The Trendsetter

The DH, my fierce beta reader, had hammered me with this one particular question: “What made the hero attracted to the heroine?”

He had been a loyal beta reader and critic to my MS for quite sometime. Every time he critiqued the characters or the plot, it always stung; it was enough to retaliate by not cooking him a meal for a day. Mweh, I wished he could write his own novel to see how difficult it is to write fiction.

“Oh, I know that. The chemistry thing,” I said. “She’s pretty and funny.”

His eyebrows lowered giving me that salted fish look. “Oh, no, no. That’s not enough.” He wagged his finger at me. “Think again. What makes the hero attracted to the heroine? I haven’t seen it yet.”
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In my previous blog about “outlining vs. not outlining before you start writing your novel”, I wrote about writing a journal for my characters—especially my focal characters. By having a journal sheet for your characters, you’re able to compile their important background information like the height, weight, eye color, race, age, gender, marital status, etc.

And I have also expanded the journal sheet to interview them about their perception about the villain or other secondary characters after meeting them. However, that was not enough to carry my focal character to 100,000 words.

I solved this problem by using Erikson’s Psychosocial Development and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
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I knew I wanted to write and get published when I first got my grubby paws on the romance novel – you know, the ones with gorgeous river pilot on the cover: tall, dark, muscular and handsome hero with beautiful heroine – when I was 16 years old.

I said to one of my best friends, Sylvia, “I’d love to write my own novel one of these days.”

She looked at me. “Like this one? No. You can’t be serious.”

I tried to hide my mischievous smile.

“I don’t believe you,” she said with bulging eyes.

“Watch me,” I said.

She laughed. “All right. The glint in your eyes convinces me you’re up to something.”

Someone clears his throat. “You two, did you finished your work?”

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