Because I'm curious about what scares people - not to mention this could be a really helpful tally of base human fears for us horror writers to draw breath from, please let me, us, hear what really scares you the most and then expound upon it a bit so we can get to the psychosis of it.

I'll start.

1. Being trapped in a constricted, tight space without light.

It's likely the sense of helplessness - not being able to move or see; the inability to do anything about it or even see how to deal with it. I'm claustrophobic, but as long as I have a sliver of light, I'm fine. Take that light away and I will panic. I was trapped under the street in a sewer tunnel with no light when I was a child... maybe that's where it started. Years of locked closets and being zipped up in a sleeping bag by my pranking older brother didn't help either.

My name is Coy Lothrop, and I've seen terror.

who's next?

I'm terrified of deep water. Not swimming pools, but lakes, ponds, the ocean. . . absolutely terrified. I think part of it has to do with not knowing what's down there. I'm not sure. I just know that even when I watch TV shows, and they're showing people scuba diving, or swimming in open water, or it's just a camera showing fish swimming around, I start shaking uncontrollably. I've actually screamed just watching a show where a man was scuba diving.

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I am super terrified of heights. I hate heights so much. When I see something in the movies like someone standing on the edge of the building my heart starts racing and my stumach begins to flip and even if I'm sitting down I'll lean forward or to the side like I'm off balance and about ready to fall. One time we went to New York and went on the empire state building (I think). In any case it was a really high building and you could walk to the edge where there was glass and look down or out at the city. Freaked me out and I refused to walk over to the edge even though there was a piece of glass that was about as tall as me.

I am also scared to death of heights.

My biggest fear would be either being burried alive or being burned to death while awake and aware it was happening.

Falling.

No parachute, no hang-glider, no hand holds. Weather it's in a plane or free-fall, either would scare me.

There's no way to stop it, no way to propel myself upward; no way to calm me down without hitting something knowing that I'll be hurt.

Because, if you fall from high enough, that's exactly what will happen. Broken bones, brusised skin, crushed head-all of that is possible.

My biggest fear is death. What happens when I'm gone, is there an afterlife, isn't there, how will I go, will it hurt... yes. Very freaked out. If I ever got a shot at being immortal, I would take it without a doubt.

Pain, break-ins, weapons, fire, kidnappers, and car crashes are also some of my biggest fears. (I watch too many crime shows... ><)

This may sound really, really pathetic.

Telephones.

If I ever went to a psychiatrist, I could totally be diagnosed with an actual phobia of telephones. There are only two phone numbers I will call or pick up being completely relaxed: my home phone and my mom's cell phone. Ask me to call my brother or my Dad's cell phone, and I will get sweaty palms, stutter, shake, etc. God forbid I have to call a stranger. I actually passed on a great offer for a new computer because the person selling me the computer asked me to call him. I sat with the phone in my hand for an hour before I realized I could not dial the phone. I have to write myself a script of what I'm going to say on the phone if I'm going to call my best friend or my grandparents. Otherwise, I start getting a panic attack. I have no clue whatsoever why I'm so petrified of the phone. I'm only mildly shy in person, and have no problem emailing/texting people (when my mom added texting to our plan, it was a lifesaver...)

I know it sounds weird, but it actually is my greatest fear. After that, crowds.

Which I didn't discover until I was one of two million people on the National Mall on Inauguration Day.

I'm most afraid of the idea of minute, precision, painstaking work extended out over an eternity. Like constructing the universe particle by particle, my life extended into maddening immortality as I work on something that takes an incomprehensibly huge amount of time and mindless, precision effort.

I'm not even kidding. This is a recurring nightmare for me. Every time I've woken up shaking, sweating, delirious and yelling in fear for twenty minutes after the fact. I'm getting a tad nervous just writing this.

Interesting topic. I was fascinated by this list from Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works--perhaps you'll find it useful.

If I remember correctly (I got this from a student of arch/anth), Pinker is suggesting that these are all normal/common fears because they are survival fears. That is, if certain cavemen had these fears, those cavement would have been more likely to survive (and pass on their genes, I suppose, perhaps keeping these fears in the species). You can imagine--if you were a caveman, and you were not afraid of tigers...

(If any of you have Pinker's book in hand, feel free to improve/correct my oversimplification.)

fears:
snakes
spiders
heights
storms
large carnivores
darkness
blood
strangers
confinement
deep water
social scrutiny
leaving home alone

Assuming Pinker is right, if you can use, twist, expand, or combine any of these elements, you're likely to get a visceral, primal reaction from a good number of your characters--and readers.

As for me, personally, I'll offer: fear of failure.

golden_snidget: Yes. Me too. Honestly, I didn't want to say it, but since you did. . . I am totally terrified of telephones in the exact same way. Actually, I'm even scared of them ringing.

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Me? I have two fears:

-Fear of deep water. It may have something to do with the somewhat tramutizing experience I faced as a child... but I still, to this day (I'm 16), have not learned to swim.

-Loss of memory. The idea of forgetting who you are, and what has happened to you ever since you was born freaks me out.

I also have two.

The dark-

I'm fine inside. I'm fine with groups. But if I'm outside, alone, in the dark, I'm terrified. I've had times when I'd gone to get the paper before the sun rose, and either ran back in before I made it to the end of the driveway, or frozen up before leaving the light on the porch. It really freaks me out, that there might be something out there that I can't see.

(Funny thing is? My vision's terrible, but my hearing's great. If there was something out there, I'd hear it before I saw it, no matter what.)

My hands-

When I was really little, I was learning how to walk, and my parents left the fire on the woodstove, and I fell and burned them. Ever since then, I've been terrified of everything that might happen to them. I can't walk along curbs without imagining cars running over my hands. I can't go rockclimbing without thinking about rocks falling and crushing me. There are so many tiny bones in our hands, and I've imagined a way to break every single one of them. It's absolutely terrifying.

I'm a little surprised this one isn't on here, but then again, maybe I'm uniquely freakish.

Dolls. Barbies are okay, though I never played with them as a child, but anything that looks like a baby, or anything antique - truly frightening. My highschool boyfriend's mom collected dolls, and they were right in the front hall of their house. By daylight, I was unnerved. At night, breathless with fear.

I have several.

Spiders: Even the little spiders I freak out about. There was one in my room and I screamed and made my 12-year-old brother kill it (he was laughing). When we 1st moved to this house, there were 3 spiders in my room. My sister (14) wouldn't kill it for me because she thought I was pathetic, and my brother let me sleep in his room and I did because I was so scared of the spiders. I dunno why. Maybe I'm afraid of swollowing them?

Bees/wasps: I'm afraid of beeing stung. I was 13 before I'd ever been stung and it was because they practically swarmed me. I got stung like 3 times that day, and like 5 times the whole week (it was at a camp-type thing). I've been stung one other time. I knew there was a wasp in my room (at my old house) and I would watch it to keep an eye on it, but I didn't like it beeing in there (even worse than spiders). I was afraid it'd sting me in my sleep. No one would kill it for me, so I had to deal with it. After a while I thought it was dead. I hadn't seen it in a while. So I was cleaning my room and I picked up a sock and it was on the bottom of it (where I couldn't see) and it stung me. It didn't hurt as much as the others because it was almost dead but still.

I'm afraid of death too for the same reasons as the other poster.

And beeing burned alive. My brother was burned right in front of me and I've been so scared of it happening to me. (He's fine now, btw, and somehow still as NOT afraid of fire as he ever was)

Crowds. Freak me out. I'm afraid of beeing judged by people, and afraid of beeing in large crowds. At restaraunts I have to have a seat with as many walls (preferably a corner) away from the people, with the wall to my back. I can't sit with them walking behind me where I can't see. My Dad's the same way and always takes the seat I want/need haha. I dunno why, it just really makes me nervous. Once I had to sit with the whole restaraunt to my back, and it was not a fun time. I was straight as can be the whole time. It was AWEFUL.

Also, I'm afraid of beeing outside alone at night. I'm always afraid of murderers or rapeists or something. Freaks me out. Even when I have to take out the trash or something and go to the garage (outside for about 30 seconds) I run there and back because it scares me so much.

Um...that's all I can think of. Hope I helped!

EDIT: I forgot dying alone. wow. I just realized how many things I'm afraid of...there's more but I don't feel like posting them >_<

I know someone who is afraid of flamingos...

I have many little fears, but I think my greatest fears are:

crowds - especially if they're strangers

thunder/lightning - I don't know why, but I think it's the loud noises and flashing lights that really get me...

and

heights - not as much as the ones

I'm scared of death. I mean, pretty much everything scares me, water because I think something is going to eat me, the dark because I think that someone is going to attack me, walking out in the open because I think someone is going to drive by and shoot me. Yeah, I know, I sound really paranoid, but I am so that makes sense.

I hope this helps,

Fenia

Thanks for all of the great responses. Keep them coming, these tiny confessionals are golden.

Tornadoes. It's weird and a little irrational, but since I was a kid tornadoes have scared the HELL out of me. At one point, when I was about four, I refused to leave the house if the wind was blowing really hard (I live on the plains, so it's not too uncommon). I've gotten over that, but I still have the occasional nightmare about them. About one or two every few months. We don't even HAVE tornadoes here.

It's the idea that you can't do anything to stop it. You can't fight it, or find a way around it. How it just tears apart everything around it, regardless of what you do. It's just an overwhelmingly terrifying thought to be that powerless. All you can do is hide.

spiders
heights
large carnivores
confinement
deep water
social scrutiny
failure
being alone for too long

for me, it's really weird. I don't have huge fears. I mean, i don't like spiders or wasps but I'm okay with them and can put them away. I'm scared of murders, rapeists, people runnign amok, but i'd probably deal with them a lot better than other people. I'm not scared of snakes or other animals, though I don't like them that much. I have no problem with water, heights, blood, small rooms...

In reality that is.

Because, whenever I watch a movie or a TV show that is related to criem or a thrille ror something, I freak out. I just can't watch it. Especially not when the characters are really scared of them. I can watch a children's movie where someone is claustrphobic and when they ar ein a small room, I find it hard to breathe and start to shake.
So for me, my greatest fear would be watching scary movies, i guess.

One other thing is failure or no tbeiang accepted. I get really scared when I think someone misunderstood somethign i said, which wa smeant as a joke. I can generalyl not fight with people because I get so scared of social exclusion. It makes me cry whenever there is a conflict for me which is why most people think I can't stand criticism. I can. I just get scared of being disliked.
But to soem extend... we all are, i think

Needles.

Not sewing needles, those are fine. I mean like the needles they use to give shots and such. Any needle intended to go inside your body.

I don't know what exactly it is; maybe the feeling of them going in, maybe the fact that I can usually feel the stuff coming out of them. The idea of something contaminating my body that directly is terrifying.

My dad has had to literally chase me around the house on a couple of occasions to give me shots (he's a doc, so he's qualified to do them himself). And even when I sit still for one, I still get all freaked out and shaky and start crying. And then afterwards I feel like that for like half an hour, even though it's done with.

It's pretty recent, too, which is kind of odd. When I was younger I had no trouble with needles.

Can't think of any big fears other than that.

I'm afraid of being terrorized.

This is why I do not understand horror movies.

By terrorized, I mean murdered horribly. Someone getting off on my fear. But cut, tortured, whatever- psychotic stuff.

That is the most horrible thing ever, I think.

Next would be suffocation, for sure. Especially under the above circumstances.

Carolyn- busy typing with one hand, drawing with the other- and best case scenario, there's a microphone to be singing into...

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Man, I just realized how Lovecrafitan my greatest fear is. That's kind of awesome.

Spiders. Spiders. And spiders.

I can't stand them. I'm actually getting a little freaked out just writing them. I know it's totally irrational, but nonetheless.

I'm fine with any other animal/insect in the world (I don't like all of them, but I'm not scared of them), but don't talk about spiders.

Tiffany

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"Writers will happen in the best of families."
~Rita Mae Brown

http://ahighcalling2007.blogspot.com

"Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered."
HAMLET to Ophelia, William Shakepeare

My biggest fear is that someone would know my deepest darkest secrets and bring them to the light.

Brrrrrrrrr...

It'll be a little cliche by this time, but deep water. I nearly drowned while I was at a beach when I was eleven, so now I can barely go into swimming pools... if the water I'm in is over five feet deep, I panic and start to struggle. It doesn't exactly help matters that I swim with my eyes closed, so I can't see where the pool ends unless I'm wearing goggles.

Volcanoes and drowning/putting my head underwater. Justifiable, because both can kill me.

Spiders. I've made myself kill a few spiders and it never helps that you have to smack them a good couple of times before they actually die. I (as pathetic as this may sound, it's true) scan my walls every night before going to sleep because I'm so afraid there will be spiders. I can't even think about spiders because it freaks me out. Because of my fear, I can't even watch some movies: I spend most of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with my eyes closed. I tried watching Charlotte's Web but couldn't because I was so afraid of the spider I wanted to cry! And don't try telling me it's a good spider, it's a spider, and that's enough!!

My grandpa can't seem to understand how I can stand half a metre away from a snake and be fascinated but then run out of the bathroom screaming if there's a spider.

I don't know where my fear comes from, but I know all those urban legends and horror stories don't really help.

Muxxy, I hate to tell you this... but there's a spider on your back.

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My wife is equally terrified of spiders. :)

Fire is scary. I mean, I was at my uncle's farm and we had a nice outside bonfire going for warmth, and it was only a few feet across, but less than a yard away and closer it got uncomfortably hot. Then I started talking to my sister about Joan of Arc and how the fire must have felt. I was thinking about how hot it gets if you just put your hand above a CANDLE. It was unsettling thinking of a big, roaring pyre slowly working its way up a body tied to a stake, charring your legs while the rest of you blisters, and all the oxygen would be burning up and it would be hard to breathe. And so many people died that way. I hope I don't.

I have a fear of being alone. No one in the house, no one in the city, no one anywhere, just me all alone in the lethal silence. I get nervous when I'm alone--especially at night, imagining I'll never see my family again...

My biggest fear is probably being alone at night in the middle of nowhere.

My house is basically against woods, and there is no streetlight or anything. If I forget something downstairs, I basically run and get back to my room quickly, afraid of what I'll see outside of the window.