Ravenous Wednesday with Elizabeth Coldwell!

When I was a young'n, I had a huge crush on Christopher Lee as Dracula and then as Rochefort in The Three Musketeers. I loved the tall, dark, menacingly handsome ones, the bad boys. This physical ideal lasted through my early twenties, so imagine my surprise when I fell head over hells with a D'artagnan type instead! Sure, he was a swordsman (I did and do and always will have a thing for swordsmen, probably 'cause it's one of my favorite things to do too), but he looked like the hero, not the villain. Bri is a Kevin Costner, not a Clive Owen. But the heart knows no physical type when it decides to fall in love.

According to Elizabeth Coldwell, our RR author joining us today on Un:Bound, neither should writers! In honor of Liz, who hails from the U.K., along with our usual bountiful fare of unlimited wine, champagne, G&Ts, vodka martinis, mochas, etc., we have tea, scones, clotted cream (LOTS of that stuff 'cause I will personally eat it by the ton), raspberry preserves, hard cider and a newly installed beer by the tap to choose from. So belly up to the bar and enjoy Elizabeth's post! Please join the discussion in the comment section - we always love to hear what other writers and readers think about the various topics our guest authors choose!

I’ve Seen That Face Before

It’s always really gratifying when someone a million times more famous than you are proves exactly the point you’re going to make. I already had this blog subject in mind, and then along comes John Cleese to confirm it for me. The UK press is full of pictures of him strolling with his latest girlfriend through the beautiful city of Bath (home of one of my favourite shops in the world, Paxton and Whitfield. Posh, cute boys selling exquisite cheese – but I digress...). Anyway, said girlfriend is a tall, elegant blonde – as was the one before that, and the one before that, and probably all of his wives, too. What I’m trying to say is that Cleese very much has a physical type, as do most of us, and one of the pitfalls a lot of romance writers fall into is making their admiration for that particular type just a little too obvious.

Sometimes writers develop a thing for the star actor in a TV series, and suddenly every hero they write about bears an uncanny resemblance to him. Another writer of my acquaintance just can’t stop casting her husband as her leading hunk. Which is sweet, admittedly, but it can’t help colouring your reaction to those characters if you actually know the man in question.

Neither of these traits is as lazy as one of the shortcuts novice writers (as well as some who’ve been around long enough to know better!) often take in character description. They’ll simply put ‘he reminded her of David Duchovny’ or ‘he was like Gerard Butler, only shorter’. This works if you’re writing letters for Penthouse Forum or Hustler, where you have minimal room for character development, plot or anything which isn’t a simple description of fitting tab A into slot B. But in a short story or novel, while looking like Mr Duchovny may be a fine and admirable thing, particularly in his older, grubbier Californication incarnation, by using such a straightforward comparison you’ve blocked the reader off from filling in any blanks. And if she (or he) doesn’t get the hots for him the way you do, you may have succeeded in putting them off your hero. Far better to describe his ‘world-weary handsomeness’ or ‘crinkle-eyed grin’, and let them build up a mental picture for themselves.

It’s also a good exercise for the writer to create a hero who goes against her physical type. It’s a cliché to say if you’re writing erotic romance you know it’s working if it turns you on, but it’s true. If you’re not moved by your own prose, then no one else will be. If you like your men tall, dark and whatever, cast a blond as your hero for a change. Give him personality traits or even an accent you don’t find appealing, and see whether you can still get excited by him. In my story Gym Buddy, which appears in Ravenous’ Hot Dads collection, the heroine and her friend are initially attracted to Ollie because he looks amazing from the back. When they finally see his face, the friend is disappointed because he’s older and much less handsome than she hoped for. The heroine, however, quickly comes to learn that the best thing about a DILF is what’s on the inside – the experience he’s gained and his knowledge of how to really please a woman. I was deliberately writing about a man who might not be your type on first sight, but proved to be more than worth spending a bit of time getting to know. Hopefully, the readers felt the same by the end of the story.

So, just for once, swap the craggy older man for the young pretty boy, the sweet-natured Adonis with the flowing locks for someone bald, bespectacled and grumpy (believe me, there are fans of those!). If your writing is convincing enough, maybe you could even persuade John Cleese that what he really needs in his life is a nice brunette...

Elizabeth Coldwell has been involved in writing and editing erotic fiction for over twenty years. Her stories appear in the Ravenous anthologies Hot Dads, Wicked Pleasures, Young Studs, Hungry For Your Love, Beach Boys, I Kissed A Boy and I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus. She inhabits The (Really) Naughty Corner at http://elizabethcoldwell.wordpress.com. This blog was brought to you by the letters ffffggggggg and the numbers 9888888888888888888888 because Perry, her three-legged cat, decided to walk all over her keyboard again...

And for some cross promotion, stop by Lois Gresh's blog as well as Elizabeth, me and a squadron of other authors join Lois in a Zombie Lovefest to promote HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE, the first zombie romance anthology by Ravenous Romance!