Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The trouble with MY heroes...

Is that they'd only be able to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the Oscars and let's face it, we want our heroes to hog centre stage!

Have I confused anyone yet?

I've just started Laurie Schnebly's Masterclass: From Plot To Finish. The aim is to plot an entire book in two weeks using the resources, ideas, etc that we got together in the previous course.

I'm planning a Superromance - didn't want to do a Modern Heat for fear I'd get confused between the course book and the wip - about a runaway bride who returns to a small country town ten years after she left their golden boy at the alter.

Her goal is clear - she returns to help her godmother recover from an accident and also do another thing, which I shall keep secret at this point :)

His goal was to make her life miserable so that she leaves town again. While this goal is okay, I've learnt that he needs a goal that would still be there if I removed the heroine from the equation. And I'm stumped. Every goal I think of for him comes back to the heroine and the worst thing is I've noticed a pattern.

I wrote a list of all my 'current' and 'recent' wips and realised that my heroine's usually have quite strong, tangible goals but my heroes? Not so much.

So it's back to the drawing board for cattleman Tom! And if anyone has any brilliant ideas, please feel free to jump up and down with them - or just leave them in the comment box :)

Here's a little bit about Tom to get your creativity flowing...

Having asked his high school sweetheart to marry him, he was devastated when she left him at the alter. He's a wealthy, land-owning cattleman who is the town's golden boy (or man now). He's a success in everything except love. He has a teenage girl in his care (not sure exactly who she is yet). Now his runaway bride has returned to town and turned his world upside down.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Rach.
Is it possible your heroine (unknown to her of course) be able to take the teenage girl (who we're sure he's very attached to) from him?
Just a thought.

Janette Radevski said...

Hmmm How's about he make it his life goal linked to something deep in his past, that way, even without the heroine, its stll there BUT her being around exascerbates it. What is it? Not sure, but perjhaps it has something to do with him being a cattleman - why is he a cattleman - his choice of familial obligation?? Does he resent her, for not just leaving him but leaving the town, perhaps he resents her freedom to leave without ties??? Or just ignore all this gibberish, am sure others will have some great ideas...

Janette Radevski said...

PS - ignore my poor spelling OK? But by now that should not surprise you...

Sally Clements said...

Could the teenager be younger? Maybe under 10? If she's nine, then you could have sorts of fun. The heroine could think she's his daughter by another woman and be jealous. His life goal could be to bring the child up properly, and she could be 'leading her astray'

Rachael Johns said...

Hey Rhian - so lovely to see you again - lol!! Actually I think you are on the money - made me think about deepening what I already had. The heroine is an actress you see and the teen idolizes her and wants to be like her. So the hero could be scared that the heroine will encourage the teen to flee the nest before finishing school to pursue a drama career! Ta!

Rachael Johns said...

Janette - I'm an English teacher and didn't even notice your spelling error until you pointed it out. Good questions about the cattleman - i'll have to dig deeper!

Rachael Johns said...

Sally - thanks for the input - I LOVE the leading her astray bit! But she really has to be a teen for what I have in store :)

Joanne Coles said...

Could you make the girl the problem between the two of them? The reason your heroine comes back is because of the child? Make them both want the same thing so they have something to really butt their heads against each other for.

Maybe their best highschool friends left a will stipulating your H&h be guardians of the child?

His goal needs to be either polar opposite to hers or better still, make them fight for the same thing ... but against each other :-)

Maisey said...

Hmmm...bear with me I get stream of consciousy when I brainstorm, ask my CPs.

How has her leaving affected him? Maybe his goals have changed. Maybe he's more interested now in making money, shutting off emotion (yeah, I write Presents okay...) and now he has this girl to care for, likely emotional upheaval that went with that, plus his sexxy exxy ex is back in town. Maybe his goal is getting his life back into that comfort zone he's made for himself, but he can't because there's so much emotion tangled up in both women who seem to be changing him, and his life, in profound ways he's not quite ready to deal with. He just wants to earn green and sell cows and never deal with all that CRAP the h put him through ever again!!!

Whew...

Maisey said...

Wow...I just made your hero all angsty angry..

Jackie Ashenden said...

Hey, I like your idea, Maisey! Lol! I reckon he'd want to provide a safe home for the teenager - maybe she hasn't been safe in the past? - so he's all about protection...

Maisey said...

Protection is a must in this day and age, Jackie...Oh, sorry, I got confused.

Security word is sizebyl. :-D Is your hero sizebyl??

Lacey Devlin said...

I'm soo late in commenting but I just wanted to say how much I love the plot Rach!

Rachael Johns said...

Thanks Joanne - I'm so BAD at this polar opposite stuff :) but you are so right!

Rachael Johns said...

I LOVED your stream-of-consciousness Maisey - good stuff! I had had that the teen had been with him for a good few years but you've got me thinking that maybe he should have just been landed with her. Hmmm?!?!?

And sizebyl could definitely be a new hero word :)

Rachael Johns said...

Aw thanks so much Lacey - you sure do know how to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

Maisey said...

Ooh! Yay! Glad it helps a bit. I like to ramble because I figure something in there might spark an idea...(plus I'm a big fan of hero torture, so I really like piling it on them like that...)