What's your profession?
Actually, more to the point, what is your Heroine's profession? When I used to pilfer through my mother's bedside cache of Harlequin Romances—we're talking years ago now!— the Heroines were either nurses or secretaries, and the heroes doctors and executive types if not the boss himself. Times have changed and so have the people we love to read about.
What tickles your fancy? Have you had enough of jetsetting playboys? Arrogant sheikhs? Corporate cowboys sporting alligator boots and ten-gallon hats? What about the Heroines? Are writers and academics passé? Are female programmers in? Perhaps legal secretaries, copywriters and web designers? Or the stay-at-home mom? (Although, please, no desperate housewives!)
What do you think works these days?
What tickles your fancy? Have you had enough of jetsetting playboys? Arrogant sheikhs? Corporate cowboys sporting alligator boots and ten-gallon hats? What about the Heroines? Are writers and academics passé? Are female programmers in? Perhaps legal secretaries, copywriters and web designers? Or the stay-at-home mom? (Although, please, no desperate housewives!)
What do you think works these days?
Labels: Eva
posted by Eva at 12:42 am
7 Comments:
Oh, give me an arrogant sheikh any day. Who am I kidding? Give me a man, any man, as long as he funny, smart, loves animals & children, and makes my toes curl (and we're not talking cause of his bad breath!).
I wish more books geared towards the older generation had heroines like Shirley Valentine. She may have been "just" a housewife, but that woman was fierce! She was honest about who and what she was, she took risks, she found herself and she didn’t go scurrying back to a life that she had been dissatisfied with. I think she said it best at the end of the movie: “I used to be The Mother. I used to be The Wife. But now I'm Shirley Valentine again.”
I like my heroines to have unusual jobs - jobs that women didn't used to be allowed to do - like firefighers, airline pilots or plumbers. For me, an unusual occupation really adds to the interest of a book - both as a writer and as a reader.
As for the hero - who cares what he does for a job, so long as he looks pretty and smells nice.
Variety that's what I like. I remember about two years ago, every book I read had either the heroine or the hero as an ad exec of some kind.
I agree Annie. Unusual, odd, those strange little jobs that are out there but no one thinks is romantic. I like figuring out how to make them romantic.
This is a great question, Eva.
I've been a little troubled throughout this book by the fact that my heroine doesn't have a career. She's a bit of a rebel, belongs to an environmental action group, but she isn't a 'something' (insert profession here!) and this bothered me. But then I counted how many people I know that don't define themselves by the jobs that they do either, and realised it wasn't necessary for her to have a career-- hell, I used to work in shops, as a waitress, in schools, you name it, but it didn't say much about who I was.
So I'm with Brown. Lets make our heroines step outside the preconceived roles their job titles give them and make them be characters in their own right!
(Blimey! A touch of feminist polemic for a Thursday morning. Yay sisters!)
Great discussion, girls!
Obviously it's the Heroine's character that's most important - if we admire her, think she's feisty and attractive, of course the handsome and sexy hero is going to think so too. And the ride will be all the more fun!
Of course, she (and he for that matter) should not be defined by her profession, or lack of one. A character who is an environmental activist says something straightaway to the reader, as does a proud homemaker, or a surfer dude. But there are so many layers to people. Unveiling it all and drawing the reading in at the same time, now that's where the fun lies.
Oooooohhh Brooooowwwwwn!!!
You've been tagged--in a fun way.
Check out my blog for details :)
Annie, Eva, and India..
I figured we've got to know you and your quirks (said with the utmost respect) over the year...so I thought I'd put the scribe's newbie on the line LOL.
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