Over the weekend I won Diane Craver’s March Madness contest – yippee! – and so I now have a free download of her new Samhain release, Never the Same.
Can’t wait to read it. Diane’s going to be appearing here in the future as a guest blogger for Writers’ Wednesday, too, so stay tuned for her post on writing inspirational romance!
Spent a lot of time on my laptop this weekend, in front of the television and various playoff games, but I did manage to get about 5000 words written over the last couple of days. I’m struggled a little with the development of my hero in One Night in Memphis. He’s not an alpha male (I know…gasp), but a guy who’s more on the quiet, sensitive side, a 30-year old widower who’s venturing reluctantly into the dating scene after a year of mourning his wife.
I know I can’t make him too tortured or broken – my critique groups have already told me this – and yet the story is as much about his journey back to emotional health as it is the heroine’s. Maybe more. He’s not a confident, brash guy. He’s not muscular and chiseled. He’s…sort of regular. Kind but not a pushover. Smart but not that talkative. Do you think that makes him uninteresting? I hope not. I really, really hope not.
It’s definitely harder to write this hero than others I’ve worked with in my novels. Alpha males, for all their flaws, are easier to create and easier to make the heroine (and the reader) fall in love with. For me, anyway.
We’ll see. I do like Ethan. And I think he’ll be both believable and likable. And sexy, of course, in his own way.
What about you? Do you ever have characters, in your writing, who simply spring to life with little effort? And then do you have others who drag your creative muse kicking and screaming the entire way?
3 comments:
I think non-alpha males are much more realistic, so I like the idea of a quiet widower as romantic interest.
One of my MCs fell in love with a non-alpha male precisely because in her line of work, she was surrounded by conventional alphas and found them dull. She could do everything they could do, so she had no reason to be impressed. But when she met a handsome intellectual, she was blown away.
I'm struggling now, though, with a new WIP that isn't coming together so easily. In this case, I wonder if it's because I intend the traditional alpha male as my MC's love interest? I suppose it will remain to be seen.
But do please continue with your non-alpha male. Or rather, with your unconventionally alpha male. A man can still come out on top, even if he isn't burly and confident.
Brains tend to trump brawn, anyway, or mankind would've succumbed to the saber-tooth tigers long ago. :-)
Thanks, bunnygirl, for the vote of confidence. I do like my hero; he's just hard to write sometimes!
I love your tortured hero, I do, I do. I think that he's far more interesting to read about that the Tarzan-like alpha.
Now, I admit to liking a strong man in books, a guy you can rely on to stand in front of you when the bad guy attacks. OTOH, I like a strong woman, too. Still, it's interesting to crawl inside them both and see what makes them tick. A strong man with a soft spot for injured birds is my kind of guy.
Did that make sense, or do I need more coffee?
As far as mine? Some characters are a breeze, others? Not so much. But, when it's who they are, what can you do but write them that way? You're doing fine.
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