Character Secret Thesaurus: Giving Up a Child

What secret is your character keeping? Why are they safeguarding it? What’s at stake if it’s discovered? Does it need to come out at some point, or should it remain hidden?

This is some of the important information you need to know about your character’s secrets—and they will have secrets, because everyone does. They’re thorny little time bombs composed of fear, deceit, stress, and conflict that, when detonated, threaten to destroy everything the character holds dear.

So, of course, you should assemble them. And we can’t wait to help.

This thesaurus provides brainstorming fodder for a host of secrets that could plague your character. Use it to explore possible secrets, their underlying causes, how they might play into the overall story, and how to realistically write a character who is hiding them—all while establishing reader empathy and interest.

For instance, let’s see what it might look like if your character…

Has Given up a Child

ABOUT THIS SECRET: Whether a character puts a baby up for adoption, surrenders their own parental rights, or even abandons their child, giving them up won’t be an easy decision. Regardless of their reasons, guilt and heartbreak often follow, along with judgment from others, making this act a burden your character might prefer to carry alone.

SPECIFIC FEARS THAT MAY DRIVE THE NEED FOR SECRECY: Becoming a Parent, Being Capable of Harm, Being Judged, Being Labeled, Being Responsible for Others, Being Unable to Achieve a Dream, Criticism, Failure, Letting Others Down, Losing the Respect of Others, Never Finding Happiness, One’s Instincts Being Unreliable, Regret, Repeating a Cycle of Abuse

HOW THIS SECRET COULD HOLD THE CHARACTER BACK
Regretting their decision and living with terrible guilt
Constantly wondering where they child is and how they are, preventing the character from living in the moment
Shying away from opportunities that require the character to be responsible for others
The character believing that they are a certain way and embracing associated flaws (incapable, irresponsible, unreliable, unable to commit or follow through, etc.)

BEHAVIORS OR HABITS THAT HELP HIDE THIS SECRET
Never mentioning the child
Pretending that the child died
Hiding all photographs of the child
Getting rid of anything that belonged to the child (clothes, toys, keepsakes, etc.)

ACTIVITIES OR TENDENCIES THAT MAY RAISE SUSPICIONS
The character having a visible emotional reaction when the subject of children comes up
Avoiding playgrounds, nursery schools, and other areas associated with children
Shunning family gatherings

SITUATIONS THAT MAKE KEEPING THIS SECRET A CHALLENGE 
People who knew the character when she was pregnant asking about the baby
An old friend surfacing who knows about the child
Someone from the adoptive family reaching out unexpectedly
The child’s birth record or medical records surfacing

Other Secret Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Need More Descriptive Help?

While this thesaurus is still being developed, the rest of our descriptive collection (18 unique thesauri and growing) is accessible through the One Stop for Writers THESAURUS database.

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