Character Secret Thesaurus: Being an Anonymous Financial Donor

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…

Made an Anonymous Financial Donation

ABOUT THIS SECRET: There could be many reasons your character decides to support a particular person or organization anonymously. Their altruistic actions may be offset by the desire to avoid being solicited for donations by others. If the recipient is controversial in some way, the donor want to support them without inviting undue conflict. Keeping the peace could also be a motivator if certain relatives wouldn’t be happy about money leaving the family coffers.

SPECIFIC FEARS THAT MAY DRIVE THE NEED FOR SECRECY: Being Judged, Being Labeled, Being Taken Advantage of, Being Watched, Conditional Love, Conflict, Criticism, Discrimination, Letting Others Down, Losing One’s Social Standing, Losing the Respect of Others, Putting Oneself Out There, Rejection, Trusting Others

HOW THIS SECRET COULD HOLD THE CHARACTER BACK
Being identified with selfishness and stinginess instead of generosity
Having to hide their true allegiances
Not being able to publicly embrace the recipient and engage with others who are likeminded

BEHAVIORS OR HABITS THAT HELP HIDE THIS SECRET
Never mentioning the person or organization they’ve donated to
Donating the money from a secret or foreign account
Starting a rumor that the donation was made by someone else
Feigning support for people or organizations whose values or goals are opposed to those of the recipient

ACTIVITIES OR TENDENCIES THAT MAY RAISE SUSPICIONS
Money being withdrawn from their bank account with no paper trail
The organization sending the character literature via the contact information provided when donating
Someone discovering the character’s alias or pseudonym
Having meetings with a lawyer for the organization

SITUATIONS THAT MAKE KEEPING THIS SECRET A CHALLENGE 
The character being audited
The family falling on hard times and needing money that’s no longer there
A letter of gratitude coming in the mail
The money being used for something the donor didn’t intend

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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