How do you draw your heroes on the page? (Image via Wikimedia Commons)
Let’s talk about heroes. Most of us like a good one, many of us are writing one. I think the number one quality a hero needs is the ability to care. Number two: the ability to put his caring into action, however that may be. But does he have to have a hot body and a dick of granite? Continue reading
Every Hero Has One
I’m having a small panic and I’d appreciate some input here. I’m writing a love story in which the hero’s mother is a major character. Question: if the hero’s relationship with his mother is an important sub-plot, does that somehow make the hero less hot/heroic or the story less romantic?
My hero, Ian, is a brilliant, workaholic entrepreneur. He’s an alpha type, the famous public face of his family business, but the creative genius and driving force behind it is his widowed mother, Ma. She’s a formidable character. There is a strong and loving relationship between Ma and her two sons, but she places a powerful burden of expectation on them. Ian and Cam are not afraid of Ma or dominated by her, but they accept her world-view and try to live up to the standards she sets, until the heroine, Rose, arrives on the scene and challenges the established order. Continue reading
