June 30, 2008
Tough Guys (I’m not really here hehe)
I know I know I”m not supposed to be here but….since it pertains to my WIPs, I’m here. Mary over at The Bandwagon asks the question: So lately, especially in contest entries, I’ve read a lot of tough heroines. Tough to the point of being unsympathetic. Maybe they’ve been hurt before and have built a huge, thick wall around themselves. Some are just butt-kickers, not needing a man, not bending, often rude to the hero for no apparent reason.
I have trouble relating to a heroine like that. I’ve written some women who have been through the mill, but I think I’ve made them sympathetic and relateable. What do you think makes them this way?
And I started writing a response over there then thought I’d bring it here….I think you have to give them an Achilles heel. And I think this goes for tough guys or gals..it helps negate the a$$hole factor. My current heroes are hired killers. Hitmen. It’s what they do. No excuses. There’s no getting around that.
There is NO getting around the fact that my heroes kill people for a living. So what do I do to make a character with such a huge mark against them likeable? I try to give them equally big flaws. Will has HUGE relationship issues–in that he fails miserably at them. And John can’t lie. Yes, I realize a man who can’t lie is a bit of an oxymoron, and in order to pull it off I had to give him a DAMN good reason to not lie. I think I did. Only time will tell.
So how do you soften up your tough characters OR who are some writers that do this especially well?
Hmmm.
I wrote a bitch.
I thought she was a pretty good bitch, all things considered.
Not a bitch for the sake of being a bitch, but because she’d had the obligatory rough childhood, and was currently CEO of a major company with male competition wanting to take her down.
Her mistake was letting it carry over into her personal life.
Her soft spot was the young, easy-going guy she really loved.
I liked this bitch. But I never found a single editor who did, even though she reformed somewhat along her journey.
And frankly, I think we’re more understanding/forgiving of our heroes. Agreeing with Mary (hi, Mary!) that a heroine who’s just plain old NASTY is unsympathetic, but isn’t that true of any character? What Mary says here:
Maybe they’ve been hurt before and have built a huge, thick wall around themselves. Some are just butt-kickers, not needing a man, not bending, often rude to the hero for no apparent reason.
Well—don’t we see this on a regular basis among heroes (especially alphas)? And don’t we take this in stride with them, knowing they’ll eventually come around?
Hmmmmmmm you make a good point–and it appears there’s a double-standard. No great surprise but sad all the same.
Always seem to be fighting that pointless battle.
But Mary’s point is certainly well-taken, if taken to extremes.
Funny enough Denise was talking this weekend about contest entries she judged. Maybe she’ll weigh in!
A humanizing event can be an interpersonal relationship as you posted, or a child. Another trigger is to snap a killer’s memory back to an earlier experience which affected him or her emotionally: an experience which causes hesitation, or evokes a protective or loving emotion.
Yeah, I don’t get the double standard. Maybe because I have a low threshold for a$$hole-ness. (take Scarlett O’Hara for $100) I don’t take it from my heroines nor from my heroes. But for me there is a difference for being cutthroat and a person who you won’t cry over if they died.
As Amie pointed out the key to writing these characters is to give them a soft spot. Not a “Hilter had a dog” soft spot, but a real one and you have to know your character in order to find it.
*le sigh* Just to reinterate, there is a huge double standard.
I also think humor can help. Funny enough Will’s story is a little darker than John’s…but I KNEW from the moment I had a solid feel of John’s story that, at some point, he was going to be dressed as a woman.
The kickass heroine as bitch is a MAJOR pet peeve of mine. But since I’ve gone on an on about it previously, I’ll just say I agree with everything you’ve all pointed out. Humor, vulnerability are definitely a must. And I’ll just add, actions that make sense to the character and not to service the plot, would also go a long way to making these types of heroines sympathetic.
And by the way, can I say that 9 out of 10 times I only come across this type of hardassed-bitch-disguised-as-kickass-heroine in romances? In other media–movies, tv–and genres/subgenres, kickass but believable, if not likeable, is what I get.
You know Jaq I think sometimes we try too hard! I did this with Will (in reverse LOL)–I focused so hard on making HIM likeable because of his job etc that I forgot to make the heroine likeable as well
Ames, tell John that a good pair of black silk stockings will hide leg hair just as well.
Yes, that’s all I’m saying.
Can you IMMAGINe what man leghair must do to silk stockings?
Hmm. Amie, can you call what John is doing while in those stockings… Silk Stalkings?
I don’t know how I do anything. lol But one writer who is expert at transforming totally unsympathetic heroes is Anne Stuart. I don’t know how she does it.
Denise was talking this weekend about contest entries
I don’t mind heroes like that…broading is sexy (to me). Heroines…not so much. I think you teeter desperately on the line between sympathetic and flat out bitchy whining… and the only thing that may keep her on one side or the other is the mood your in when you read it. Sure I want her to have backbone, persevere and whatnot but I want her to be likable. That whole maryrdom only works for Joan … IMO
(sorry late chiming in–who knew getting fee fish would be so time consuming and costly)
he was going to be dressed as a woman
I *heart* this… hehehe… it works so well for his character!
Tanya *blush* I have great critique partners who keep me honest!
>>That whole maryrdom only works for Joan
>>I *heart* this…
Didn’t we come up with that at lunch back in january? who knew?!?!?