UNSAVORY VS. UN-SAVABLE
Apparently, I like to torture people. No, really. Every story I’ve written has a hero or heroine that has to overcome significant tragedy before he/she can get to the happy ending. My first heroine was a successful D.A., but completely obsessed with the murder of her best friend a decade earlier. My second heroine, a SWAT sniper, froze at a crucial moment, jeopardizing the life of a child. To make up for her weakness, she’s determined to convince a scarred ex-felon (wrongly convicted of murder) to help her save a kidnapping victim.
The scarred ex-felon? You got it—he’s my hero. One with quite a tortured past himself. So tortured, in fact, that, at the beginning of the story, he’s spent over a year in self-imposed solitude, climbing mountains and avoiding all contact with humans, especially women. When the heroine tracks him down, her need is so compelling that he finds himself agreeing to help—but for a price. Sex. Right there and then.
Okay. Sexual blackmail. There it is.
And although it started as a desperate attempt to push her away, her refusal to back down resulted in them actually having sex.
Did I, in my ever-present need to create dark characters and push the envelope, perhaps push too far?
Maybe.
One editor said that although she loved the story, she thought my hero was “too unsavory.”
Unsavory?
Ouch. Talk about a direct hit where it hurts most.
“But he’s a bad boy,” my wounded heart (and damaged ego) cried. A lost soul in need of redemption. Redemption through love.
What about his turn around? What about all the brave and kind things he did by the end of the story? What about him was so unsavory?
But, no, “unsavory” was all I was going to get. So I obsessed—I mean, pondered it some more.
Was it the blackmail? The coarse language? His sexual aggressiveness?
Who knows? It could have been one or the other, or the combination of all three. Whatever the reason, my hero didn’t resonate with one very important reader.
Crushing, yes. But not a killing blow. My hero could yet be the dark horse that crosses the finish line in the final lap.
One thing I do know–I still love him. I still love the set-up of a soul so wounded that he does things–unspeakable things–that he never would have done before life ripped out his guts and pulverized him into something he didn’t recognize.
And I like the fact that my heroine was strong enough to give as good as she got, and that it was her strength in the end that was able to save him.
To me, that’s the difference between a savory and unsavory hero—his ability (and bone-deep desire) to be SAVED. Deep down, he knows he wants a life different from the one he’s living, and he’s just waiting for someone to value him.
So yes, I put my characters through a lot, not because I’m sadistic, but because I like to show love’s power—the power to reach beyond despair and hopelessness and dark deeds, and reveal the strength and goodness waiting just underneath the surface. I might not always hit the mark, but all I can do is keep studying the craft, write a hero I love, and hope someone else in the world will love him just as much someday.
QUESTION OF THE DAY:
February 13th, 2008
Virna 
in
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February 13th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Working in the jails for 20 yrs, I met my share of real bad people, and a few I who made me wonder. There is one criminal who comes to mind. He was facing a 3rd strike. The night before he was to leave for prison on a 25 yr term, he got a message to me. He wanted to talk. He warned me about another inmate who wanted to kill me. He explained the plot. The inmate took a huge chance telling me this. It could get him killed. I asked him why. He said, “I’m not as bad as I seem. It was the gang life. It was an act to survive. You were always fair to me. I owe you. I need to redeem myself in some way in this life.”
He left for prison, and I did what was necessary to protect myself. My partners questioned the inmates motives for telling me, until we found a letter, written in detail by the bad guy to his girlfriend. It was the plot to have me murdered.
I’ll never forget looking into the inmate’s eyes as he told me a truth so scarry, I still get chills when I think about it. I knew he was telling the truth, and was taking a chance with his own life, to save mine.
Faces of inmates are fading now with retirement, names are forgotten. But this one person, out of the thousands I encountered over the years, I’ll never forget.
February 13th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Did I really say that?
And yes, yes, yes to your question.
Sometimes my husband rolls his eyes and asks me what the hell I’m thinking.
February 13th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Lee, that is such a scary story. Gives me chills. And V, having bee there with you through revisions, I don’t see the unsavoriness of your hero. He’s damaged–a true Lost Soul–and the heroine helps him to find his way out of a black hole. I never saw him as unsavory, but I guess Karin’s statement is true in that it’s all in the eye of the beholder. One person’s junk is another’s treasure; one person’s unsavory is another’s savory. Same idea. But books (and heroes) can’t appeal to everyone. That’s why there’s such a variety out there!
February 13th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Lee — I second Misa’s comment about chills. What’s interesting about being in law enforcement is that, even as you see the worst in people, you also see the choices that led them there, how most criminals still have goodness in them, and that there are some who can still change their lives for the better. Thank goodness that happened in your case.
Karin — Yep, you said this, and it really helped me with perspective!
My husband razzes me the same way–he says I’m too trusting. But I don’t think I’m naive. Like you, I know exactly what horrible stuff goes on in the world. Sometimes I have to make a consciuos decision to believe that the goodness outweighs it.
Misa — I still love Sam and I know part of the reason is that you really helped me flesh him out and give him layers. You’re right, can’t please everyone. Yet, to some degree, I’ll keep trying to…
February 13th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Lee, how terrifying!!
Virna, what a great question. I was surprised at how much mail I received about my first heroine and how unredeemable readers initially felt she was. She as a bad girl, willing to ‘do’ a stranger in a bar parking lot to prove a dare. But… thankfully these readers (at least, who knows how many stopped in the parking lot LOL) gave her a chance, and got to share her arc of redemption, her proof that she had so much in common with all of them.
That said, I’m thinking your tortured hero sounds totally sexy LOL. My immediate response was that he was trying to scare her, to push her away. What bigger ‘test’ or threat than a sexual demand? that she met it proves HER desperation and her strength… and probably surprised the hell out of him LOL.
February 13th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
That’s totally how I saw it, Tawny, but I obviously need to work on my delivery.
I like the fact that Audra was unapologetically sexual and that Jesse was the perfect partner for her!
February 13th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
I was the quiet, studious person in high school with a party girl for a best friend. Everyone wondered how I could be friends with someone my complete opposite, but I got to live vicariously through her wicked lifestyle, safe and secure in my quiet world. I think heroines fall for the lost soul because they want to be yanked out of their safe, dull lives.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Jill, I had the very same kind of college roommate and our roles sound identical. I was the shy, quiet one (not always as studious as I should have been) and Diana was wild and fun and daring and I have say I learned a lot from her.
I think I ventured out of my safe world a bit more than it sounds like you did, but I’m still drawn to that same kind of hero because he offers something so different from my own experience and nothing I’d want or do in real life.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Jill and Misa, I think exploring that wild side (vicariously or not) is an important part of the college years. When you don’t get it, it leaves you with a sense of restlessness that’s pretty inconvenient when you’re an adult with adult responsibilities!
February 14th, 2008 at 1:36 am
“When you don’t get it, it leaves you with a sense of restlessness that’s pretty inconvenient when you’re an adult with adult responsibilities!”
~ I guess it would!