{"id":5146,"date":"2007-04-23T18:04:27","date_gmt":"2007-04-23T18:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shilohwalker.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/23\/heroine-rules\/"},"modified":"2007-04-23T18:04:27","modified_gmt":"2007-04-23T18:04:27","slug":"heroine-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/04\/heroine-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroine Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font face=\"Georgia\">This was one of the search engine terms that landed people on my blog.\u00a0 It&#8217;s nice to see people are landing here outside of the normal &#8220;big nipples&#8221;\u00a0 or &#8220;swooping breasts&#8221;, or even the very funny, &#8220;tall, dark and mute husbands&#8221;.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Georgia\">\u00a0Heroine rules.\u00a0 Are we talking like&#8230; GIRLS RULE!\u00a0 Or more like an aspiring writer looking for any deal-breaker, hard and fast rules&#8230;. <\/font><font face=\"Georgia\">We&#8217;re going to assume the second one.\u00a0 Every reader has their own personal rules&#8230;or characteristics, actually, that we want to see in our characters, just like every writer has their own set of rules that they follow.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Georgia\">As a reader, when I read, there are some lines you can&#8217;t cross if you want me to love your book.<\/font><font face=\"Georgia\"> <\/font><font face=\"Georgia\"><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>no sleeping around.\u00a0 I actually prefer this for both the hero and the heroine, but I&#8217;m a little more likely to forgive with the guy than with her.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t like it.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t want to read about the heroine&#8217;s five lovers she&#8217;s got going on the side right up until she meets Mr. Right.\u00a0 I have, and will do so in the future, dropped a book right back where I found it if this character trait shows up.<\/li>\n<li>immoral.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t like the movie, <em>Mr. &amp; Mrs. Smith<\/em>.\u00a0 At all.\u00a0 The actions scenes were pretty cool, yes, but two people that loved each other wouldn&#8217;t agree to take a contract out on their mate.\u00a0 Just didn&#8217;t like it.\u00a0 Reformed bad guys, reformable bad guys (or girls, whatever!) are one thing, but if you are going to write an assassin as the main character, be it the hero or the heroine, she better have good reasons for being an assassin&#8230;something other than money.<\/li>\n<li>Relatable.\u00a0 Not necessarily likeable, right off the bat.\u00a0 But she has to grow on me.\u00a0 I have to understand her motivations when she does something that pushes buttons.\u00a0 Like if she is an assassin&#8230;. why?\u00a0 Was her sister killed by drug dealers so she makes a living going around getting that kind of scum off the streets?\u00a0 If so&#8230;I may not approve her lifestyle, but I can relate.\u00a0 It&#8217;s understandable.<\/li>\n<li>NO WIMPS ALLOWED.\u00a0 I hate wimpy, whiny heroines.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t change for me. I hate heroines who expect their hero to change for them &amp; vice versa.\u00a0 Yes, love can change a person, and in some ways, it should\u00a0 Love makes better.\u00a0 It&#8217;s supposed to.\u00a0 But I don&#8217;t want to read about a woman who goes into a relationship with oh&#8230; say a cop.\u00a0 She loves this cop.\u00a0 She adores this cop.\u00a0 But two days into the relationship, she expects him to stop being a cop.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a dangerous job, honey.\u00a0 You knew it when you signed on, deal with it.<\/li>\n<li>Waffling.\u00a0 If you fall into bed with the guy before you should have, deal with it.\u00a0 If it was a mistake, accept it, try not to repeat it, but please please please don&#8217;t moan about it for the next 100 pages.\u00a0 You&#8217;ve got a story to tell, get on with it!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0So those are the rules that really do it for me.\u00a0 I try to stick with them when I write and these character traits are the ones I need to see when I read\u00a0romances.\u00a0 A good writer might be able to bend or break one or two, but it&#8217;s only going to happen if that story just sucks me right in.<\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This was one of the search engine terms that landed people on my blog.\u00a0 It&#8217;s nice to see people are landing here outside of the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/04\/heroine-rules\/\" class=\"more-link\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Heroine Rules&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10161045129738658_54762468447":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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