I am currently writing my
71st book – part of a series of stories involving the
old Outlaw Trail, which runs north and south along the Rocky
Mountains. After writing so many books, it can sometimes become a
struggle to come up with a story line that is different from anything
used in all my other stories. Just using different historical events
and locations helps form new situations, but creating brand new ideas
can still be difficult when you write from one to three books a year
for nearly forty years. Still, it’s not always coming up with a new
story idea that is the problem. Sometimes it is the characters
who are the problem, most notably the kind of characters you, as a
writer, prefer creating (and the kind your readers expect you
to write). Narrowing it down even more, do you prefer writing the
hero, or the heroine? I began to realize that was my problem when I
started this new book, which will be called THE LAWLESS BREED.
I don’t use outlines.
Ever. They bore me, and I never follow them anyway. I just start a
book based on one tiny idea, time period and location – then I
study some of the things that were going on in this country at the
time to see how I can weave that in – and off I go, or, I should
say, off my characters go. However, I truly struggled at the starting
gate when I sat down to write THE LAWLESS BREED. I wrote the whole
first chapter – didn’t like it – tossed it out. I re-wrote the
first chapter – didn’t like it – tossed it out. I re-wrote it
again – felt I was onto something but still wasn’t entirely happy
with it. I didn’t toss out the third version, but once I knew what
I really needed to do, I re-wrote it yet again, brought in the hero
then and there, and now I’m happy with where this story is going
and am on Chapter Five.
As I re-wrote the third
draft, I realized that I was concentrating on just the heroine and
her plight. She comes home from picking blackberries in a distant
field to find her mother lying dead inside the house. She has been
murdered. I didn’t know who murdered her or why, and I still don’t!
(That’s how I write. I’ll figure it out as the story unfolds.)
Deciding on the murderer
and his motive was not my problem. My problem was the HERO, or lack
thereof. I didn’t have one yet! It struck me then that I have never
once had a problem fleshing out a story as long as I had a hero I
really, really liked and knew his background and why he was important
to the story. I almost always base my stories on the HERO, not the
heroine. Even though I might not have any kind of outline and I let
the story just “happen” for me, I can’t write that story until
the HERO and his part in the story is completely clear to me.
In all the books I have
written, and after all these years of writing, I realized that for a
book to come together for me, I have to be in love with the hero, and
I need to know his story. For some reason I can’t identify with the
heroine until the hero is completely in place. Once that happens,
then I can more easily flesh out the heroine and her feelings and
where she is coming from as it relates to the hero. If I start a book
based solely on the heroine, it’s hard for me to even like her or
to care about her.
When I look back at all
those other books I have written, I realize that I almost always
bring the hero into the story within the first to third chapter, and
sometimes I start the book with the man instead of the woman. It all
boils down to … I LOVE WRITING MEN! And I only love writing the
women in their lives if those women are strong and brave enough to
love and put up with the men. In my Outlaw Hearts series,
hero Jake Harkner is the ultimate bad man with a good heart. No man
is brave enough to challenge Jake, but his wife Miranda can bring him
right to his knees. As he puts it in one of the books, “She’s the
air I breathe.” Now that’s the kind of heroine I enjoy
writing. Her actions, emotions and decisions are nearly always based
on her love for the hero.
In this current book, I
couldn’t bring myself to care about the heroine because in that
first chapter, the hero was not mentioned or even thought of. So, I
decided to bring him into the story right away. At the very end of
the first chapter, in the midst of the heroine’s terrible plight,
the hero shows up – very unexpectedly! The heroine is alone
at her country house - has found her mother murdered - is scared and
confused. She doesn’t know if the killer might still be around and
she might be in danger herself. She is devastated over her mother’s
violent death and can’t imagine who could have done such a thing.
She runs outside to saddle a horse to ride into town and report the
murder – and - low and behold - she sees someone riding up the path
to her house.
The heroine freezes in
place, realizing she doesn’t have any kind of weapon with her. Is
the man riding toward her the murderer? When he gets closer, she
realizes, in near shock, that the rider is a man she hasn’t seen
for five years – a man she once loved but who rode out of her life
after a terrible tragedy that tore them apart. She’s heard that
after taking part in the Civil War, this man turned to an outlaw
life. He might even be wanted. She thought she would never see him
again, yet here he is, riding right back into her life at this
devastating, confusing moment.
Last line of the first
chapter reads: Ashley’s already-confused emotions took a
dive, stabbing right through her heart like a sword.
Nick!
The minute I wrote that
last line, I was “into” the story and in love with the mysterious
“Nick,” even though I still didn’t know anything about him. I
even liked the heroine more. I could feel her emotions. And I know
that the readers will immediately sense there is a strong, mysterious
connection between Nick and the heroine. They will want to hurry into
Chapter Two to see what this man is all about because even I want
to know !! This relationship will be revealed slowly – teasingly –
as the story unfolds, which will keep readers turning the pages.
I can’t write a book
unless I am so excited about it, and especially about the hero, that
I can’t wait to get back to the computer and – literally – see
what happens next, because I DON’T EVEN KNOW MYSELF until I start
writing each “next” chapter. All I know is that I want to find
out more about this guy who rode into the first chapter, and about
his relationship to the heroine.
Through all of this, and
looking back on all my other books, I realize I have always loved
writing the hero. I loved Louis L’Amour’s books. I devoured them
when I was younger. Yet most of them were 90% about MEN and their
exciting and dangerous lives. There was very little romance of any
kind in his stories, yet they were romantic because the MEN were
romantic just in their bravery and sureness. What woman wouldn’t
love L’Amour’s men, no matter how difficult they might be to live
with. In times of old, a woman needed a man who was strong and brave
and able – yet in our stories that man must have a deep respect for
a good woman. And when I write, I “become” that woman. I remember
wishing L’Amour had more romance in his stories, and that’s how I
ended up writing men similar to his, but I always bring a woman into
the hero’s life. I have had many reviews that compare my writing to
L’Amour’s. Some of my westerns have even been called “gritty.”
That’s fine with me, because that means I am also writing very
strong heroines, women who know how to love their men and how to
survive the perils and dangers of the American West.
I think I love writing
men because I envy the power men usually have in decision-making, in
body strength, in their protective nature. Of course, it’s not so
much that way today. Women are far more equal in most ways today, but
even though my books are written in a time when the woman was more
submissive to the man, my heroines always find ways to slyly lead the
heroes around by the nose without them even knowing it. That is so
much more fun to write than the bossy, domineering, “I can live
without a man” attitude of some modern-day women.
Today’s women think the
“me, too” movement is something new. I beg to differ. Women have
been “in charge” in clever, subtle ways since the beginning of
time. It is so much fun to write the brave and dangerous hero who
“thinks” he is in control but who can be very submissive when it
comes to pleasing the woman in his life. When I write that kind of
woman, I totally love and identify with her.
I have always fought with
my own desire to write just men. I had to learn to write heroines who
were as strong and important as the hero and with whom my readers
could identify. I came to like writing the heroine only when she
could match the hero in strength and bravery, and when she loved the
hero so deeply (and visa-versa) that they literally lived off each
other’s love. They share a bond strong enough to be able to face
danger and adversity together and be able to forgive each other’s
mistakes and weaknesses. They might disagree. They might even leave
each other or be torn apart in some way. But they always come back
together. Their love is their strength.
If I was forced to make a
choice of writing a story that is completely about a man – or
completely about a woman – I would pick the man every time, even if
it was a contemporary. Why? I guess it’s a mixture of having that
kind of power, combined with the fact that most men don’t have a
clue about what women really want. When we write our heroes, we can
create the almost-perfect man – brave and strong and able, yet a
man who totally respects the woman in his life.
RESPECT FOR THE HEROINE.
That is the NUMBER ONE key to writing a hero with whom our readers
fall in love. He is the strong one, but it is her love that gives him
that strength. He is the decision-maker, but those decisions are
based on her advice and wishes. He does the grunt work, but she feeds
him so he has the strength for it. He might want children, but only
she can give him those children. He is able with guns and fists, but
she is right behind him, maybe even ready with her own gun or
whatever she can find to back him up. He teaches his son survival,
but she teaches kindness and wisdom, as well as does the schooling.
He thinks he is in charge in bed, but she is slyly letting him know
what she likes and how she likes it. He is the angry one, but she
knows how to calm him. He might think something from his past makes
him worthless, but she teaches him his worth. He’s the macho man
who practically worships his woman and darn well knows how to treat
her … while all the time not even realizing SHE is the one in
control. I love this type of relationship. I love the control a man
THINKS he has, and I love controlling him.
Now, I have to get back
to writing THE LAWLESS BREED and find out what Nick is like and why
he has ridden back into the heroine’s (Ashley’s) life. I also
look forward to seeing how Ashley handles this man, who is now a
wanted outlaw. These two will collide in more ways than one, but
Ashley will find a way to tame him – and to make sure he never
rides out of her life again.
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