Writing Blog

20231013 Friggatriskaidekaphobia

October 13, 2023, 9:30am

Friday the 13th! I have to admit, as a kid, this day freaked me out because I'd heard so much about it. But, really it is just another day, and those with Friggatriskaidekaphobia (also apparently known as Paraskevidekatriaphobia) are afraid of an anomaly created by an arbitrary setting of dates by people some hundreds of years ago. And Friday the 13th where? As I write this, it's still Thursday the 12th in the USA.

So, what does this hardly unique combination of numbers and days have to do with writing?

Well, because these are the sorts of irrational fears that can really help flesh out a character. Not only the MC in a story, but also secondary or tertiary characters. Strange, irrational fears are such a nice foible. And they can even have effects on the way the story progresses.

Here's some more:
ablutophobia: fear of bathing
achluophobia: fear of sitting in the dark
acrophobia: fear of heights
agoraphobia: fear of open spaces; fear of being alone in a public place
ailurophobia: fear of cats (actually, this might be rational)
androphobia: fear of men (the gender)
anemophobia: fear of wind or drafts; by extension, fear of air
arachnophobia: fear of spiders
arctophobia: fear of bears; by extension, fear of teddy bears
astraphobia: fear of thunderstorms or lightning; fear of being struck by lightning
batrachophobia: fear of frogs
bibliophobia: fear of books; also used to refer to a hatred of books
bromhidrosiphobia: fear of body odour
bruxophobia: fear of grinding one's teeth (also hatred of the sound of grinding teeth)
catotrophobia: fear of mirrors; can also refer to the fear of breaking a mirror
chianophobia: fear of snow
claustrophobia: fear of closed spaces
coprophobia: fear of faeces; by extension, fear of dirt, filth or contamination
cynophobia: fear of dogs
demophobia: fear of crowds
enissophobia: fear of criticism
epistemophobia: fear of knowledge
erethophobia: fear of the colour red
ergasiophobia (ergophobia): fear of work; by extension, fear of responsibility
erotophobia: fear of sex

And I'll stop there. Yes, I have collected quite a few in my years as a strange old man.

So... an irrational fear. Got one? tried one? Given a character one?