Kate – thanks so much for your comments! No, don’t worry, I wasn’t over-defining. And no, I don’t actually think in terms of ‘Riva’ heroines or ‘Presents’ heroines. I was being a bit cavalier in my terminology is all. And the bit about liking stroppy heroines was a reminder to myself that I toned down my present heroine’s stroppiness, rather than as a blanket comment about Presents heroines in general. I was trying to force her into the flirty box but she’s not. Because you’re so right, characters have to be who they are, not want you want to make them. 🙂

Jill – you go girl! Yes, you have to write what you enjoy huh? And if that’s lighter stuff then go for it!

Well – these lines really:

>>But I’m keeping my heroines stroppy. I’m doing Presents/Modern conflict and hero with a Riva heroine.

Huh? I can’t really believe you’d actually think this way. Where are the rules that say only a RIVA heroine can be stroppy? Where’s the efinition of a ‘RIVA heroine’ – or a Presents one for that matter? How many times do the phrases It’s All in The Execution ‘ and ‘There are no rules’ have to be repeated?

A heroine is a heroine – in Presents or RIVa of Romance or wnatever you like – they are women, of all ages, all types, all nationalities, temperaments, characters . . . And any one line can have each and every type of heroine according to how the author creates her, the way her charactre is built, who her hero is and the way she reacts to that hero.
If you think of a story, a hero, a heroine only in terms of the line you think they belong to – a Presents hero, a Riva Heroine – a Cherish conflict . . . you are outting restraints on yourself, narrowing your golaposts, restricting your imagination, holding yourself back in every way possible.

Please just think of your charactres as that – characters who are what they are. I’ve often said, and I’ll hold to it now, that the things about Presents is not the characters but the conflicts – those intense, angsty, powerful ‘alpha’ emotional conflicts that can develop between any sort of hero, any sort of heroine. And if your heroine is hot-headed and stroppy and straight up then she’ll take her place alongside so many other hot-headed and straight-up Presents heroines through the years. There’s plenty of rooom for all.

So – I agree – don’t hold yourself back, particularly not in this way.

Good Luck

Kate

Cheers to you, Jackie! I’m always here to slap you around.

(my security phrase is piness. I thought that was worth mentioning.)