Husbands vs Heroes

Why can’t husbands be more like the heroes we create? As a writer, we spend an enormous amount of time creating the perfect guy for our perfect girl. The question I find myself asking is, did we spend that much time getting to know the men we marry.

Is love instant? Or does being around a person make it blossom or wane? I can answer this one. It depends on the man, the time period in which you meet and the amount of stress both individuals are under. So un-romantic.

I’ve known women that married their husband less than six months after meeting them. On the other hand, I’ve known women that married their husbands six, ten, fifteen years after meeting them. Which marriages last longer? This isn’t a scientific report, so I don’t have the answer.

I will say not all heroes should be perfect . I love The Dark Knight and reference that picticular character often when thinking of a complicated man. When I create my hunky, hero with all the attributes we women desire, I remind myself to include some flaws. Not the ones women despise, the ones we tolerate. The list varies widely, so I won’t go into details.

Much like husbands, no matter how many times we tweak and manipulate our heroes, our heroines fall for the guy that not perfect, very complicated but somehow makes our world a brighter place.

I think of this often when comparing real men to pretend men. Trying to merge the two isn’t for the faint hearted, but we romance writers have the hearts of lions and nimble fingers. Often, we leap tall building-it may take more than one bound-write faster than a speeding bullet-when supplied with enough chocolate-take our characters and plots to the promise land.
And after all of that, sometimes, we get lucky and get published.
What a life.