Ten Ways to Make Your Heroine Suffer – plus some Pimpin’

Right, I thought I’d do a companion piece to my hero torture list since fair’s fair, turnabout etc. Time for the heroine to get her turn. Now, I do find writing teh ladeez a tad difficult – women are so complicated! – so if anyone wants to add to the list or disagree, feel free! And remember this is just a few things you can do to make your characters suffer. The ways are as endless and varied as the conflict… hehe…

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?

15 thoughts on “Ten Ways to Make Your Heroine Suffer – plus some Pimpin’”

  1. LOL – now gimme the hero who’ll help her get to be head of the corporation and he’ll stay home with the puppies… hmmm? 😉
    & thanks for the pimpage – I’m so thrilled you enjoyed Penny & Carter’s story!

  3. Just checking here – when you say puppies you mean small immature dogs yes? You haven’t gone all gangsta on me and by puppies you mean The Girls aka Lady Bumps, Boobage, The Rack???

    Coz if you read it like that – well let’s just say your heroine is REALLY interesting!

  5. Hey Jackie , you missed the obvious one! Have him give her the best, blow-her-socks-off sex of her life while being an arrogant, promotion-denying, puppy-loving, jerk! (although probably best not to have the puppies actually in bed with them while he’s doing it, obviously!)

  10. LOL! In my house puppies are the generic stand in for everything. You want the bags of chocolate sitting on the table? Well, then you say “toss those puppies over here.”

    Hmmm, this makes your fabulous post more of a mad lib/ fill-in-the-blank for me!

  12. I think I’m going to have trouble writing tonight without my fingers wanting to type the word “puppies” all over the place!!

    Wonder if anyone has ever tried calling the heroine’s boobage (I *love* that word, Elissa!) puppies in a love scene? If not, I think they should try it. Any volunteers?

  13. Joanne – Yes, I love ‘boobage’ too! Plus, I’m thinking ‘puppies’ could work. I would volunteer since I love challenges like that but unfortunately I have the type of hero who would never call them ‘puppies’. Or even ‘boobage’. He’s way too serious. Sigh.

  14. Jackie, thanks for the pimpage. 🙂 And Marriage Made on Paper was pretty much a heroine torture fest…so much so she ended up being the one who had to grovel!

    Puppies is a nice one…how bout sweater bunnies?

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