Monday, February 3, 2014

Holding Out for a Hero

Who's your hero? When I was growing up, I had two heroes: my daddy and MacGyver. I think both are pretty self-explanatory. Now, of course, that list has been expanded to include my husband and Jaime Fraser. Apparently, I like to have one foot firmly planted in reality and the other just as firmly ensconced in the world of fiction. Don't judge—it keeps me sane.

In terms of writing, your hero (or heroine) is your main character, the center of your story, the one whose very fate depends on the outcome of the conflict. I began this writing adventure a little over three years ago, thinking I knew exactly what I was writing about—my story was about a girl and the mess in which she was about to find herself. But then, it all went awry when the "mess" wound up claiming the book's title and straight-out stealing the spotlight.

I've mentioned before that I've found a wonderful community over at the Compuserve Books & Writers Forum. I love these people, and I've been amazed at how much they've helped me learn about the writing process and my own story in just the last year. For example, did you know that pretty much anything that happens in a book is only about 50% the writer's idea, and the other 50% is what the characters stubbornly insist on doing? I know—I wouldn't have believed it either, but that's exactly what happened. I thought I was writing Anna's story, and Zach just took over. I don't know why I was surprised. He is a Greek god, after all.
The FlashFace app for iPhone is awesome. Anna is pretty close, 
but Zach gave me fits. This still isn't quite right (he's supposed 
to have Jordan Catalano hair and Neal Caffrey dimples), but it'll 
do for now.


Character development is a scary thing for a new writer to contemplate because it's hard. Whether the reader is meant to like or dislike a character, he still needs to be believable. I brainstormed and researched for a while, looking for a hero to go with my heroine. I love Greek mythology, and I had just finished season 4 of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys when my Internet browsing led me to stumble across this lesser-known character who is only mentioned in a few ancient Greek texts. When I read that his defining characteristic was that he was hated by and hateful towards gods and mortals alike, I was intrigued. A hero whom nobody likes?  I accept that challenge! I just needed to bring him into the 21st century and give him a normal name. Zach sounded right. I went with it.

Zach is the Greek god Thanatos, personification of Death. Not the Grim Reaper, but more associated with a natural, peaceful death as opposed to violent death. His job was to sever a mortal's soul from the body at the time of death and then deliver it safely to Charon at the River Styx.  First, though, his twin brother, Hypnos, would put the mortal to sleep, making it a more peaceful transition. Pretty useful and benign, right? But by all accounts, Thanatos was a despicable entity. Hesiod, the Greek poet, described him as having a "heart of iron and a spirit within him as pitiless as bronze; …he is hateful even to the deathless gods." His mother was Nyx (night), his father was Erebus (earth), and his siblings, in addition to Hypnos, included other shady personifications such as Oizys (Suffering), Moros (Doom), Apate (Deception), Eris (Strife), and Nemesis (Retribution). Well, with a family like that, no wonder!

At this point, my story-telling drama instincts were doing a little happy dance. Can you imagine a better setup for the kind of trouble a family like this could cause? And what if Thanatos—the worst of the lot—is the one who ends up getting turned to the good side? Hmm.

Then, I wondered: if the Greek gods are immortal, what are they up to these days? Well, considering that they're all out of a job now, I can imagine they'd get pretty bored, and you know what they say about idle hands…

Thus, my hero Zach and his modern-day crime family were born, and my mission has been to take one of the most hated personifications in Greek mythology and turn him into a likable guy—someone my heroine would fall in love with, even. It's a dicey proposition, but, like I said, he's kinda helping me out. I like him pretty well, and he's already proven his worth by turning a truly mediocre plot line into a story that just might have some depth to it. Now it's got real themes running through it, like repentance, grace, and forgiveness—absolution.

So, that's how Absolution of the Gods became Zach's story instead of Anna's (though she's not taking much of a back seat). He may turn into a real hero after all.


From the Footloose soundtrack, here's Bonnie Tyler with "Holding Out for a Hero." I couldn't have written a more appropriate song myself, although it does concern me that her idea of a hero seems to be limited to dancing cowboys with glow-in-the-dark whips. <g> Enjoy!

# of Proofreads: 26
# of Edits: 88

2 comments:

  1. Caracter development is SO important. You're doing a bang-up job. You did such a good job witht hat app--mine have all come out horrible--totally gave up.

    PS. I can't follow you (add you to my blog roll) because I deleted G+ and there's no little "followers" box. I hate that the big G is taking everything over. Grr.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, Tara! Character development does terrify me. Ha ha! I got so frustrated with that app - the hair especially! If it's supposed to be for police sketch artists, do they really think that all male perps only have short hair or use an insane amount of gel???

    Hmm.. darn G+. I'm off to see if it'll let me follow you.

    ReplyDelete