Bette Davis Eyes

I’m afraid I’ve royally fallen down on the job as a blogger. The thing that’s weird, though, is that I really do love to blog. I love offering my unsolicited advice and opinions to the world(or the two or three people who might read this.lol)

Today I want to talk about heroines. Did the title give me away or were you just expecting me to praise an old favorite song of mine? Inevitably all of my heroines wind up something like Bette Davis. I love her. I love that she can play a shrew and still make me love her. I love that she can play a crazed killer and I still wouldn’t mind being her prison pen pal.lol. She also has played some of the most lovable characters ever. And lovable hoity-toity party hungry snobs. What’s not to love? *g*

She is quite possibly the most talented actress of all time and she leads me to my topic today.

I read somewhere once that Eloisa James(A.K.A Goddess of Writing!) said she starts her stories by first thinking up a spectacular heroine and what type of journey she will go on. In the Essex Sisters’ Quartet Eloisa gave herself a huge challenge. She took a character, Imogen, that was perhaps the tiniest (very tiny)bit likable in the first books in the series and made her into the type of heroine I could aspire to be like in real life.

When I write a new story I tend to come up with the heroine first and make her fabulous. I especially love if she’s insanely naughty or even evil. That gives me something to work on for her character arc. There’s nothing better than redeeming a character. And I also love a heroine who’s so strong that she redeems her hero. Bette Davis could perform all of these duties and then some.

So, when you write does the heroine come first or the hero? What’s your favorite type of heroine to write? And who are you writing now? I’m currently writing a whiskey swilling, cheroot smoking absent mother. I know it sounds awful but if I do it right it should all turn out well in the end.