(image courtesy Pointillist via Creative Commons)

F is for Fear.

Fear.

We all feel it.

For this Blogging from A to Z post I was thinking lately about how fear relates to reading and writing.

Many years ago during my MFA studies, I read an essay in which the author stated all great writers are motivated by the fear of death, and even those who say they aren’t, really are. While I haven’t tested this hypothesis, I think writers are a fearful lot. (I am.)

You remember what Robert DeNiro said on this subject? “The mind of a writer can be a truly terrifying thing. Isolated, neurotic, caffeine-addled, crippled by procrastination and consumed by feelings of panic, self-loathing and soul-crushing inadequacy. And that’s on a good day.”

Readers face fear also. I think in some ways, fear drives us to fiction–either to write or to read–if only to assuage said fear. Here are a few fears that could drive us to fiction:

Fear that love will not conquer all. That’s why we need romantic fiction by authors such as Nora Roberts, Edie Claire, and Amanda Quick to give us the assurance we crave that somewhere, somehow, Amor Vincit Omnia.

Fear of the loss of control. This is a common fear related to anxiety and panic disorder. We are afraid our world does not make sense and that it is not in our power to put it right. I find mysteries help me make sense of the void. The villain will be discovered. Chaos will be thwarted. The world will return to its axis. Mystery writers who help me in this regard are Louis Penney, Dorothy L. Sayers, Stephen White. Another great book if you’re feeling a little off your orbit (though not a mystery) is Emma by Jane Austen. Austen believed in a world of order.

Fear that the human spirit will not rise above. Some novels give us courage that we, too, can muster our resources to battle adversity. We turn to books like Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi, Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games in which ordinary people surmount extraordinary obstacles.

So, this is just a taste of some fears that drive us to fiction. There are hundreds, nay, thousands of fears. There’s even a fear of fear as Franklin D. Roosevelt noted when he said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

How about you? What fears do you find are eased by fiction? Which novels help? Do share!