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Wet Noodle Posse | Blog

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Age

Today is my dh's 42nd birthday. I've known him since he was 17 and 42 seemed eons away, but he's hitting his stride.

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Last night I was thinking about the ages of the heroes we write.

7 summers ago, when I started Hot Shot, I made Gabe 40. That seemed at the very edge of the box for a romance hero, maybe because I was only 34. I needed Gabe to be on the verge of retirement, thinking these kids on his hotshot crew could outhike him, but be determined not to let them.

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My next book had another 40 year old hero, because I needed someone who'd been through a rough personal life, was already a detective with some years when he met and fell in love with my shiny new detective heroine, only to endure a tragedy and leave.

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For awhile I stuck with 30 something heroes, men who had lived but were in the prime of their lives.

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I was in my 30s, too, and didn't feel so far removed.

But my latest heroes are babies. They're in their twenties. I feel I have to balance confidence with a certain level of insecurity to write these guys, or maybe I'm just projecting how I was in my 20s to write them.

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I'm wondering, as I get older, will it be harder to write believable characters, characters who act their ages? We've all ready wiser-than-thou heroines who don't speak/dress like any 30 year old you've ever met. How do you keep your characters current?

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2 Comments:

At 9:11 AM, Blogger Karen said...

Happy birthday to your DH, Mary. I think he got a really terrific gift when he met you!

 
At 9:35 AM, Blogger Trish Milburn said...

Happy birthday to the hubster!

Great blog topic. This is actually something I think about a lot because I write YA and I don't have kids myself or teach where I'd be around kids all the time. But I try to browse the teen magazines, watch shows that are popular with teens, notice how teens are acting and what they're saying when I'm at places like the mall. I think it'd be the same for whatever age group you're writing about.

 

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