Blog Chain - Fears

It's Christine's turn to start the chain this time around, and she picked a hell of a question.

"What is the main character of you current WiP most afraid of and why? Don’t use a previously finished work. This is all about discovering the inner motivations of your current characters – the ones you don’t know all that well yet.”

How am I supposed to answer that one?  I'm currently working on my YA that's due out next year, but it's kind of bad luck for me to talk about something I'm in the middle of working on, so I'll use an MG I've been thinking about working on after I finish my YA.

The MG is about the day aliens invade a small town in FL.  My main character, Max Gamble, has just lost his father, and his mother works all the time.  On the day of the invasion, Max is left alone with an elderly woman and two delinquent neighbor kids.  Max's fear is simple:  That everyone he knows is going to leave and he'll be left alone.  That's Max's biggest fear.  And I think it's justified.  Losing his father woke Max up to the fact that people leave.  They die, they disappear, they simply walk away.  The things in his life that seemed so concrete before, suddenly became mutable.  The foundation of his beliefs is weak.

And then the aliens appear and very literally begin taking people away.  Max's greatest fear comes true.

I've only written one MG before but I like MG for different reasons than YA.  YA is all about exploring boundaries.  Exploration of the self.  Whereas MG is about coming to terms with the things in your world.  I think MG is that age where you're just beginning to learn that not everyone is nice, not everything is fair, and not everyone is what they appear.

So that's my answer!  Check out Laura who answered before me and Sarah who will talk about her characters' fears tomorrow!