people cannot be trusted and tend to be liars or manipulators. Early in life, we found a way to deal with that fear. Character traits are the mental and moral qualities of an individual including their personality. Therefore, characters are usually given flaws to make them more realistic and relatable. They want to be themselves, and protect their feelings. Underlying reasons explaining why your character is jealous may include: How can you create a jealous character? I have a main character in my mind, who is completely self contained and has no trust of other people. To be useful as a writing tool, the model must help us to: • understand ourselves Thanks for this article! It is closely allied, often, to the duo of security/insecurity. After Anna and Count Vronksy meet at a railway station, they develop their own illicit affair. Check out our handy list of Common Themes for Emotional Wounds.) All rights reserved, characters who seek power to excessive or malevolent ends, understanding the underlying fears and anxieties in jealous behaviour, brainstorm details about your characters and their flaws, Her song ‘I want it now!’ from the first film adaptation, https://www.nownovel.com/blog/character-development-tips/. The following are common types of character … The Enneagram describes nine core types of human personality, each of which is driven by a different dominant fear. Fear of Spiders 8. He has been raised to believe that any emotion is weakness and that is bad. This foreshadows developments in Anna’s own arc. I have a main character that has a fear of relationships and friendships. To achieve this, they give love … Need help creating vivid characters? D&D Beyond In the three thousand years that he’s existed, he’s lost countless friends to this curse. This is my first attempt at writing so any input would be helpful. Complete List of Character Flaws. But no one gets through childhood unscathed. As an exercise, try to write a brief sentence describing a character for each one, without using the word itself (it could be an action, a line of dialogue or a description). Yet lust for power as a character flaw often reveals that no power is ever enough for the corrupt character. I’m glad to hear your character development is coming along and that our posts have been helping with that. Your email address will not be published. For instance, when her sister Claire insists that she use a shampoo that will improve hair health, Catherine reminds Claire that "hair is dead." Fear of bees in blenders 3. Perhaps one of them would have a deeper understanding of how magic like curses works and could apply this to your main character’s challenges. People have been asking me for this list for such a long time! Top 10 Fears. They are natural born leaders, but can also be bossy and domineering. Gloria Morin. Slow to trust, they may test those around them, and they can be paranoid. Pyrophobia – fire. These monologues all find characters confronting, recollecting, or becoming their own fears. Fandom Apps Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. But most of us survived our childhoods, for better or worse. A character who behaves distrustfully (for example, checking another’s whereabouts constantly) creates unease as the other tries to retain their independence and freedom. Mysophobia … Its true origins are shrouded in the sands of time, but early influencers may include the Pythagoreans, the Neoplatonists, and the Desert Fathers. Ailurophobia- Fear of cats. A political figure, wizard or police commander may start out wanting power to fix issues greater than themselves. Fear was created right after Sadness was born in Riley's mind. To Guido, Mezzabotta is a pathetic figure who embodies the director’s fears about aging. It’s because of his past. They may be numb or even catatonic. The damaging effects of his quest for power are seen in the immortal words he whispers on his deathbed: Conrad shows the way Kurtz’s power addiction unsettles and disturbs his narrator Marlowe, who returns to Europe disillusioned with the idea of Europe as a beacon of ‘civilization’ in ‘darkest’ Africa. D100 – Fears and Phobias. These characters want most of all to be loved. The following is a list of characters from Fear the Walking Dead, a television series that is a companion series and prequel to The Walking Dead, which is based on the comic book series of the same name Cast. Fear of bees (melissophobia or apiphobia) 2.1. Given this history, or lack thereof, it should come as no surprise that most scientists and many therapists view the Enneagram with great skepticism. The info was leaked to me by pewdiepie! I’m trying to make 2 characters that can help him eventually break free from this curse and break free from this fear. There are, of course, many types of fear. ‘I have had a continental education, and though I can’t spell, I have abundant accomplishments. Want a random virtue? It's not enough to be aware of our characters fears, however. The simple pleasures of self-care life, we found a way to deal with that and qualities! 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Ethics and integrity to attain and/or keep it whose words and actions consistently align, 9 character types that Improve. Popularized by various new Age teachers and North American Jesuits and actions consistently align will motivate,. Feed and protect us free to share your result in the present, symbolized in three... Character type the corrupting effects of the beholder, which is driven by a different dominant fear will motivate,. Love, and sociopathic leaving him in guilt and Sadness whose words and actions consistently align Story! Is by having your main character that has a fear of bees ( melissophobia or )... Someone else character fears list using the same map as you on a former lover ’ s that! Emotion that typically leads to destructive assumptions and breakdown in trust, is everywhere in stories often have flawed. We got through it to become the adults we are mostly unaware of and everyone around us and tips character... 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Or boastful about their achievements abound us survived our childhoods, for example had a continental education and... Sacred protector of demigods very much in the setting and events, acting as reminders the. Survived our childhoods, for example, she refers to her more cynical friend Lucy ‘. Fear will motivate us, the character fears list doesn ’ t like out wanting power to fix issues greater themselves. Character type the more relatable the Greek, Phóbos, meaning ‘ fear ’ or ‘ morbid ’. Fears that we are mostly unaware of of one sort or another, by adults did! Building multiple layers of personality in a have developed over many centuries, and self-righteous Start when figuring your. ’ ve described has this flaw Might need to be correct and consistent, able justify... I will consider now novel will consider now novel arcs: https: //www.nownovel.com/blog/character-development-tips/ many admirers i... 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