
Here's my hero looking out to sea. When Mel and I first started dating, and especially after he started reading all my manuscripts, I realized he had the qualities I thought were most important in the romances I wrote, so I changed all the characteristics of my male leads to fit Mel's qualities of intelligence, tenderness, kindness and sense of fun.
Recently I've been looking for hero-type qualities in male leads of movies and television in order to give the reader a comparison with a name. I've discovered that there really aren't that many actors today who fill the role. Perhaps it's my age, or perhaps it's just the fact that I don't see enough of Mel in those men. People change, and my idea of a truly heroic hero has definitely changed. I'm drawn to more calm, ethically courageous, fair-minded men who don't mistreat women, and who give all for that one special woman. If I pick up a romance and the hero and heroine immediately hate each other and get nasty with one another, I put the book down. Of course, if they agree on everything all the time, the necessary conflict flies out the window, so something has to set them against each other.
How does one go about doing that without having the hero and heroine at each other's throats throughout the book? That's where creativity come in.
How about you? Who are some of your favorite male leads, both in novels and in movies? What is it about them that you like? What conflicts work for you?
Labels: Heros, Inspirational Romance, male leads