Part of the
joy I find in writing paranormal and fantasy fiction is the freedom to explore
creatures and places not of this world. This opens up the ability to stretch
the imagination a bit and do what I love the most—make stuff up! But in my
research for my stories, I’ve discovered that often reality is stranger than
fiction.
What Makes a Good Villain?
When I’m crafting
a villain who plays upon the deepest fears of my characters, I strive to make
one who is more than skin deep. I want the reader to be just a little
sympathetic to my villain while he strikes terror into the heart of my heroine
and/or hero. The process is often referred to as avoiding making cardboard
characters. I like to think of it as the whole villain you love to hate.
Phobias Can Be Stranger
than Paranormal and Science Fiction
Since my
stories are often laced with laughter, I often like to find emotional and/or quirky
methods of combat outside of blood and gore for my hero and/or heroine. In
researching one of my stories, I stumbled across phobias. I realized that there
were a multitude of them that I never heard of, some so unusual that it sounded
as if someone made them up in a fictional story.
No Laughing Matter
Phobias are
defined as an irrational fear or aversion
to something, and as ridiculous as some of them may sound, they can cause
true distress to the person affected by the phobia. Therefore, I don’t intend
to make fun of anyone who might suffer from one of these unusual phobias, but I
might occasionally utilize one or two in a story.
In fact, I
used an angle on one of these phobias I listed below for a villain in a
manuscript I’m working on. I’m not going to tell which one it is and ruin the
surprise. I’ll let your imagination run wild with how I incorporated it into my
character.
Five Interesting Phobias
1. Ancraophobia-
also known as anemophobia, is an extreme fear of wind or drafts. Apparently telling
someone "Don't get blown away" is more of a concern to some than I realized.
2. Aulophobia- an
unknown, persistent fear of flutes. Luckily my daughter plays this terrifying instrument (to some) so if we’re ever
faced with a villain with this phobia we already have the non-violent weapon of
choice.
3. Arachibutyrophobia- the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. As an avid
lover of peanut butter, I’d be in trouble with this phobia. With National
Peanut Butter Lovers’ Day this month (March 1st), it seems that
there would be a lot of unhappy people if they couldn’t indulge in this tasty
treat.
4. Pteronophobia-the
fear of being tickled by feathers. Seems that those old cartoons had it right
all along when they pulled out a feather to battle their enemy.
5. Asymmetriphobia- the fear of mismatched or asymmetrical objects. I’d never be out of
ammunition for a villain suffering with this phobia. All I need to do is pull out the mismatched sock
drawer in my laundry room to strike terror into the heart of the villain who
suffers from this.
These are
only a few of the odd phobias I ran across in my cyberspace searches. It seems
that there is a phobia for just about everything.
What’s the Most Unusual Phobia You’ve Heard Of?
Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her
love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her
there.
While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she
survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in
line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook
& Twitter
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