1. Give her a hero who is the antithesis of everything she believes in. (He’s arrogant and uncaring. I hate him).
2. Make him absolutely physically irresistable to her. (But man, he’s soooo hot! Hateful male)
3. Give him one (or more) qualities that she can’t help but admire (He’s so arrogant! But…he really loves puppies and I can’t but like a man who loves puppies).
4.Make him get in the way of her goal. (I want to be head of the corporation? Why is he so determined to stop me? Hateful male!)
5. Have him do something for her that changes the way she thinks about him. (Oh he’s such an arrogant SOB. I hate him! But then, he donated all that money to the puppy shelter to keep it running…)
6. Make her fall in love with him. (I hate him so much! But the puppies…wait!…No!….I can’t!….Noooooooo!!!)
7. Have him refuse to talk about his feelings (Why doesn’t he want to talk about this? I can’t understand it. Doesn’t he know how important it is?? Hateful male).
8. Have him do something that makes her think he hasn’t changed after all (he’s completely destroyed my chances of promotion! Why would he do that?? Why do I STILL love him! Hateful male etc..)
9. Get her to make her declaration of love to him only to have it come flying back at her – because of course, it’s all got to be on her terms. (He didn’t want my ultimatum that I’ll marry him only if he stops standing in my way of promotion? What? Why not? Hateful, arrogant male. Why do I still love him? Why???)
10. Make her realise that he isn’t the only one who needs to change if she wants to be with him. (Wait! Is being with him more important than being the head of the corporation….? Why do I need to be head of the corporation anyway? I just want to be with him and the puppies! Uh oh…)

If you want to go get some awesome examples of both hero and heroine torture, then go no further than the fabulous Natalie Anderson. I’m doing a bit of pimping for her since she’s a fellow Kiwi and her latest release kept me up till 12.30am last night! The End to Faking It was a really emotional, intense, sexy read and I just loved it. Anyway, if you want to go get it, you can from the M&B site or go to Nat’s page on FB where she is doing an excellent giveaway. Cue the ‘free stuff’ woot! Details here.

And of course, if you’re of a Modern bent, then Ms Maisey Yates is also a great torturer past compare. Marriage Made on Paper is now out and for really great hero torture, you can’t go past The Inherited Bride.

So, anyone have any more handy tips for heroine torture?

Anyway, as a kind of distraction, I thought I’d turn my thoughts to torture. As you do. Hero torture in particular. Now call me a sadist but torturing my characters is one of my all time favourite things to do, especially torturing my heroes because let’s face it, who doesn’t love a tortured hero? Yeah, there is such a thing as too much angst, I know, so it’s a fine line. But still….tortured heroes….mmmm…*drools*…

Ahem.

So, how does one torture one’s hero? Well here’s my top ten list of ways to get the best out of your hero’s emotional pain.

1. Give him a heroine who is the antithesis of everything he believes in but then give her a couple of qualities that the he can’t help admiring. Watch his agonies as he tries to tell himself he doesn’t like her. Or admire her. No freaking (or other suitable F word) way!

2. Have your heroine be utterly irresistable physically to him so that he can’t helping wanting badly, no matter how much his brain tells him don’t go there. Oh wants…but shouldn’t…but I do…but I can’t…etc…

3. Make the heroine totally indifferent/unaware/derisive of his usual slick moves so that he has to behave differently and thus be out of his comfort zone if he wants this fabulous, fascinating woman. Dammit!

4. Have him tell himself that he doesn’t really want her, that it’s just physical. And then put him in a situation where he realises that actually, it isn’t. Oh noes!!

5. If he’s being overly alpha, have the heroine tell him he’s being a jerk and if he doesn’t stop behaving like an ass, she’s outta there. No one tells me what to do! Ever! But she’s leaving and I’ll never… Double dammit!

6. Get him in a situation where he has to talk about his feelings with the heroine. Hey, he’s a guy. Worst. Thing. Ever.

7. Make sure he’s totally comfortable with the relationship he has with the heroine. It’s just about sex. It’s just about being friends. It’s just about being work colleagues. It’s cool. It’s fine. Everything’s dandy. Then watch him squirm when you make him realise that he’s falling in love.

8. Put him in a scene where he thinks he’s doing something nice for the heroine and then have it backfire on him because a) he’s misjudged the heroine or b) the heroine’s conflict means it’s actually the worst possible thing he could have done (see heroine torture) or c) he still hasn’t learned that he has to do things differently from the way he’s always done them if he wants this, particular woman. Lots of bleeding potential here. Can also lead into number 6 for added torture. Or number 10 for maximum angst.

9. This is a risky maneouvre but you can have him do something alpha that makes the heroine laugh at him. This can be good for uptight, buttoned up heroes. And in fact, can be a real growing moment if he figures out that actually, being laughed at won’t kill him and that sometimes laughing at oneself can be a good thing. Who doesn’t love a hero who knows when he’s being a d*ckhead?

10. Have him realise he’s in love with the heroine and know that there is no way that he will ever – EVER! – be with her. (Unless he does something totally and completely way out like risking his heart and telling her he loves her).

Naturally all of this depends on the hero, his conflict and his motivation. And some of these may not apply to some heroes. Hey, there are guys who actually quite like talking about their feelings! But usually I find that if I put my heroes in any one of these situations, they don’t like it. Don’t like it at all. Just being cruel to be kind though. Because the more you torture your characters, the more emotion you get from your story, the more your characters learn and the more wonderful your HEA. In this case, the end justifies the means. Hehe.

Anyone else got any good torture suggestions? Bring ’em on!