When it comes to storytelling, fear is more than a feeling; it’s an underlying force that runs through multiple story elements, influencing plot, character arc, internal growth, and conflict. Fear makes the story feel human and true, and readers are sucked in when we use this emotion to bring plot and character arc together to create a vitally important question: Will the character surrender to their fear or master it?
Use Turning Points to Plot a Character’s Fear Journey
Turning points—pivotal events or complications that force characters to make a choice—are essential to story structure. They’re called turning points because the story turns based on the character’s decision, either toward the goal and success or backward in fear, away from their objective.
The best thing about turning points? If you’re writing a story with a change arc, you can use them to shape both the outer and inner story in one fell swoop. At each turning point, the protagonist is tempted to challenge their fear or give into it and stick with the status quo. They don’t always make the right choice, so we have to give them multiple chances, and turning points can provide these critical opportunities.
Let’s see how fear plays into the turning points of an Academy-award winning movie and fan favorite: Rocky.
Turning Point 1
Often called the inciting incident or the catalyst, the first turning point creates a crisis, opportunity, or challenge that shakes up the hero’s world and reveals a new path forward. The character is largely unaware or in active denial of their greatest fear, so while it subconsciously influences them, it may be downplayed or not overtly stated to readers.
Rocky Balboa wants to become a successful boxer. He’s chased this goal for ten years, but he’s failing—at this, and pretty much everything else. When he discovers the gym owner, Mickey, has given away his locker, Rocky decides to confront him. Mickey calls him a bum and says he should retire. This plays directly into Rocky’s unmet need for esteem and reinforces his fear that he’ll never be respected or be able to respect himself.
Turning Point 2
At the end of Act 1, the second turning point brings a new complication, development, or problem that clarifies things for the character about reaching their goal. It often provides a glimpse of who they could be if they abandoned fear and embraced their true self. This turning point adds a heaping dose of motivation, stirring strong emotions that lay the groundwork for change and facing down their fear.
Heavyweight champion Apollo Creed’s opponent drops out of their upcoming match and Creed must find a replacement. Rocky is offered a shot at the title. He initially declines, afraid that he’s no match for the champ. But he accepts when he hears that Creed hand-picked him as a worthy opponent. Even at long odds to win, Rocky can’t bypass the opportunity to make something of himself.
Turning Point 3
The third turning point (the midpoint) falls dead center in the story. Here, the character’s circumstances become more difficult than they could have anticipated. This important event makes the goal harder to achieve and tempts them to quit the quest and retreat to their old life and way of operating.
Mickey unexpectedly offers to be Rocky’s manager and train him for the fight—the same Mickey who disrespected and dismissed him in the past. He represents Rocky’s ineptitude and lack of respect and highlights his fear that he’ll never find the esteem he craves. Rocky says no but soon recognizes he can’t win on his own, so he begrudgingly accepts Mickey’s offer.
Turning Point 4
As Act 2 winds down, the forces against the hero orchestrate a devastating setback or failure. It appears that all is lost, with no way to recover from defeat. The protagonist’s fear and a brush with some form of death or loss wars with their determination to obtain the goal.
On the eve of the fight, Rocky has a devastating epiphany: Despite his best efforts, he simply can’t beat Creed. And when Rocky goes down, his loss will be broadcast worldwide, proving to everyone that he’s no good and ensuring the death of his boxing career. But then he realizes that maybe he doesn’t have to win to gain respect. No one’s ever gone fifteen rounds with the champ, and if Rocky can do that, he’ll prove he’s not just another bum.
Turning Point 5
In the climax, the hero faces the final and biggest obstacle to their goal. With a Herculean effort, they renounce their fear and faulty coping mechanisms. Instead, they apply all their new knowledge, skills, and will toward winning. Success often requires a sacrifice, and the hero willingly makes it.
The fight with Creed is a brutal, seemingly endless battle, but Rocky gives it everything he’s got. At the ring of the final bell, he’s still standing when Apollo is declared the winner. But Rocky has also won, because his performance and heart make him a contender with a long and promising boxing career ahead. Finally, he’s earned his self-respect and the respect of his peers.
Rocky is a near-perfect example of how fear can be infused into a story’s major turning points so the inner and outer journeys are seamlessly woven together. With his greatest fear of never gaining respect being threatened at each turn, he’s repeatedly given a pivotal choice: give in to the fear and continue living in obscurity or push through it and make something of himself.
When you’re planning a story around turning points, incorporate events that jab at the character’s greatest fear. The result is a streamlined story where the fear ruling your character at the start of the story is the same one they must battle at the end.
If you’d like to learn more about fear’s role in fiction and how to use it to engage readers, The Fear Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to What Holds Characters Back has more information for you. Good luck!
Summary for Busy Writers: Fear is a powerful way to connect a character’s inner growth with the external plot. By building the character’s greatest fear into key turning points, you can repeatedly force them to choose between retreating into old patterns or taking a step toward growth.
