Hero Comparison- Reality vs Fantasy.
The fantasy is not always better than the reality.
All heroes have their faults. It's true. They're only human. In our mind- the heroine- our hero is perfectly maddening and alluring and really good at driving us crazy. There is something about this hero that attracts us like moths to a flame. When he looks at you, you feel like you're the only thing he sees in his world. And our hero could tackle the world and save us with one hand tied behind his back. It is that hero mentality that makes us fall in love and do the strangest of things to keep that feeling deep inside us. Having the hero by your side while you fight for your lives is the fantasy; the reality is the hero staying with you for all of time, until you take your last breath.
Twilight the movie is releasing on Friday and I'm reminded of how I felt the first time I read the book- anxious, excited, and completely in love with the thought of first love and lust at first sight. There is a certain lust for life you find while you're reading the POV of a girl who has just fallen in love for the first time in her life. She's awakened at the thought of this guy who nearly steals her breath away every time he walks into a room. She's mesmerized by the sight of him. He's all she can think about and really the only person she wants to think about. But yet, he wants nothing to do with her. He avoids her. He's rude to her, obnoxiously rude and hateful and she is still drawn to him. His reaction to her only feeds her need to be near him.
I admit, I'm Team Edward. The very sight of him on page is enough to steal my breath away, to make my heart race in anticipation and a blush to flush across my cheeks. Even when I thought I wasn't supposed to fall for him, I did- hard. He is the bad boy without being the bad boy. He is the villain hero. He's dangerous only because of his capabilities to harm her, not because he chooses to or because he can. Edward sees Bella as his talisman, his salvation from darkness. She is his light.
Love between a hero and his heroine is often passionate, fiery, and all-consuming. I felt that way about the books, felt that way about the characters. My Mattycakes was very aggravated with my all-consuming need to read them as fast as I could. I couldn't put them down long enough to take a breather. I couldn't put them down long enough to have a semi-coherent conversation with him and it was all because of a fictional hero who fascinated me to the point of obsession.
I knew how Bella felt because I had been that girl, with my Edward, falling head first into a love affair that I knew I couldn't be without. And unlike Bella, whose race for the HEA was shot with peril every day of their existence together, I knew when I glanced up from my book, glasses perched low on my nose from falling down, my hero would be staring back at me with a bemused look on his face shaking his head with wonder over my fascination with a book. Little does he know, in my world, I am Bella and he is my Edward and eternity we shall spend together.
Today's song is Too Late by Ashes Divide, which is my official Twilight song.
Anyone else obsess about fictional heroes? Who is your all time favorite fictional hero (this can be book, movie, TV, comics, ect.)? And if you're a writer, how do they compare with the traits you've put into your own hero?
Interpretive Dance for the Writer’s Soul
Or what I like to call pantsing it when you have no idea what’s going on.
We like to dance. Every Sunday morning, Mattycakes and I schedule a little dancing time. It’s our way of spending time with one another since we don’t see much of each other on the weekdays. I stay up extremely late on Saturday nights to write and then get up all goofified from lack of sleep. This is when the dancing gets wild.
We’ve spent a lot of time thinking up specialty moves that are unique to us. We turn on the radio in the kitchen and bust a move. We have something we call the lawn mower and the row boat with a little of the offset arm action to compliment each other. Then we go our own ways. Usually this is the moonwalk from me and the booty shake from Mattycakes before we move back to do a little of the freak boy made popular mostly by Too Short in the ‘90’s. You know, where the girl does the freak against the boy and the boy’s got his hand in the air like he’s a pimp or maybe that’s more popular now since the Lil Jon era. Anyways, then we go straight into interpretive dance. I call this my pantsing. This gets my brain warmed up. I love to dance. I’m not exactly the most graceful person in the room.
Mattycakes is good at the pansting. He’s actually quite creative. Today’s dance off was inspired by “So You Think You Can Dance”. I make Mattycakes suffer through this two hour affair every Wednesday night. What he calls his interpretive dance number is mostly moves he’s seen in movies. Which to watch a man who’s every bit of 6’4” and looks like a tank, try to move like a dancer is hilarious. But we have a different kind of humor here. Mostly us just jumping around like ballerinas and twiggy cheerleaders. Not a pretty sight.
I bet you’re wondering what this has to do with writing. I know Hellion is sitting on her treasure chest, chewing on the end of her dagger and trying to rationalize throwing it at me.
Just so you know, daggers hurt, babe. That’s why we’ve got a life size poster of Capt’n Jack. That’s supposed to be for target practice not me.
I went to the school of pantsing. Well, I did until I got tired of going and made up excuses not to go. For me, knowing the story before it unfolds on the page is boring. I like to go in several different directions when I write and if I’m set to one thing, it’s certain I’ll go another. The road less traveled is the one I enjoy the most.
Mattycakes and the dancing have really taught me a lot about writing. And no that’s not the lack of sleep talking.
I get an idea in my mind and I go somewhere with it. Just when I think I know what’s going to happen next, I throw a screwball in there and change it up. Dancing is just like that. You have to anticipate your partner’s moves and think up your next one. It flows together even when you had no idea what was coming next. And if it doesn’t you move forward and interpret what to do next.
Just like dancing with a partner, you have to know your characters in order to pants. I’ve always thought pantsing is more of a character driven way of writing. You let the characters tell you what direction to head in next. Let them tell the story the way it was meant to be told. Sometimes, they aren’t sure either but that’s when you throw the screwball in, the kidnapping attempt. The phone threat. The stalker. The ex-girlfriend. The baby. Whatever.
Do what’s best for your story and you’re the only one who knows that. Learn to rely on instinct. It’s like an adrenaline rush each time you open a new page.
So today let’s discuss methods of writing. What crazy thing do you do to get into the mood to write? And if you’re a reader, do you have a method to your wicked reading ways?
Books by the Crew
