How Romance Writers Create the Perfect Leading Man

Creating the Perfect Leading Man

By Romantic Suspense Author Amber Lea Easton

Oh, the leading men we all lust after, the guys who get us all steamy just thinking about them, and the characters we wish would manifest in front of our eyes with the snap of our fingers.  I salivate just thinking about some of “my men” who’ve graced my imagination and the pages of my novels.  What are the ingredients that go into creating that perfect leading man in a romance novel?  (And why do I feel like I’m a witch creating the perfect spell? Ha!)

Romance heroes are usually far from perfect, regardless of their physical description.  Despite the idea of Fabio ripping his shirt off--which isn’t a bad image--the ideal man needs to be somewhat flawed to be approachable.  What do I mean by this?  Well, let me tell you.

*  Internal conflict.  Broken-hearted?  Jaded?  You bet.  We all love the tortured hero, the guy who looks like he has it all but is lonely behind closed doors, the man who’s heart is as big as his pectoral muscles, the bad boy who isn’t quite as naughty as the world makes him out to be. 

*  A gentleman.  Even in this world of independent women who get it done with sass and class, we all like a man who would lay it on the line for us and who knows how to make a woman feel like a lady.

*  Sexy.  A man can be beautiful on the outside, but not be sexy.  So what is this elusive quality called sex appeal?  When writing a leading man, it’s the subtle nuances that say “power” that equal sexy.  Yeah, that’s right.  Power. Whether it’s his self-control, his ability to stare you down, his confidence or the non-verbal cues that scream “good in bed”, sexy is a characteristic that is essential to our leading men. 

*  Secrets.  We all have a few skeletons in our closet, but our leading men have mummies entombed in their basements.  These secrets are usually tied into the aforementioned heartbreak, which makes them that much more appealing. 

*  Smart.  Who wants an idiot no matter how gorgeous he is?  Smart is sexy, I always say, and that applies to both the hero and heroine.  It’s imperative that the hero be a smart man, a leader (even if he’s in a vulnerable position in the story), a guy the reader can see in the role of “hero”. 

*  A good friend.  I’ve always said you can judge a man by the company he keeps and that goes for leading men, too.  Having secondary characters who reflect who the man is to them, how they feel about him, his loyalty to them, etcetera goes a long way in determining if he’s actually a good guy or not.  Even if the relationships are edgy, his reaction to them in the story will reveal his true nature to the readers.

All of these elements need to be in place for a leading man to take center stage in our hearts and imaginations.  Physical description pales in comparison to the character development that truly pulls at a reader’s heartstrings.  After all, when writing romance, it’s important to have the readers fall in love with your man...and no one falls in love with an empty shell. 

 

==========

Amber Lea Easton is a multi-published fiction and nonfiction author. For twenty years, she's worked in the fields of journalism and advertising with a brief detour into the financial industry.  Although she holds a BA in Communications & Journalism, she is a perpetual student of life who enjoys taking courses on a wide variety of subjects when time allows.  Smart is sexy, according to Easton, which is why she writes about strong female characters who have their flaws and challenges, but who ultimately persevere.

Easton currently lives with her two teenagers in the Colorado Rocky Mountains where she gives thanks daily for the gorgeous view outside her window. She finds inspiration from traveling, the people she meets, nature and life’s twists and turns. At the end of the day, as long as she's writing, she considers herself to be simply "a lucky lady liv'n the dream."

Visit Amber at:

Website - http://www.amberleaeaston.com

Blog - http://amberleaeaston.blogspot.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmberLeaEaston

Twitter - @MtnMoxieGirl

 

You can find out more about Amber Lea Easton, Riptide and her World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/a2azncg

How Game of Thrones Improved My Writing Game: What a Literary Author Can Learn from a Bestseller

As a literary fiction reader and writer, I’ve always eschewed the bestseller.  For one thing, I always felt that bestsellers didn’t need my attention (and plenty of other wonderful books did), and for another, I was under the impression that the ‘bestseller’ had a tendency to be more plot than character driven, with racy stories that wouldn’t sustain my love of language or desire to read about characters I cared deeply about.  More fool me.

Though I would never have read Game of Thrones if my son hadn't insisted, not only am I enjoying it as a reader, I'm finding plenty of lessons for me as an author.  Here are some of the key ones:

The art of building suspense

Martin has perfected the art of building suspense, particularly through the use of the cliffhanger. This is critical in Game of Thrones since there are so many plot twists and multiple points of view (POV) that without intense suspense, it wouldn’t be possible to maintain the momentum. Each chapter ends with a mini-cliffhanger, building up suspense throughout the chapter through foreshadowing and the use of symbolism. Each book ends with major plot threads dangling deliciously, bringing the reader anxiously back, in some cases many years later (there were five and six years respectively between the last two novels in the series). Noting the way Martin uses POV and characterization to create these cliffhangers, how often he does it and how natural it seems in the context of the books, is hugely instructive.

The art of world building

Though I never thought I liked Fantasy, Martin has created a world so engrossing, so naturalistic, and so oddly familiar (reminiscent of Medieval Europe), that it’s not hard to believe it. There are no ‘silly’ characters – no mercurial elves or big dumb orks, however, there is magic, and it’s introduced so slowly and subtly over the course of the books, that never once does Martin strain a reader’s credulity. This is world building at its most subtle and sophisticated, and for a writer, like me, who is drawn to verisimilitude, but who wants to explore the strange and often magical world of synchronicity, dreams, psychological drama, and possibly a world where Newtonian physics are bent, it's very helpful to read a book where dragons, magicians, zombies, and trees with faces seem utterly naturalistic.

The art of changing character POV

Every chapter in Game of Thrones takes a different POV and there are dozens of POV characters. In the hands of a lesser author, this would be a hard trick to manage. Indeed I’ve read books where this kind of view switch is irritating, especially when you are engrossed in a situation, however, Martin does this masterfully, partly because his characters are so richly drawn, that even though you regret moving off one POV, you’re pleased to be back into another.

One of the biggest lessons for me as an author was not to judge a book by its sales, or by its genre classification. Game of Thrones is not the only bestselling book series that is far better than the hype around it (or the movie made of it) would suggest. Quite frankly, the way in which George R R Martin has written these novels is as literary as any literary fiction. I’m finding that Game of Thrones is not only pure (slightly guilty) pleasure to read, but slowing myself down to admire the beautiful use of language, the deep, intense characterization, and the rich, subtle textures of the work is more powerful a tool for me as a writer than attending a workshop or reading a ‘how-to’ book. I often find myself putting the book down and rushing over to my own WIP to rework something or incorporate a technique that Martin has made obvious to me. I’m now officially shelving my literary pomposity and opening my mind to a broad spectrum of genres, including, where appropriate, the ‘bestseller’.

Magdalena Ball runs The Compulsive Reader. She is the author of the poetry books Repulsion Thrust and Quark Soup, the novels Black Cow and Sleep Before Evening, a nonfiction book The Art of Assessment, and, in collaboration with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Deeper Into the Pond, Blooming Red, Cherished Pulse, She Wore Emerald Then, and Imagining the Future. She also runs a radio show, The Compulsive Reader Talks. Find out more about Magdalena at http://www.magdalenaball.com

What Do Editors Look For?

Here are some things you can expect an independent editor to do for you:

• Story arc. Does it have a beginning, middle, and end? Does the protagonist grow and evolve? Is there a sense of narrative that flows smoothly, without gaps or requiring mountain goat-like intuitive leaps on the reader's part?

• Point of view. Writer Greg Frost suggests that writers "tell the story from the point of view of the character who hurts the most," and there's a lot of wisdom in that approach. As a writer, you're looking at one of the worst moments in your character's life, and how he or she got through those moments and learned and grew from them. If your character isn't the most appealing person onstage, readers may stop caring about the story you're trying to tell.

• Language. This isn't just about grammar. How's the writer's control of sentence structure and pacing? Do too many sentences sound the same? Are there quirky, overused words or phrases? Is the language too passive in places?

• Dialogue. Do the characters sound like real people? Does their dialogue ring true in the situations the writer puts them in? Do they have consistent voices? Do characters sometimes say too many words without a response from the person they're speaking to? Does a reader get a sense of the characters' body language while they're speaking?

• Info dumps. Is the book filled with indigestible lumps of exposition that need to be dissolved into the narrative before the reader can hope to swallow them? Does a character ever turn to another character and tell her something they both already know, just for the reader's convenience? ("As you know, Bob, we have ten children.")

• Organization. Does the story start in the right place? Does it go on for two chapters past the natural ending? Does it flow logically? Are we given key pieces of information when we need them, or does the murder weapon show up two chapters too late? Does anything seem jumbled or out of order?

• Characters. Do they seem believable? Is the protagonist likeable? Does she fit the way the author describes her? Are these people who can hold your interest for a whole book, or do we need to know more (or less) about them. Are there key details the author doesn't tell us about his characters, or things that just don't seem to fit? Do the characters fit the story, or are some of them still products of wish-fulfillment on the author's part? Are there elements that can be eliminated?

• Plot. Does the plot rely on someone acting stupid for the story to succeed? Would the whole book fall apart if the hero and heroine had an honest conversation? Is it too linear, or not linear enough? Is there too much story for one book? Does it feel like a short story stretched beyond the breaking point? At key moments, is there something else that could go wrong to intensify the plot or the mess the characters find themselves in? (One of the key questions to ask as a writer or editor: "What else could go wrong here?") Is there someone who needs to die to forward the plot that the author seems reluctant to kill?

• Blocking. Do the physical actions work as described? Here's where the editor needs to pay attention to whether the guns run out of bullets or whether cavalry can really charge over that terrain or whether two people can really fit together that way in zero-gravity.

• Tone. Are there abrupt, unintentional shifts in tone? Is the tone appropriate for the level of emotional manipulation the writer is trying to pull off? Are there jarring moments where the language or other factors pull the reader out of the book?

• Nagging issues. Do the facts line up? Are there things you're still not sold on? Make sure you pin down any little disquieting things and figure out what's really bothering you. Often it's an undiagnosed symptom in one of the other areas.

These are some of the things you can expect an independent editor to do for you.

-----------------------------

 A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in Northwest Arizona. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, has recently won the national WILLA Award. Heidi has a degree in journalism, a certificate in fiction writing, and is a member of Northwest Independent Editors Guild. She teaches writing, and edits, blogs, and is working on the next books in her “Dare to Dream” series.