How to Use Fear In Your OC Backstories!

How do you make a backstory a little more interesting, in a way where it can affect the main story as well? Well, it’s Spooky Month, and a key part of this fun time of year is…fear! (Wanna know what else is a part of Spooky Month? MONSTERS! Want some tips on designing one? Check out my last article here!) We all have something that puts us on edge, or makes our skin crawl! You might recognize the names of common fears or phobias, such as…

• Arachnophobia (fear of spiders)
• Acrophobia (fear of heights)
• Entomophobia (fear of bugs)
• Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes)

There’s things people are afraid of…everywhere! Sometimes there’s not a real reason for the fear, and other times the fear is caused by something that happened in the past. 

This doesn’t just apply to real life though, we can apply this to characters as well! Using fear as part of a character’s backstory can make them feel more real, and it can be helpful to explain their behaviors in the present! So how do you add fear to an OC’s backstory? Let’s talk about it!

What is your OC afraid of?

For starters, you need to know what your OC is afraid of before incorporating fear into a backstory! If you already have some fears for your character, you can skip this step! Everyone has something they're afraid of, whether they’re fictional or not!

Giving your OC a fear or phobia, or multiple of either, will help create conflict for your character in the story they’re in! Maybe a character afraid of the dark has to wander into a dark cave to find their lost pet, or a character with a fear of heights has to walk across a bridge over a tall ravine! There’s plenty of different fears or phobias you could give your OC, with some being more common and some being more rare! If you need some ideas for different fears to give an OC, here’s some different ones you could choose from:

• Atychiphobia (fear of failing)
• Astraphobia (fear of lightning/thunder)
• Autophobia (fear of being alone)
• Claustrophobia (fear of small/crowded spaces)
• Thalassophobia (fear of deep water)
• Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words…w-who named this?!)
• Hemophobia (fear of blood)
• Glossophobia (fear of public speaking)
• Aichmophobia (fear of sharp things)
• Trypophobia (fear of holes/repeating patterns)
• Megalophobia (fear of large things)

Having fears is a completely normal thing. It’s our bodies’ way of warning us about something, big or small! Fear can also skew reality however, as being too scared to do things can have a negative impact on a character’s (or real person’s!) life.

Characters with different fears can feel more real and relatable, and can make them seem more sympathetic! Fears can be subtle, or more obvious. It can cause anything from slight anxiety, to full on panic!

An interesting example of a fear a character could have would be Yamaiix’s OC Wade! Wade is afraid of the ocean, and for good reason too given his backstory!

Why is your OC scared of their fear?

Now that you have a fear or two for your character, let’s get into why they’re afraid of it and what happened in their past to cause it! Some fears don’t have a certain event that caused it, and other fears might just have gotten worse due to a traumatic incident! 

So what happened in your character’s backstory that caused their phobia, or made it worse? Oftentimes, experiences from the past can influence how a character acts! Depending on what the fear is, it might’ve been caused by people, animals, or just bad experiences! One character might be scared of the ocean because they fell into the water. Another character fears bugs because they were bit, and a character afraid of being alone might have gotten left by themselves for an extended period of time! You’ll want to think about how your OC could’ve gotten their fear! You can try thinking about different questions like…

• What is the fear?
• Could the fear have been influenced by the area they're in?
• Could the fear have been influenced by the people they were around?
• Could the fear have been influenced by their beliefs?
• What does your character have access to?
• Did a past event create the fear, or just make it worse?
• Was the fear caused by a person/people?
• Was the fear caused by a bad experience with an animal or creature?
• Was the fear caused by an accident or scary incident?
• Did one instance cause the fear, or multiple over time?

Depending on your answers to the questions above, you can come up with ideas to what could have influenced their fear! 

What the fear is specifically will determine what could have caused it as well! If a character only had experiences with nice animals or works with friendly animals often, it might not make much sense for them to be scared of them! If they’ve had one or multiple experiences with scary animals, it would make total sense for them to have developed a fear of them!

An interesting example of the reason behind a character’s fear would be Jesturre’s OC Alexander! Alexander’s fears were caused by the cursed lands he lives in! I would be pretty scared too!

How can your OC’s fear in their backstory affect the present story?

Finally, when incorporating fear into a character’s backstory, you’ll want to consider how it will influence the current or future events for your OC! A cool backstory is great, but a backstory is even better when it plays a part in your character’s behavior and tendencies. 

Fear can do a lot to a person! It can determine how a person makes decisions, how they interact with others, and how they go about day to day life! Some examples of how fear in a backstory could impact an OC could be things like…

• A character’s scared of making friends because all their childhood ones moved away
• A character’s scared of snakes because they were bit by one as a kid
• A character’s scared of the dark because they got locked in a dark closet as a kid
• A character’s scared of making mistakes because they had strict parents growing up
• A character’s scared of ducks because one chased them when they were a kid

There’s lots of different ways fear can affect a character! They could try to avoid the things they’re scared of. Maybe they don’t talk to people because of it. Or maybe they won’t try anything new that might relate to their fear!

Using fear created from a character’s backstory can be a great way to add conflict or tension to your story! Maybe by the end of the story, they won’t be afraid of their fear anymore! Or, maybe they just have to push through it! It all depends on what kind of story you’re telling and what you want to do!

An interesting example of how fear as part of a backstory could affect a character would be Mun3’s OC Brynn! Brynn has to work the same job her father did before he was lost…How hard will the job be because of this? Scary!

Using fear in your OC’s backstory can be an interesting way to add to the plot of your story, and make your character more relatable! Picking a fear, deciding what caused it, and how it affects their current story can really bring a story to life!

Need some other ideas and tips for your character’s backstory? Check out this article on summarizing an OC’s backstory here, or check out this article on backstory building questions over here!