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I'm currently having a bit of a dilemma. I started writing a book in the the first person, which is what I've done for my other four books, but this story...this new series...maybe I need to try something different.
I used to write in 3rd person when I wrote action thrillers, but when I wrote my romantic suspense series, the intimate POV of the first person just seemed to fit. I wrote the hero's point of view in 3rd person, but that's it.
As a reader, I don't get tripped up by things like this. If I open a book and get completely hooked withing the first few pages, it doesn't matter to me in what POV the story is told.
As a writer, do you stick with only one POV? One of my favorite authors wrote in third person only to switch, mid series, into first person, and then back again. It totally made sense.
I guess my question is if there is a definite preference. Do readers have a favorite POV? Does it matter if you are not a writer and just looking for a great story?
I'd love you hear your take; author or reader -- sound off.
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Also, I am hosting my first Clash of the Titles challenge on Monday! It is the Almost Kiss Clash and I can't wait to share the two great excerpts with you...don't forget to vote for a chance to win the drawing!
Last week we kicked off my series on writing anti-heroes with The Mysterious Bad Boy post.
The Dark Quality:
Today we are touching on...the Bad Boy With Potential. He's talented and insightful and if it wasn't for the aimless streak, a seriously successful dude. This is the amazing artist, the genius in the rough, or the untapped hero.
For whatever reason. For instance; a guilty past where he doesn't feel he deserves success. He is hiding or avoiding his true calling.
The Appeal:
So this is the reverse of the princess in the tower. This is a guy that needs to be rescued from himself. He must be written as a true talent with an amazing personality that is both humble and noble or he'll just come off as a slacker.
Whatever is holding him back should appear insurmountable at first. And there has to be a concrete reason why he is without direction. We see this a lot in romantic comedies where there are two potential suitors. One is highly successful, but flawed and the other is the nice guy that hasn't really hit his stride yet.
The Set Up:
Our Bad Boy with Potential is often set up as the hunky room mate or co-worker with the kick back attitude. He is often the confidant to the frazzled heroine as she pursues the wrong guy for her. One that this guy knows will break her heart. He can also be the childhood friend, think Sweet Home Alabama's Josh Lucas.
Overlooking this guy can lead to some great conflict for your heroine. Not understanding her attraction to someone so outside of what she thinks she needs. He can also harbor an old flame for her and that can cause tension between them when its clear she wants another. There are a lot a great opportunities for inner conflict with this couple.
Your heroine must have a maternal quality for this recipe to work. Whether its the fact that she's known him forever and therefore knows his heart is noble or her own experience with mothering siblings, she has to have the nurture quality to see the potential.
The Reward:
With every bad boy story line, you need to have that moment of redemption. That scene where all the things he's done or said finally make sense. Usually ten chapters in or so, the time you need to supply the first major disaster.
Show his hidden strength and nobility to the reader. Does he take the high road in a confrontation with his rival, and doesn't take credit for that? Does she see him treating someone who can do nothing for him with honor and respect? Set up a scenario in which the successful man and he deal with a situation in opposing ways and make your Bad Boy with Potential come out the better man.
Make who he is and how he truly loves her the most pure and cherishing of the two suitors. The reward is that he really knows her and loves her despite her flaws. That his is a better, more substantial man. Make his talent or potential somehow relate to her...
Remember in Sweet Home Alabama where she discovers the lightning glass is how he first became successful and that it was something they discovered together in their youth? That has a deeper connection that will resonate with the heroine and, by extension, your reader.
The Heart's Hope:
There has to be a reason that a successful woman would see something in who at first appears to be a total loser. Sprinkle throughout the first chapters, hints of his success. Whether its seeing him in a mysterious meeting, having him hide something he's working on, or hearing of his success in passing from others...there needs to be evidence that she sees and the reader sees of his potential.
This is where her heart's hope comes into play... This type of woman wants to feel a part of something and her helping him provides a sense of being connected and needed.
Also, if he's an artist and she is his muse, then she is halfway to being hooked because inspiring greatness in someone is a huge ego boost and draw.
***Character Bonus***
Because the Bad Boy with Potential is often already in the heroine's life in the form of a room mate, co-worker, or other peripheral position, this character has the added bonus of knowing how much of a nutter the heroine is and loving her anyway. He's proved his staying power. He loves her despite her flaws. That is always a good thing.
What about you? Can you name your favorite Bad Boy with Potential from movies or books?
Until next time...Go Write!Publish Post
Erin over at Hold On To Your Bloomers! is having a blogfest that encourages flowery prose. Its called the Paint It Purple Blogfest and it starts on 3/25, but I have a previously scheduled Author Feature tomorrow so I'm posting today.
Alighting my promethium flame to the cylindrical harbinger of death, I inhaled the ethereal fragrance of the Marlboro. The wraith-like tendrils floated effervescently toward the celestial dome of my sleeping chamber.
I sighed, the deep and throaty groan of woman whose mind is elsewhere...lumbering over the heady musings of life and the fleeting happiness of a love found but not caught.
A quivering note, high and plaintive, burst from my electronic tether...I looked at the phone on my nightstand. It was him. The Apollo of my heart, scorching an arc of need across the heavens of my psyche. Should I heed his cry?
So basically, she was having a smoke and her boyfriend called.
I hope you enjoyed my entry. Until next time...Go Write!
Photograph by A Magill.
Sometimes I wonder what life would be like without the drive to write. I certainly wouldn’t have tried half of the things I have done if it weren’t for my ability to rationalize that it was for “research.” I wouldn’t have walked into that shooting range and signed up for a gun class. I never would have known I would love…love, the smell of the oil and the feel of the metal weight in my hand. Never.
Afraid of heights, I never would have climbed to the top of that thirty-foot tree and zipped down a metal wire with nothing but some canvas straps and a prayer to keep me safe. I don’t see myself as the adventurous type. But I am very goal oriented and that has been God’s gift to me.
I love to incorporate adventure in my stories and part and parcel with that is having some thrills of my own. Not too many mind you, I am a suburban Mom with six kids, my poor husband’s heart skips a beat when I talk about evasive driving classes, but enough to keep the creative juices flowing. I am currently writing a sequence with skydiving. Now, as a responsible mother I’ve promised my husband not to jump out of an actual plane until all of our kids are in college. But I live near a great facility that lets you approximate the experience of a skydive free-fall with a giant indoor fan. I have already tried to talk a friend into going with me. She’s on the edge but, we’ll see.
My question to you is this: What would motivate you to step out of your comfort zone? Is it a painting class? Do you wish you could ski? How about something personal? Is there a fear you long to conquer?
I encourage you to try something you’ve secretly dreamt of doing. Don’t tattoo your knuckles or anything, I’m not taking any angry phone calls from family members on your behalf, but consider it.
The great inventor Thomas Alva Edison once said, “If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” I hope you astound yourself this coming week. Until next time, my friends, you are on my heart and in my prayers.
