Lillie Spencer's Blog: Have you joined the MANHUNT?

I'm often asked where I got the idea for MANHUNT. I'm almost embarrassed to give a response to that question because the answer is so utterly cliché, but it's the truth.

It just came to me.

As a writer, the question when starting a new story is often 'to outline or not to outline.' I used to spend a lot of time sketching out how I wanted a story to go, what the major plot points were going to be, et cetera. And you know what? The story never turned out the way I outlined. It always took on a life of its own, which is a good thing -- if a story doesn't have a beating heart, it's just road kill. The down side was that it would force me to either go with the flow and abandon my original idea or try and brow-beat it down the path I wanted it to go on.

I was fleshing out the paranormal romance I'm working on now when the idea for MANHUNT popped into my head and wouldn't let go. I had a clear vision of the first chapter and the pinnacle chapter, and that was it. Sure, I still drew up character profiles, which I looked back on as I went along to make sure their behaviors were consistent with their personalities, but for the most part I just let the story take me away. I rested my fingers on the keyboard like it was a Ouija board and waited to see what emerged on the screen. It was a much more organic, relaxed process, and I can humbly admit I am very happy with the result.

I've gotten a lot of feedback saying that MANHUNT reads like you're watching a movie, and I think that's probably why. I wasn't trying to play connect-the-dots to the next bullet point I'd so painstakingly detailed. I let the story come to life and followed the sound of its heartbeat.

Every hero needs a weakness. Even Achilles had his heel, although like Superman, many could argue that his true weakness was love. Without some soft spot, dark past or tragic flaw, heroes often become two-dimensional, flat and boring. They need something to work through, or work towards, to give them depth and make them interesting.

Let’s look at Romeo, one of the most familiar and tragic heroes in literature. His impulsiveness was his weakness in all things, in the way he flitted from Rosaline to Juliet, in his interactions with Tybalt – leading to Mercutio’s death, and ultimately in his own reaction to seeing Juliet under the effects of the Friar’s potion. If only he had taken a moment to think things through rationally, they would have had a happy ending, and yet one could argue that Romeo’s habit of following his heart instead of his head is the very thing that endears him to us to this very day.

Another great example is Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Just like in the movies inspired by the books, Bond is undoubtedly heroic, but he’s also a drinking, gambling manwhore with a distinct lack of respect for authority. Men want to be him, and women want to be the one to tame him, or at least give it one helluva try. If Bond was just a perfect, well-mannered spy who did everything he was told, would we have cared about him at all?

In a shameless moment of self-plugging, my own hero in Manhunt, Michael, is emotionally stunted as the result of an abusive childhood. He is loyal to a fault and loves unconditionally, but there’s a darkness to him that can’t be denied and a distance my heroine struggles to cross. I’m told it’s this very darkness and aloofness that makes him fascinating.

Did you see The Avengers? I’ll bet, guy or gal, you love Tony Stark. Watch The Vampire Diaries? Chances are you’re Team Damon, in all his ‘bad brother glory’ as they say. And let’s not even get started on Fifty Shades of Grey‘s Christian Grey. Readers want to dance in his dark side every bit as much as they want to hug him and fix his broken soul.

In some respects, that may be why we gals always seem to prefer the bad boys, the more tortured the better. They have no shortage of failings and we as readers can’t wait to riffle past them looking for the ooey-gooey center, certain that hidden behind the rough exterior is a pure heart that, once healed, will love their woman forever. And in fiction, they often do.

*Originally posted at Musetracks.wordpress.com

Every hero needs a weakness. Even Achilles had his heel, although like Superman, many could argue that his true weakness was love. Without some soft spot, dark past or tragic flaw, heroes often become two-dimensional, flat and boring. They need something to work through, or work towards, to give them depth and make them interesting.

Let’s look at Romeo, one of the most familiar and tragic heroes in literature. His impulsiveness was his weakness in all things, in the way he flitted from Rosaline to Juliet, in his interactions with Tybalt – leading to Mercutio’s death, and ultimately in his own reaction to seeing Juliet under the effects of the Friar’s potion. If only he had taken a moment to think things through rationally, they would have had a happy ending, and yet one could argue that Romeo’s habit of following his heart instead of his head is the very thing that endears him to us to this very day.

Another great example is Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Just like in the movies inspired by the books, Bond is undoubtedly heroic, but he’s also a drinking, gambling manwhore with a distinct lack of respect for authority. Men want to be him, and women want to be the one to tame him, or at least give it one helluva try. If Bond was just a perfect, well-mannered spy who did everything he was told, would we have cared about him at all?

In a shameless moment of self-plugging, my own hero in Manhunt, Michael, is emotionally stunted as the result of an abusive childhood. He is loyal to a fault and loves unconditionally, but there’s a darkness to him that can’t be denied and a distance my heroine struggles to cross. I’m told it’s this very darkness and aloofness that makes him fascinating.

Did you see The Avengers? I’ll bet, guy or gal, you love Tony Stark. Watch The Vampire Diaries? Chances are you’re Team Damon, in all his ‘bad brother glory’ as they say. And let’s not even get started on Fifty Shades of Grey‘s Christian Grey. Readers want to dance in his dark side every bit as much as they want to hug him and fix his broken soul.

In some respects, that may be why we gals always seem to prefer the bad boys, the more tortured the better. They have no shortage of failings and we as readers can’t wait to riffle past them looking for the ooey-gooey center, certain that hidden behind the rough exterior is a pure heart that, once healed, will love their woman forever. And in fiction, they often do.

*Originally posted at Musetracks.wordpress.com

I am so fortunate. I have over 775 friends on Facebook, from over 40 different countries and on six continents. Of those, I probably personally know about 200, consisting of 'real life' friends, fellow writers I've met online but consider dear friends, and fans of my writing whom I've had the pleasure of interacting and becoming friends with. Then there are probably another twenty-five or so that are book review bloggers I like to follow. The remaining 550 are people who've friended me, who I'm assuming have read my writing and want to know what I'm up to, and I'm immensely grateful for every one of them.

I see a lot of fun silliness float across my newsfeed and my wall, because procrastination - thy name is Facebook. Frivolous stuff like eCard sayings, YouTube videos, manipulated pictures of their favorite actor's face Photoshopped onto a porn star's naked body (love those!) - things that make you smile, or make you think, or make you cringe. But every once in a while something happens on Facebook that is remarkable. It has given me the ability to pay it forward.

I've had readers/friends ask me to help them with their college essays, which I did gladly and was moved by what they wrote. I've had a teacher ask me if they could have permission to use my work as an example in their creative writing class. I've donated or contributed to several charities I never would have known about otherwise. And twice I've had someone tell me that they were in a dark place in their life, but that reading my story gave them something to hold onto, something to make them smile and live another day, if for no other reason than to see how the story ended. I can't begin to tell you the impact those two people had on my life. One of them I became close with and she is so special to me now I send her virtual hugs all the time, just because. The other I lost track of, but I think of her often and hope that she found another story to get her through the next week, and that she took my advice and got help.

It makes you really think about not only the power of the written word, but the power of social media. Everything you say, even if it's just 'Good Morning!' has an impact, possibly all over the world. You never know when that poem you decided to share may be just the message someone you've never met needed to hear, or if that joke popped up on someone's screen when they most needed to laugh.

In an age where cyberbullying is a real issue, I choose to focus on the good side of social networking, the way it brings strangers together. There's a reason Facebook calls it 'friending' someone when you add them to your network.

I hope that in the future, my posts here will make you smile, or make you think, or make you hot under the collar, but never make you cringe.

*Adapted from my Writers Gone Wild blog post 6/4/2012