On Writing Romance (10 page)

Today's romance hero is more verbal, tender, and vulnerable than the romantic hero of ten or twenty years ago. While the strong and silent type still exists, this modern man can show flaws, ask for emotional support, and have a sense of humor.

It is possible, however, to make your hero so sensitive, so vulnerable, or so wounded by life that he appears to be a wimp. When a female author, writing about the kind of man she thinks she'd love, gives him habits and characteristics that are more commonly found in women, the hero may end up acting more like a girlfriend than a hero — readers may find him unconvincing as a man and vaguely dissatisfying as an object of affection.

Nor should you go too far in the other direction and make him look like the sort of man who wouldn't hesitate to abuse a woman to get his own way. Forcing kisses or other intimacies is controlling — not romantic — behavior.

It's also frighteningly easy to make your hero look like a fool. If, for instance, he's divorced from a simply horrible woman, readers are going to wonder — with good reason — why he was stupid enough to marry her in the first place.

The hero has to be convincingly attractive to both the heroine and the readers. It's fine for him to be a bad-boy type if he displays positive qualities that balance out his naughty tendencies. A true hero needs to be exciting, sexy, and more than a little dangerous, but he must also have a solidity that assures our heroine she can trust and lean on him.

Good looks are a plus, but he has to be more than rich and good-looking to be worth the heroine's time. A drop-dead handsome face is less important than how he treats the people around him. If the hero yells and hits walls and throws things, but the heroine is charmed despite his behavior because he resembles a Greek god and has abs like a washboard, she looks like a fool.

What does the heroine see in him to make her fall in love and want to spend her life with this man? What makes him good husband material?

The alpha hero is powerful, driven, assertive, masterful, dominant, superior, successful, and charming. The beta hero is playful, relaxed, nurturing, and caring, but no less successful and no less charming. Alpha is likely to run a corporation and be trying to acquire a few more. If Beta owns the corporation, he's apt to let someone else run it day-to-day while he coaches a kids' soccer team.

Both are equally welcome in today's romance fiction, though some categories are a more natural fit for one or the other.

Books published by Harlequin Presents, a short contemporary category, nearly always feature an alpha hero — a rich, powerful, and domineering tycoon like Lucy Monroe's hero from
The Greek's Innocent Virgin
:

Sebastian watched Rachel disappear through the door to the kitchen, frustration knotting his insides.

Could he have handled that any worse?

He had made her coming to his bed sound like a meaningless encounter between two people intent on scratching a sexual itch. It was nothing like that. He did not love her, could not marry her, but he desired her with a multilayered intensity he'd never known with another woman. …

When she came back in with the dessert, she gave him no opportunity to rectify his error. …

His hand snaked out and grabbed her. “You're supposed to cuddle next to me, remember? … It is part of the special night you planned for me. …” He pulled her onto the sofa with him, before pushing the volume button on the remote control. Old movie music filled the room as he tugged her into a reclining position beside him. He couldn't help himself, but he wondered why she didn't fight it. She wasn't happy with him. …

She gasped as they made body contact and he settled one arm around her waist. He looked down to find her eyes wide and her bow lips parted in surprise.

“This is called cuddling.” He curled her against him as close as they could get with their clothes on.

At the feel of her warm soft body, he forgot his intention to force a confrontation and simply took what was on offer.

Sebastian is a purely alpha character — determined to get what he wants even if his wishes don't quite coincide with those of the lady in his life, and quite capable of charming her into changing her mind.

In contrast, Harlequin American Romance, another short contemporary category, is more open to beta heroes — nurturers and protectors, like firefighters or law enforcement personnel, or hotel managers like Kristin Hardy's Gabriel in
Under the Mistletoe
:

This beta hero runs a business, and he's a problem-solver, but he's an entirely different personality from the alpha example we looked at. What Gabe worries about is on an entirely different plane — water pipes, bed linens, rotting pillars, and who's going to drive the truck. It's hard to imagine him kissing a woman unless she was in the mood to cooperate — though he can be just as talented as his alpha counterpart at charming her into changing her mind.

Often the most attractive heroes display a combination of alpha and beta characteristics. A go-getter who's out to change the world between nine and five, he then goes home and plays with the kids, helps them with their homework, and tucks them in with a bedtime story.

Now
that's
a hero.

When the conflict in your story pits the hero against the heroine, your hero must have a reason for what he does, whether you choose to go with an alpha or a beta. He doesn't stand in the way of the heroine getting what she wants or needs just to be nasty. He always has a good reason for trying to prevent her from succeeding in her quest. A hero who interferes in the heroine's life without adequate, believable cause isn't behaving like a hero. He looks instead like a control freak or a potential stalker — possessive and perhaps even malicious.

The hero's reasons must be explained somewhere in the story, although often they aren't revealed until near the end of the book. However, even if the hero isn't talking about why he feels as he does, his motivation will affect all of his actions throughout the story.

Though men are less likely than women to contemplate their experiences in an effort to extract a lesson, they're going to react to current situations based on what has happened to them in the past. The hero's past experiences — even things that happened to him in childhood — will affect everything he does and shape the sort of man he is.

The fact that men are less prone than women to ponder their pasts can come in handy in the romance novel. A hero who is unwilling to commit himself to a relationship may not realize that his hesitation stems from his belief that a woman drove his father to suicide. He's more likely to think that every other man is just as reluctant as he is to settle down with one woman, and it may not be until he loses the woman of his dreams — the heroine — that he's willing to consider the source of his feelings and change his attitude.

The romance novels of a dozen years ago usually involved an immensely wealthy, upper-class hero. That fantasy is still found in many of today's romances, especially those in which alpha heroes appear, but across the range of romance novels, wealth is less prominent than before. There's nothing particularly romantic about poverty, and the readers want to know that the couple will be content with their standard of living and not suffer from a lack of basic creature comforts. But far more significant than wealth is the character's lifestyle and his level of satisfaction with his circumstances.

Part of the fascination of a hero is his devotion to the work he does, whatever that work is. A character who is satisfied with a menial job is less appealing to readers than one who wants to achieve in his field.

The hero of a romance novel is nearly always the boss. If he doesn't own the whole business (and he likely does), then he's an equal partner, or he runs his department with very little direction from superiors. He'll be the bank president, not the loan officer or the teller. Or, he's figured out a way to be independent within an organization — he might be a consultant rather than an employee. If he's holding a lower-level job, he's got a reason — he's not there because it's the only job he could get.

Though the majority of romance heroes are businessmen (often tycoons or entrepreneurs on a grand scale), there are many lawyers, doctors, architects, and other white-collar professionals. A growing number of heroes are engaged in the dangerous professions of firefighting, law enforcement, and military service. Some are craftsmen (builders, plumbers, or carpenters, either by profession or as a hobby). Much less often, a hero is an artist — a painter, writer, musician, or dancer.

Some jobs are perceived as dull, which is why heroes are less likely to be accountants, and some jobs are viewed as too powerless to be appealing to a hero, which is why few heroes are clerks in retail stores. But there are few jobs a romance hero could probably never hold — funeral director and proctologist are two that come to mind.

Heroes of historical romances are perhaps the most unreal of all characters in romance novels. Throughout the ages there have been men who regarded women as capable equals, but they've been the exception. Society's rules through history have encouraged men to think of themselves as boss, head of the household and family, and final authority on every question. Adultery was commonplace and sometimes even encouraged.

Sometimes the hero of a historical romance starts out acting chauvinistic, learning and changing through the heroine's influence as the story progresses, but he must be more open-minded than most real men of his era or he wouldn't be able to make the transition. The hero of a historical is willing — at least by the end of the story — to treat the lady he loves as a full partner rather than as a possession. And if he had a mistress when he met the heroine, he neither has nor wants one at the end of the story.

The historical hero is also the least likely of all characters in romance fiction to have a real job. Until the last century or so, the gathering and managing of real estate was the most highly regarded profession in Western civilization. Landowners were respected far more than doctors and attorneys, and immeasurably more than those who dealt in trade. The hero of a historical novel is often immensely wealthy because of the property he owns; if he's earned his money rather than inheriting it, he's not likely to boast of the sources of his revenue.

The historical hero will spend his time much differently than the hero of a contemporary romance. Gambling was a legitimate pastime for the gentleman who could afford it, as in Jane Feather's historical single title
Almost a Bride
:

Even a bad-boy contemporary hero probably wouldn't consider gambling as a profession, or find his personal mission in it as the Duke of St. Jules does.

1. What qualities does your ideal hero possess?
   

2. What qualities would make you fall in love with a hero? Stay in love with him?
   

3. Are there career choices or activities you would find most attractive in a hero?
   

4. What one thing do you think even the most handsome and charming hero can't do, if he's to win his lady's heart?