Terminator or Indiana Jones

Last week I focused on villains which was a lot of fun, but for these next couple weeks, I'm going back to life as a reader and I'd like to talk about heroes and heroines. Today, I'll focus on the heroes, hence mytitle.

As a reader, I always thought I had a type. I tended to gravitate toward the alpha males with soft hearts for the right woman.  I've combed through countless books by Christine Feehan, Sherrilynn Kenyon, Gena Showalter, Judith McNaught, Nora

Roberts and the list goes on and on. And hero after hero, I've fallen in love with them over and over again.

Buy why? How do they pull us into these worlds painted with words and what about heroes endears us to them. Like real life, every reader is different and every reader has their preferences, but I believe there are some characteristics that universally we can't resist.

We'll start with the most obvious…

1)     Brawn: Whether your hero is a muscle-flexing gym buff or a nicely toned music composer, we readers usually like some kind of eye candy. We may range on the degree of our sweet tooth but most times there has to be the thought that he could physically dominate our heroine if he wanted to.

2)     Brains: I don't care what the hero's profession in the novel is, but a clever and/or quick mind is a must. Kind of common sense

huh? I mean how many times have you wished for a dumb hero?

3)     Sensitivity: It's an unusual trait and many times it is not displayed so obviously, but at some point in a romance novel, your

hero (even those alpha males) needs to crack and show how he feels for the heroine.

4)     Passion: Whether it is for a cause, for his friends or simply for the heroine, a hero must have passion and drive. There is a strength found in that passion which endears the readers to the hero.

5)     Courage: Let's face it, in real-life and in the novels, the heroes vary widely. But no matter what, we readers expect them to

have some degree of courage, either external or internal or both.

There may be other qualities that I've missed or that you believe are important. Please feel free to share; otherwise, enjoy your heroes!

Filed under: Characters, romance, Toni Kelly, Writing Topics