COVER TO COVER: Hot Heroes

Choosing characters is a wonderful part of writing.

(Though sometimes the characters choose us, I think!)

It's always an absolute pleasure casting the hero in my books. As soon as I get an idea of his personality and looks, I tend to match him to an actor/model/sportsman/etc...

And then the fun really begins!

Doing a google search to find suitable images has to rank right up there with eating chocolate and reading in the bath as pleasurable activities.

Just plug in the name of the man you want to find in google images and away you go!

For COURTING CUPID, I had a fairly good idea of the type of hero I wanted. He had to be suave and gorgeous, of course, but he needed to be a little rough around the edges (eg. the stubble) which is an essential part of the story.

My first choice was David Annable (who stars in Brothers and Sisters) but he seemed a tad young for Blane and suddenly, Matthew Fox came to me in a flash of inspiration. And google images did the rest!

(That's David on the left. Pretty similar to Matthew, huh?)

These are only a few of the many pics I saved of Matthew and they really do encapsulate Blane: rugged, focussed, gorgeous...I could go on and on but you get the drift.

My advice in casting heroes is to create a folder and whenever you see a guy you think is potential hero material (eg. film, TV, magazine) do a search and save the pics there and then. That way, you'll always have an inspirational hero just waiting to leap into your story!

This can also have the advantage of getting the creative juices flowing if you don't have a story: in PRINCESS AUSTRALIA, the entire story sprang from an expression on a guy I'd never heard of before (Adrian Grenier, from Entourage fame.)

So go out there and find your hot hero.

Trust me, he's ready to leap into a story coming to you soon...

Anyone have a recurring favourite potential hero? ie. pics you've saved but haven't used yet?

I have quite a few stashed away!!!

COVER TO COVER: Who's that shady character?

Now that I've established COURTING CUPID would be character driven, I needed to flesh out my divorced heroine and my laid-back hero.

To do this, I came up with 4 adjectives that would describe each of them:

HEROINE: headstrong, tenacious, prickly, cynical

HERO: confident, laid-back, protective, romantic

For me, this instantly evoked an image of both characters and I proceeded to match my image of the hero and heroine to pictures. As you can see, I think the pictures give off the vibe of my description too.

Sandra Bullock was the perfect choice for my headstrong heroine and Matthew Fox the laid-back hero.

I will use these pics to encapsulate what my characters are like at a glance, so as I'm writing I can take a quick look at them to get a feel for their personalities. While finding these pics, I saved loads more and there are a few of Matthew Fox which showed my hero EXACTLY as a I pictured him (on a beach, with business shirt sleeves rolled up, loosened tie-my hero is a workaholic after a sea change) but more on this when I show you the collage.

So now that I have the basics, it's time to flesh out even more. To do this I've tried a new method for me, the character interview. This involves sitting down with a piece of paper and a list of questions and doing exactly that: interviewing your characters. Discovering their greatest fear, worst thing that could happen to them, the single event that would throw their life into turmoil, etc...

I did a fair amount of research on the Internet for characterisation and made a compilation of resources I now refer to. Well worth the time invested as you get many authors' viewpoints on this broad subject. And you get to gather the info you think will be most relevant to you.

Some people use character charts (I used to when I first started writing), some people delve into the elaborate world of their characters' psyche. My advice would be find the method that works for you.

Though the character interview seems like a lot of work at the start, I'm finding it helpful to refer back to any time I need to get a handle on my characters' motivations. And to up the ante.

Next up, the names.

Which is another topic in itself for tomorrow!