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Writers Helping Writers #11
The Fear Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to What Holds Characters Back
Fear is a primal force, a built-in warning system alerting characters to danger. It can push them to protect themselves or trap them, making their deepest insecurities and past trauma loom larger than life. It’s also the underlying current fueling plot and arc—a struggle that must be faced and subdued for characters to reach their goals.
Inside this guide, you’ll learn to:
• Master the psychology of fear so you can show how it distorts perception, hijacks reason, generates false beliefs, and drives the character’s choices and behavior
• Write authentic character struggles using over 80 in-depth fear profiles that explore possible disruptions to a person’s life, specific triggers, reactions, and internal conflicts
• Use universal fear categories—Survival, Stability & Control, Relationship, Identity, and Moral & Existential—to plot challenging situations, personal battles, and opportunities for growth
• Pinpoint your character’s greatest fear by exploring their emotional wounds, secrets, unmet needs, and other related factors
• Identify your character’s fatal flaw, which is central to their fight with fear and the story’s resolution
• Strengthen story structure by weaving fear into the main turning points that define a character’s journey
Force your characters to face their inner demons while giving readers a front row seat to their own internal battles. The Fear Thesaurus helps you write stories that feel real—where fear shapes choices, fuels transformation, and reveals the courage it takes to change.
Inside this guide, you’ll learn to:
• Master the psychology of fear so you can show how it distorts perception, hijacks reason, generates false beliefs, and drives the character’s choices and behavior
• Write authentic character struggles using over 80 in-depth fear profiles that explore possible disruptions to a person’s life, specific triggers, reactions, and internal conflicts
• Use universal fear categories—Survival, Stability & Control, Relationship, Identity, and Moral & Existential—to plot challenging situations, personal battles, and opportunities for growth
• Pinpoint your character’s greatest fear by exploring their emotional wounds, secrets, unmet needs, and other related factors
• Identify your character’s fatal flaw, which is central to their fight with fear and the story’s resolution
• Strengthen story structure by weaving fear into the main turning points that define a character’s journey
Force your characters to face their inner demons while giving readers a front row seat to their own internal battles. The Fear Thesaurus helps you write stories that feel real—where fear shapes choices, fuels transformation, and reveals the courage it takes to change.
- GenresWritingNonfiction
258 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2026
About the author
Angela Ackerman
38 books1,032 followersANGELA ACKERMAN is a writing coach, international speaker, and co-author of 11 bestselling books for writers, including The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression. Her books are available in 10 languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. Her home country is Canada.
Angela is also the co-founder of the popular site Writers Helping Writers®, as well as One Stop for Writers®, a portal to powerful tools and resources that help you think like a writing expert so you become a stronger storyteller. A strong believer in writers helping and supporting other writers, she tries to pay-it-forward however she is able to.
http://writershelpingwriters.net
http://onestopforwriters.com
Angela is also the co-founder of the popular site Writers Helping Writers®, as well as One Stop for Writers®, a portal to powerful tools and resources that help you think like a writing expert so you become a stronger storyteller. A strong believer in writers helping and supporting other writers, she tries to pay-it-forward however she is able to.
http://writershelpingwriters.net
http://onestopforwriters.com
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April 6, 2026I received a copy of this book as an ARC, and the following review is given willingly and honestly, and is not subject to any obligation on the part of the authors.
Having said that - OMG! This is the best edition they have produced to date, and that is really saying something as I've been a fan of this series of thesauruses for many years, happily reading the early information sections, and then dipping in to the actual thesaurus parts as required. However, with the exception of the 'Occupation', 'Rural Settings' and 'Urban Settings' editions, all of the others focus on an aspect that helps us with with Goal, Motivation, or Conflict. Some of them, such as the positive and negative traits books cross over these areas, but none—until The Fear Thesaurus—tie all of these together in a meaningful way.
The authors have illustrated how our fears (and our characters' fears, and those of our readers) are all the flip side of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. They show how the fears grow out of the emotional wounds, and how the resulting emotions are amplified by those same fears, thus making our characters take the wrong actions. Those actions become conflicts in and of themselves, so the fears must be overcome to enable the characters to grow and succeed ultimately.
Obviously I'm being simplistic, primarily because Ackerman and Puglisi have written this so well, that I couldn't even begin to summarise what they actually wrote. Suffice to say that their arguments have been clearly and helpfully made to help the reader take each step at a time to visualise the integration that fear makes throughout your story.
Once you've read through the information section, the thesaurus has been laid out so you can dip in to any aspect of fear and follow it through to work out what your characters' goals, motivation, and conflict will be in a meaningful and believable manner. In addition, the authors have added tools on their website that can be downloaded to help you formulate your structure, or help you make sense of your draft if you've "pantsed" it entirely.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book, no reservations. Five stars all the way.
Having said that - OMG! This is the best edition they have produced to date, and that is really saying something as I've been a fan of this series of thesauruses for many years, happily reading the early information sections, and then dipping in to the actual thesaurus parts as required. However, with the exception of the 'Occupation', 'Rural Settings' and 'Urban Settings' editions, all of the others focus on an aspect that helps us with with Goal, Motivation, or Conflict. Some of them, such as the positive and negative traits books cross over these areas, but none—until The Fear Thesaurus—tie all of these together in a meaningful way.
The authors have illustrated how our fears (and our characters' fears, and those of our readers) are all the flip side of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. They show how the fears grow out of the emotional wounds, and how the resulting emotions are amplified by those same fears, thus making our characters take the wrong actions. Those actions become conflicts in and of themselves, so the fears must be overcome to enable the characters to grow and succeed ultimately.
Obviously I'm being simplistic, primarily because Ackerman and Puglisi have written this so well, that I couldn't even begin to summarise what they actually wrote. Suffice to say that their arguments have been clearly and helpfully made to help the reader take each step at a time to visualise the integration that fear makes throughout your story.
Once you've read through the information section, the thesaurus has been laid out so you can dip in to any aspect of fear and follow it through to work out what your characters' goals, motivation, and conflict will be in a meaningful and believable manner. In addition, the authors have added tools on their website that can be downloaded to help you formulate your structure, or help you make sense of your draft if you've "pantsed" it entirely.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book, no reservations. Five stars all the way.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Fear is truly everywhere in our everyday. The newest installment of the Writers Helping Writers Thesaurus series by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, The Fear Thesaurus, explores fear at its core. The Fear Thesaurus articulates how an author can use those emotions that cause your skin to crawl and your stomach to churn to help, hinder and develop your characters throughout their arc.
Fear responses of fight, flight or freeze are discussed in detail as well as how they can affect your character in different situations. One of the greatest aspects of this series is that you can see yourself, and your characters, in every light, in every situation presented. It also gives you elements to allow you to formulate your character’s backstory and future by stringing together different forms of fears. Fear often isn’t just one single thread through someone’s life; it can touch every portion of their being.
The section on Phobias and the difference between them and fears was eye-opening. I’d always interpreted them as going hand in hand, but they are in fact quite different.
The first fifty pages of this Thesaurus details the ins and outs of fear and how each type (with descriptions and definitions) can be used in your books. The remainder of the book breaks down fear by types, examples and thorough explanations of how they can be executed for your story and develop your characters.
Each entry is complied with precise attention for the advantage of the writer using this resource. I can’t praise these authors enough for yet another excellent collection of priceless information.
Received an advanced reader copy
Fear responses of fight, flight or freeze are discussed in detail as well as how they can affect your character in different situations. One of the greatest aspects of this series is that you can see yourself, and your characters, in every light, in every situation presented. It also gives you elements to allow you to formulate your character’s backstory and future by stringing together different forms of fears. Fear often isn’t just one single thread through someone’s life; it can touch every portion of their being.
The section on Phobias and the difference between them and fears was eye-opening. I’d always interpreted them as going hand in hand, but they are in fact quite different.
The first fifty pages of this Thesaurus details the ins and outs of fear and how each type (with descriptions and definitions) can be used in your books. The remainder of the book breaks down fear by types, examples and thorough explanations of how they can be executed for your story and develop your characters.
Each entry is complied with precise attention for the advantage of the writer using this resource. I can’t praise these authors enough for yet another excellent collection of priceless information.
Received an advanced reader copy
Review of advance copy received from Author
I've been a big fan of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi's Writers Helping Writers series, and the latest edition - The Fear Thesaurus - is right at the top of helpful guides for writing characters with depth.
I received an advance copy of this while working on my next series, and it has been incredibly helpful.
(And oh, the joy I get out of creating situations for these characters to fight their way out of!)
One section of these books that gets overlooked is the front matter.
Don't skip those chapters!
They're full of practical writing advice, including how to take your characters from two-dimensional to well-rounded characters we'll root for in a story.
In this edition, the authors cover fear and its effects on a character, the correlation between fears and basic human needs, fear and story structure, how to uncover your character's greatest fears, and how to write authentic fear responses.
In the thesaurus part, each entry contains notes about what the fear is, what it looks like, common internal struggles, hindrances & disruptions in the character's life, emotional wounds it could stem from (excellent if you have the Emotional Wound Thesaurus), human needs that could be impacted, and how the character could minimize or overcome the fear.
There are 82 fears divided into 5 categories.
And readers also get access to bonus content and worksheets from the Writers Helping Writers website.
Every author needs this book sitting next to their desk, ready to torture their next character.
I received an advance copy of this while working on my next series, and it has been incredibly helpful.
(And oh, the joy I get out of creating situations for these characters to fight their way out of!)
One section of these books that gets overlooked is the front matter.
Don't skip those chapters!
They're full of practical writing advice, including how to take your characters from two-dimensional to well-rounded characters we'll root for in a story.
In this edition, the authors cover fear and its effects on a character, the correlation between fears and basic human needs, fear and story structure, how to uncover your character's greatest fears, and how to write authentic fear responses.
In the thesaurus part, each entry contains notes about what the fear is, what it looks like, common internal struggles, hindrances & disruptions in the character's life, emotional wounds it could stem from (excellent if you have the Emotional Wound Thesaurus), human needs that could be impacted, and how the character could minimize or overcome the fear.
There are 82 fears divided into 5 categories.
And readers also get access to bonus content and worksheets from the Writers Helping Writers website.
Every author needs this book sitting next to their desk, ready to torture their next character.
May 12, 2026
Ackerman and Puglisi deliver with this latest installment. They created a tool for us that provides everything we need to create “that” level of tension with The Fear Thesaurus.
In this book, the front matter matters. I appreciated Ackerman and Puglisi’s guidance for what we need to understand about how fear works in our writing and how to use it and what level of fear to use based on our project. Whether our character is being hunted, losing their autonomy, suffering heartbreak, or becoming a parent, the material goes in depth with each topic.
Using this thesaurus, we can build each character’s fear levels and failure arcs, whether it is survival, stability and control, relationships, identity, or existential and moral fears.
The thesaurus entries dive deep. Each entry contains notes surrounding the issue, what that fear looks like, common internal struggles, hindrances and disruptions to our character’s life, emotional wounds the fear could stem from, scenarios that might trigger this fear, human needs that could be impacted, and how the character can minimize or overcome it.
The appendices provide quick guides for survival responses to fear, maps the change arc turning points, and a map for our character overcoming failure.
What I love about this volume is it ties together all the previous thesauri in the series and can be used in nonfiction as well as fiction.
This book is a must for writers.
In this book, the front matter matters. I appreciated Ackerman and Puglisi’s guidance for what we need to understand about how fear works in our writing and how to use it and what level of fear to use based on our project. Whether our character is being hunted, losing their autonomy, suffering heartbreak, or becoming a parent, the material goes in depth with each topic.
Using this thesaurus, we can build each character’s fear levels and failure arcs, whether it is survival, stability and control, relationships, identity, or existential and moral fears.
The thesaurus entries dive deep. Each entry contains notes surrounding the issue, what that fear looks like, common internal struggles, hindrances and disruptions to our character’s life, emotional wounds the fear could stem from, scenarios that might trigger this fear, human needs that could be impacted, and how the character can minimize or overcome it.
The appendices provide quick guides for survival responses to fear, maps the change arc turning points, and a map for our character overcoming failure.
What I love about this volume is it ties together all the previous thesauri in the series and can be used in nonfiction as well as fiction.
This book is a must for writers.
April 19, 2026
A treatise on fear
I love these books! I own every book in the series and some in multiple formats. They are indispensable to me when exploring a new character, setting, or story idea. Then once I’m writing, they are fantastic for finding just the right word or description to fit the prose or tone of the story I’m telling.
As motivated we humans are by our needs and desires, we are often even more motivated by our fears. That makes fear a rich ground for digging into what is driving your characters and pushing your story forward.
Before getting into specific fears Ackerman and Puglisi provide a wealth of information about fear and how to use it to best effect in your writing. Then they go into specific fears, what they look like, the internal struggles, challenges, and where the fear might play out. (In the process of going through this book I, rather unexpectedly, learned a bit about some of my own fears, too.)
As much as I have used and enjoyed the other books in the series, to me, this is the best one yet. It will be well used.
I received an ARC of this book from the authors and am leaving my review.
I love these books! I own every book in the series and some in multiple formats. They are indispensable to me when exploring a new character, setting, or story idea. Then once I’m writing, they are fantastic for finding just the right word or description to fit the prose or tone of the story I’m telling.
As motivated we humans are by our needs and desires, we are often even more motivated by our fears. That makes fear a rich ground for digging into what is driving your characters and pushing your story forward.
Before getting into specific fears Ackerman and Puglisi provide a wealth of information about fear and how to use it to best effect in your writing. Then they go into specific fears, what they look like, the internal struggles, challenges, and where the fear might play out. (In the process of going through this book I, rather unexpectedly, learned a bit about some of my own fears, too.)
As much as I have used and enjoyed the other books in the series, to me, this is the best one yet. It will be well used.
I received an ARC of this book from the authors and am leaving my review.
April 28, 2026
The Fear Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to What Holds Characters Back is the latest addition to the stellar writing guides created by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi—and it’s another winner. While it may be tempting to flip to the individual entries, writers seeking to create compelling characters should take the time to mine the discussion of fear in the front of the book. Its explanation of the formative force of fear is pure gold. It’s also a reminder that not all fears are equal—nor rational. Crafting a fight scene? Knowing how your character’s fight, flight, or freeze response will add veracity to any scene. I personally found the section on “How Villains and Antagonist Use Fear” to be particularly revealing. The thesaurus entries offer a comprehensive breakdown of what the fear looks like, the internal struggles it causes and how it can disrupt the character’s life, where the fear may have originated, how the fear could be triggered, its impact, and most importantly for a story arc, how the character can overcome it. This thesaurus is a great resource to add to your shelf! I received an ARC of this book--but I'm a fan of all of their thesauri.
Review of advance copy
The highly anticipated addition to Ackerman and Puglisi’s Thesaurus series!
I have every one of Angela and Becca’s Thesaurus’. As an author, they are the best educational resource I have in my library. The Fear Thesaurus is a wonderful addition to this series and has already led to a better understanding of the characters and their arcs in my current WIP.
I love how the authors break down the specific fears into categories, then into subcategories. The author’s description of fear ranges from the physical and mental to the psychological, detailing the emotional impact of each on the characters in the story.
The section describing the connection between fear and human needs cover the five primary human needs that drive all behavior along with character driven examples demonstrating each. I found their in-depth notes on phobias particularly helpful as my heroine in my current WIP is dealing with an irrational fear.
The Fear Thesaurus does not disappoint and should be a staple in every author’s library.
I received an Advanced Reader Copy for an honest review.
I have every one of Angela and Becca’s Thesaurus’. As an author, they are the best educational resource I have in my library. The Fear Thesaurus is a wonderful addition to this series and has already led to a better understanding of the characters and their arcs in my current WIP.
I love how the authors break down the specific fears into categories, then into subcategories. The author’s description of fear ranges from the physical and mental to the psychological, detailing the emotional impact of each on the characters in the story.
The section describing the connection between fear and human needs cover the five primary human needs that drive all behavior along with character driven examples demonstrating each. I found their in-depth notes on phobias particularly helpful as my heroine in my current WIP is dealing with an irrational fear.
The Fear Thesaurus does not disappoint and should be a staple in every author’s library.
I received an Advanced Reader Copy for an honest review.
May 13, 2026
One of the greatest tools a writer has is to give their characters deep rooted fears that drive the story forward. The Fear Thesaurus is the perfect new addition to the Thesaurus collection by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. These books are a must have in my writing arsenal and I use them consistently to take my stories deeper with greater descriptions and information. It’s one thing to say your characters have a fear, but the Fear Thesaurus helps you to drive into the depths of your character’s backstory. The book also provides practical writing advice and great takeaways. The Fear Thesaurus describes a particular fear, then offers what that looks like in the character’s behavior, ways they’d struggle internally with the fear, hindrances and disruptions to their lives, emotional wounds (I highly recommend the Emotional Wound Thesaurus too) and scenarios to trigger that fear, human needs that are impacted, and finally how the character can overcome the fear. It’s like getting an entire writing conference in one book!
Review of advance copy received from Author
I have several of the Writer Guides by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi and often refer to them. When I saw one focused on Fear, I was thrilled. I've used their worksheets to explore a character's fear as part of creating their story arc. Now there's an entire book focused on one of my favorite parts of developing a character, and it's one of my favorites in this series!
This guide is so helpful to brainstorm ideas of what shapes a character and then go deeper in how they might respond to a situation. It's a great resource with so many examples (over 80) of what might cause a fear and how to weave it into the story for the characters to face their fears. So good! I know I'll be referring to this often as I write my books.
This guide is so helpful to brainstorm ideas of what shapes a character and then go deeper in how they might respond to a situation. It's a great resource with so many examples (over 80) of what might cause a fear and how to weave it into the story for the characters to face their fears. So good! I know I'll be referring to this often as I write my books.
May 9, 2026
Another exceptional offering from Angela Ackerman of Writers Helping Writers.
This Fear Thesaurus is the best book yet! It not only delves into a character's fears and what motivates them, but offers solid ideas on how to drive the fear home to the reader at the same time the character is coming to grips with his state of mind and dealing with his reality.
The book is arranged so that it's very easy to find your characters' problems and includes valuable suggestions on how to portray them in a "show don't tell" manner.
If you've ever wanted to explore your characters' mindsets more deeply, but needed a hand getting there, invest in this book. You won't be sorry!
I received an ARC of this Thesaurus in exchange for my honest opinion.
This Fear Thesaurus is the best book yet! It not only delves into a character's fears and what motivates them, but offers solid ideas on how to drive the fear home to the reader at the same time the character is coming to grips with his state of mind and dealing with his reality.
The book is arranged so that it's very easy to find your characters' problems and includes valuable suggestions on how to portray them in a "show don't tell" manner.
If you've ever wanted to explore your characters' mindsets more deeply, but needed a hand getting there, invest in this book. You won't be sorry!
I received an ARC of this Thesaurus in exchange for my honest opinion.
Review of advance copy
I've always enjoyed The Writers Helping Writers Thesaurus series. They give you so much detail on aspects of life that directly impact your character, your plotline, and the world around them. The Fear Thesaurus goes into details on the fears that impact your character. I LOVE the index of fears because it goes through all the potential causes, how they might react, how they might resolve it, hindrances, and emotional wounds that may have triggered it. It's great for character development, and let's be honest, personal development too actually. I saw my own fears in here. I also liked their guidelines on how to find your character's fear and how to write about it. Absolutely recommend it!
Review of advance copy received from Author
I received an Advanced Readers Copy from the author.
I really, really liked The Fear Thesaurus. It’s clear, smart, and gives you a solid way to understand why characters behave the way they do. The connection between fear and human needs especially stood out.
It makes everything feel grounded and real.
The structure is also a big strength. Breaking fear into types and even levels of intensity gives you something practical to work with, not just vague ideas.
But at the same time it can feel a bit too structured. Fear is often messy, irrational, and inconsistent.
All the same, for me, it’s a powerful tool
I would always recommend.
I really, really liked The Fear Thesaurus. It’s clear, smart, and gives you a solid way to understand why characters behave the way they do. The connection between fear and human needs especially stood out.
It makes everything feel grounded and real.
The structure is also a big strength. Breaking fear into types and even levels of intensity gives you something practical to work with, not just vague ideas.
But at the same time it can feel a bit too structured. Fear is often messy, irrational, and inconsistent.
All the same, for me, it’s a powerful tool
I would always recommend.
April 18, 2026
The Fear Thesaurus is a must-have resource for every writer's toolbox. I own the entire thesaurus set written by this fantastic duo, and each volume sits on a shelf beside my personal computer as a reference while outlining novels. The amount of detail supplied in The Fear Thesaurus will help you navigate through complicated hurdles your characters might have to endure. Whether it's soft and warm romantic encounters or heart-stopping serial killer stories, writers will find this volume easy to follow and relate to. Another A+ Winner by Ackerman and Puglisi!
April 19, 2026
I always love getting a new writing thesaurus from these authors. This book is another excellent addition to my library. A character's fears defines their motivations and guides their journey. Ackerman and Puglisi provide us with a ton of motivations and reactions that help us build on our character descriptions and motivations. If you're ever wondering “what happens if?” I suggest getting this excellent guide to help you move the story from A-Z. It includes everything you want to know about fear but were afraid to ask.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Great work!
As a writer whose first language isn't English, I found The Fear Thesaurus to be an invaluable resource. It goes far beyond a simple list of fears: the psychological insight behind each entry is thorough, accurate, and remarkably detailed. For my current story, where fear and its impact on characters play a central role, this guide has been exactly what I needed. Complete, precise, and deeply useful. Another outstanding piece of work from this series!
As a writer whose first language isn't English, I found The Fear Thesaurus to be an invaluable resource. It goes far beyond a simple list of fears: the psychological insight behind each entry is thorough, accurate, and remarkably detailed. For my current story, where fear and its impact on characters play a central role, this guide has been exactly what I needed. Complete, precise, and deeply useful. Another outstanding piece of work from this series!
May 13, 2026
I own four of the other thesauri, and the Fear Thesaurus is my favorite. Even if I weren't a writer, this book breaks down fear in a way that is so enlightening, I would still read it. I'm a master's student in communication, and this book was right up there with my class readings. It was so interesting and informative! If you have never read one of their thesauri, this is a great one to start with!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Once again Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have written another, highly anticipated thesaurus that answers questions you didn't even think of. Excellent for writers of any stage of their career. The ARC of The Fear Thesaurus has pride of place in my collection. Thank you for the chance to read the ARC from the publishers.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Every writer should have this book. Like the series of thesauruses written by Angela Ackerman, this one is chock-full of helpful details to understand fear and explain it in writing. I own all of the writer's guides which are a great resource. The way the chapters are written with examples along with supportive information makes it easy to read and use.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Another GREAT addition to my thesaurus collection. I had big expectations for this book, and was definitely not disappointed. If you're already familiar with the previous books in the series, you can expect the same quality and care from this one. Absolutely loved it!
May 26, 2026
I don't agree with a lot of it but loved how it was organized according to Maslow's Hierarchy.
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