What Makes A Good Hero

I do not like to blog about writing because it seems like everyone who writes writes about writing. I prefer to travel off of the path that everyone else is taking. While I’m writing, anyway. Tonight, I feel compelled to share. When I feel compelled to share then y’all get a page full. At least. Because for me, talking writing = lots of words.

By the way, if I ever become too long winded, ask me about my cats, switch to cooking, move into shopping for food and skip over to going to the mall. I hate shopping. It shuts me up at least eighty percent of the time.

  Let me get back on topic. Yesterday, I was mowing my lawn. Yes, I’m still mowing. I don’t control the weather. Anyway, I was mowing and thinking about regardless of how much I enjoy doing it, after a full spring and summer of yard work I am ready for a break. Then that all too common phrase popped into my head, “I need a hero.” I need a hero, someone to save me from my yard work.

  Wishing for a hero to save you from your yard work is kind of like praying to God to save you from not finding toilet paper after you’ve sat down on the toilet in your own home and the house is empty. It seems like a waste of air. Heroes and deities are there for the hard stuff. In my mind at least. Yard work and missing toilet paper are not difficult problems.

The phrase, “I need a hero” led me back to heroes. What a hero is and how they should be defined. There are so many different types of heroes in writing. The hero, the reluctant hero, the anti-hero, the superhero among other variations. I thought more about it. A hero. If I got my hero, how would I describe him. I thought about it for several laps around the yard. I came up with this.

        The guy who shows up. 

  That’s it. It’s that simple. Silly huh? 

  Think about the heroes that you read, watch on television or in movies and talk about. They all have three things in common. They see that something is going wrong, they show up, and do everything that they can to help.

   I was thinking about heroes again tonight. Not because of yard work this time. I was just skipping through my thoughts and stopped there. It happens sometimes. Okay, a lot of the time. Most of the time.
  The people who show up make the best kinds of heroes. The characters who have difficulties, challenges, angry bosses, empty bank accounts, rebels trying to stay out of trouble but who stick their heads out there anyway (like Han Solo). Why do you think that Superman loved Lois Lane yet had a terrible time talking to her? Why did he have a horrible reaction to kryptonite? Without those things he would have been too perfect. To be accepted by readers he needed a weakness or two, some vulnerability. He needed to have humanity. All heroes do, but the people who see trouble, drop what they’re doing and show the hell up, they are the true heroes.

If you want to write a good hero, write characters that show up and help in every way that they can. They don’t have to be rich, gorgeous, have six pack abs, laser eyes, or capes. They just have to show up.