We had an ice-storm last night. Living in Minnesota, I’m pretty familiar with ice, even took a dive last week in our school parking lot (yes, right in front of my kids. I’m feeling old!). But last night, the storm, which actually started out as rain and morphed into sleet created a condition called “black ice” – it’s ice built up on pavement that causes cars to fly off the highway into ditches and other cars.
It’s one of the most dangerous parts of winter in the northland.
The thing is, having lived most of my life in cold (MN and then Siberia), I know how to drive on black ice. My 16 year old, rookie drive son, however, does not.
Which is why I stood at the window, staring into the blackness for an hour while he drove home from play practice. I actually felt nauseous, hard a hard time breathing even while I prayed away my fear.
Especially when an unfamiliar truck drove into the drive. Thankfully, it deposited my son, safe and sound. But his car? He’d had to park it 2 miles away after not being able to navigate our slippery road. I hit my knees in gratefulness.
Fear. It can paralyze us. It can cause us to do stupid things. It also have the opposite effect – drive us to do something bold and courageous. It’s fear that is the third element of a Heart-Throb Hero.
What? Fear? Do we like heroes that are afraid? I’m not talking about cowering, but let’s face it – if a man isn’t afraid of something, then how real is he? The thing is, we all have fears – big or little, rational or not, that make up our pyche. I am afraid of small palces – like caves. In my worst nightmares I’d have to navigate an underwater cave….but I’d do it to save one of my children. And wouldn’t that make for a great heroic moment? (thankfully, we’re all iced over up here. No scuba diving for me).
Our hero has to have a fear, too. This fear must be deep – one that would keep him awake at night, or drive him to do stupid things, make stupid decisions. Sometimes a novel will start out with his fear being realized, and the result being so horrible we understand why he will run from it.
We’re going to be talking next week about using the Greatest devices to craft your hero’s journey. One of these is his greatest fears. But behind a Greatest Fear is a smaller fear, some sort of foundation of why it is his greatest fear.
What am I talking about?
Let’s go back to our hero—the firefighter. His noble cause is to save lives. The ancillary is easy – his fear would be that he couldn’t save a life. But there has to be a foundation for that fear. If he were, say, Superman, then he wouldn’t have that fear. But, since he’s not, let’s make him actually afraid of fire, just a little. (In fact, to be a good fireman, he has to have respect for fire). Give him a reason why he thinks he might not be able to achieve his Noble Cause. One of the best romance/suspense books I ever read had the hero – a guy who used to serve in the navy, afraid of drowning. He, of course, has to nearly drown to save the woman he loves.
The key is, their fear will build until the black moment, until eventually he must have courage to face it. And then we’ll love him even more.
So today and tomorrow, I want us to look at our heroes and decide…what is their fear? It’s not their cosmically Greatest Fear. It’s the little ones that drive that GF.
This week – tell us your favorite movie hero, and his fear. I promise…all this work will pay off in a week when we talk about our plots! Email your answer to booktherapy@susanmaywarren.com, and you’ll be eligible to win your choice of a Rachel Hauck or Susan May Warren book.