Without a doubt, the appeal of the hero is a key element in every romantic novel. I’ve attended a lot of critique groups over the years, and surprisingly enough it’s the hero most female writers get right. I think it’s because we spend more time daydreaming about them than we do our heroines, whose female point of view we take for granted. Or maybe the old adage about women being more complicated really is true. (Making the hero simpler? I’m sure there are some who would balk at such a statement, partly because it hints the genders are intrinsically different.)
In any case, the hero is one of the “big draws” for a largely female audience of readers. So how do we make him appealing, so appealing a reader won’t want to put your book down?
There are the basics, of course. He has to be larger than life; noble yet flawed. His flaws must be carefully chosen, of course, because there is a line between sympathetic flaws and unsympathetic ones. Wife beaters, child molesters, the lazy, miserly, or cruel male characters need not apply for the role of a romantic hero.
Some flaws, like dishonesty or disrespect, can be stretched so long as the motivations for their dishonesty and disrespect are clearly drawn and used for higher goals than selfishness. In other words, the flaws they have can be suspect, but if it’s a temporary flaw based on circumstances (say, taking on a false identity which would lead to all kinds of lies) or they disrespect a villainous character, those are acceptable motivations. But dishonesty or disrespect for selfish or manipulative reasons would be harder to pull off and still make them hero-worthy.
Heroes must be more believable than realistic—and by that I mean the reader might have to be willing to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy the character to the fullest. This is classic in good storytelling, so long as it’s done well. The motivation and the foreshadowing have to be in place to pull it off, but if we want to believe a coward can jump out of an airplane with an untried, early adaptation of a parachute to save the woman he loves, we will if we know he can’t accept her love unless he proves to himself he isn’t the coward he was at the outset of the story.
As far as physical attributes, the difference between heroes and heroines really takes off. This is true of real life, by the way. You might often see a really beautiful woman on the arm of an older, overweight, relatively unattractive man. But unless a man is a paid companion, you rarely see a young stud on the arm of an older, overweight, relatively unattractive woman. The reasons for this are way too complicated for a short blog post, but let’s assume for today that this is commonly true. I think it’s because woman can be attracted to power and authority, and have an easier time than men looking beyond physical attributes.
So, while most escapist readers want their heroines to be attractive, it’s not impossible to have a hero who is distinctive in his looks rather than drop-dead gorgeous. This is true in movies, too. Think of Harrison Ford. His face is attractive but not “beautiful” in the classic sense of the word. Tom Hanks is another example of an actor who can be a hero without classic good looks.
(Just for the sake of acknowledging a balance, there are actresses in this category, too, but they usually have something beautiful about them. Barbara Streisand isn’t what you’d call a classic beauty, either, but she does have beautiful eyes.)
So, to recap:
A hero’s flaws have to be realistic but understandable.
A hero has to be larger than life, so the reader’s experience is worth the time invested in discovering this character’s story.
He doesn’t have to be classically gorgeous, but he must have something distinctive about him that sets him apart and catches the eye of the heroine.
I’m sure there are more components to what makes a good hero and perhaps one day I’ll delve into this further, but this is just about all the words one blog post can handle. Think about it with your own writing, and see if you can add to some of the elements I’ve mentioned here.
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