How to Write a Brilliant Romance: The Easy, Step-By-Step Method of Crafting a Powerful Romance (Go! Write Something Brilliant) (4 page)

Let’s
look
at
some
of
our
favorite
movies
and
their
flawed
heroes:

The
Sleepless
Flaw.
This
is
where
the
hero
is
stymied
and
doesn’t
move
forward
and
get
the
girl. We
see
this
flaw
in
While
You
Were
Sleeping
.
Jack
refuses
to
tell
his
father
that
he
doesn’t
want
to
be
in the
estate
sale
business
anymore,
and
keeps
his
furniture
building
business
a
secret.
He
also
doesn’t want
to
“steal”
his
brother’s
fiancée,
which
is
admirable,
except
that,
well,
we
want
him
to
speak
up too!
Jack’s
flaw
is
that
he
holds
back
when
he
should
charge
forward.
We
see
this
timid
flaw
played out
in
movies
like
The
Wedding
Planner
or
Two
Weeks’ Notice
.

The
Troublemaker
Flaw.
Like
Johnny
Castle
in
Dirty
Dancing
,
this
is
where
the
hero
is
simply
a bad
influence
on
the
heroine.
We
see
this
in
movies
like
Titanic
,
where
Jack’s
flaw
is
that
he
is
a gambling
vagabond,
not
good
enough
for
our
heroine.
Of
course,
we
see
his
true
value,
but
he struggles
with
feeling
that
he
doesn’t
deserve
Rose.
He
is
also
a
bit
of
a
troublemaker
and
gets
her into
trouble
as
well.
Again,
we
might
find
these
characteristics
admirable,
but
they
still
make
him
less than
perfect.
This
is
a
common
flaw
that
we
see
played
out
in
movies
of
all
genres
from
Shakespeare in
Love
,
to
Moulin
Rouge!
,
to
even
A
Walk
to
Remember
.
The
“wrong”
guy,
the
troublemaking
guy,
the rogue
from
the
other
side
of
the
tracks
is
a
favorite
flaw
and
one
that
works
time
and
again.

The
Playboy
Flaw.
This is
simply a
commitment
phobia where the hero
is
afraid
to
settle down. We
just
have
to
take
a
look
at
the
various
Matthew
McConaughey
movies
to
see
this
played
out.
Try
Ghosts
of
Girlfriends
Past
,
where
his
is
a
perpetual
playboy,
unable
to
commit
to
the
one
woman
who loves
him.
He
has
this
same
flaw
in
How
to
Lose
a
Guy
in
10
Days
,
Failure
to
Launch
,
Fool’s
Gold
,
even
Sahara
.
Mel
Gibson
suffers
from
it
in
What
Women
Want
.
It’s
that
“I
love
the
women,
but
I
don’t want
to
commit”
issue.
Deep
inside,
of
course,
the
playboy
is
afraid
of
rejection.
We
all
understand being
afraid
of
rejection,
so
we
forgive
them
.
.
.
if
they
promise
to
mend
their
weaselly
ways
when they
find
the
right
woman.

The
Distance
Flaw.
This
distance
can
be
geographical,
because
of
age
(as
in
time
travel),
social classes—anything
that
keeps
the
hero
and
heroine
apart.
This
is
the
key
flaw
with
Sam
Baldwin
in
Sleepless
in
Seattle
.
The
poor
man
lives
half-way
across
the
country
from
the
heroine
(not
to
mention that
he
doesn’t
even
know
her).
Separation
by
time
and/or
space
is
a
great
flaw.
It’s
often
a construct
of
plotting,
yes,
but
in
the
end,
they
have
to
confront
the
“distance”
and
do
something
to overcome
it.
We
see
it
in
movies
like
The
Lake
House
,
Somewhere
in
Time
,
even
You’ve
Got
Mail
,
where they
are
separated
by
the
Internet.
Even
Sam,
the
hero
in
Ghost
,
has
this
problem.
These
heroes
are flawed
in
the
fact
that
they
are
distant,
and
have
to
make
the
effort
to
bridge
that
gap.

There
are
other
flaws
also,
such
as
physical
limitations
or
broken
hearts.
And
often,
there
is
a
deep- rooted
fear
behind
the
flaw
(which
we’ll
explore
next).
But
give
the
hero
a
flaw
and
we’ll
want
him to
find
a
woman
who
can
fix
it!One way to discover your hero’s flaw is to ask: Why did your last girlfriend break up with you? Or: Why haven’t you found true love?

You
may
be
surprised
at
the
answer!

Give
your
hero
a
fear.
My
husband
used
to
hate
to
dance.
Because
he’s
a
hero,
last
year
he
gave
me dancing
lessons
for
my
birthday.
Now,
his
fear,
i.e.
flaw,
kept
him
from
dancing
for
years
because
he was
afraid
of
looking
foolish,
which
is
why
we
have
to
make
sure
our
dancing
is
perfect.
(It's
like dancing
with
a
drill
sergeant.)
I
finally
figured
this
out
and
helped
him
conquer
this
fear
by
buying
us dancing
tapes
and
helping
us
learn
the
basics
in
our
kitchen.
Then
when
we
enrolled
in
dance
class, he
looked
like
he
knew
what
he
was
doing.
(And
wow!
You
should
see
him
now!)

Behind
every
hero’s
flaw
there
is
a
fear.

It’s
key
to
determine
your
hero’s
flaw.
Yes,
a
flaw
makes
him
less
than
perfect,
but
it
also
leads
to
a deeper
issue,
and
the
third
element
of
a
great
hero:
fear.

What
does
your
hero
fear?
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
is
so
horrible
we
understand
why
he
would
run
from
it.
A
fear
will build
until
the
Black
Moment
until
it
is
realized
in
some
form.
This
fear—and
eventually
the
hero’s courage
to
face
it—will
cause
us
to
love
him.

Let’s
look
at
a
few
of
the
flaws
we
talked
about
earlier
and
see
how
they
lead
to
fears.

The
Sleeping
Flaw
(While
You
Were
Sleeping).
Jack
can’t
go
after
the
woman
he
loves
because
he doesn’t
want
to
upset
the
family.
His
fear
is
letting
down
his
family.
(Revealed
in
why
he
won’t
tell his
father
about
his
furniture
business).

In
The
Wedding
Planner,
the
hero
is
engaged
to
someone
else—the
wrong
woman.
But
he
is
an honorable
guy
and
he
wants
to
see
it
through.
His
fear
is
breaking
his
promise
to
this
girl—his college
sweetheart
and
the
woman
he
should
marry.
He
fears
letting
down
someone
else
who
believes in
him.

How
many
of
us
harbor
the
fear
of
disappointing
someone
we
love?
It’s
a
legitimate
fear,
and
one that
drives
a
large
majority
of
people
through
life.
The
truth
behind
the
fear
is
that
we
may
be betraying
more
people
if
we
don’t
own
up
to
the
truth.
Our
heroes
also
learn
it’s
better
to
live
in
truth and
let
a
few
people
down,
than
live
a
lie.

The
Troublemaker
Flaw.
This
is
Jack
in
Titanic
,
and
Johnny
in
Dirty
Dancing
,
and
every
bad
boy who
thinks
he’s
not
good
enough
for
the
girl.
They
fear
that
what
they
believe
about
themselves
is true.
They
are
trash.
They
aren’t
good
enough
for
the
girl.
Of
course,
we,
the
reader,
and
the
heroine, see
the
truth—they
are
honorable
and
worth
loving.
But
having
a
moment
where
that
fear
comes true
is
a
key
element
to
helping
that
flaw
feel
insurmountable.
Like
Jack
being
arrested
and handcuffed
to
a
pipe
while
the
Titanic
sinks.
And
Johnny
being
accused
of
fathering
a
child
out
of wedlock.
Make
your
troublemaker
believe
he
is
trouble,
and
his
flaw
will
translate
into
a
real
fear.

The
Playboy
Flaw.
The fear
here is
easy to
diagnose.
The heroes
have
been
hurt
by women
in
the past.
Or,
better
yet,
they’ve
had
a
role
model
who
told
them
that
commitment
will
only
hurt
them. This
fear
of
being
hurt
will
keep
them
from
enjoying
life,
or
achieving
their
dreams,
or
even
make them
miserable
(like
their
role
model).
In
Ghosts
of
Girlfriends
Past
,
the
hero’s
parents
loved
each other,
but
he
choked
on
the
night
he
should
have
asked
his
best
friend
(a
girl)
to
dance,
and
instead she
had
her
first
kiss
with someone
else.
He
was
so
hurt
that
he
ran
to
his
uncle,
the
King
of
the Playboys,
who
taught
him
everything
he
knew.
This
hero’s
fear
is
letting
someone
inside
and committing
to
them
and
being
hurt
again.

The
Distance
Flaw.
(
Sleepless
in
Seattle
,
The
Lake
House
,
Somewhere
in
Time,
You’ve
Got
Mail
)
This
flaw can
be
the
result
of
numerous
fears.
In
Sleepless
in
Seattle
,
Sam
Baldwin
fears
not
finding
another
love like
he
had
before.
Sam
Wheat,
the
hero
in
Ghost
,
fears
saying
the
words
“I
love
you,”
until
it’s
all
he has
left.
In
Somewhere
in
Time
,
the
hero
fears
travelling
back
to
the
present
and
losing
the
love
in
the past.
When
this
exact
thing
happens,
he
has
to
confront
his
fear
that
he
is
from
a
different
time
than his
true
love
is,
and
that
perhaps
their
one
chance
is
lost.

The
key
to
finding
the
fear
behind
the
flaw
is
looking
at
what
they
need
to
overcome
to
be
with
the heroine,
and
then
tracking
that
back
to
a
fear
that
might
keep
them
from
doing
it.

Sam
Baldwin
(
Sleepless
in
Seattle
)
fears
uprooting
his
son
and
letting
someone
strange
into
his
life
just when
they
are
starting
to
heal
from
their
grief.
Alex,
the
hero
in
The
Lake
House
,
fears
waiting
for time
to
catch
up
to
them
because
the
heroine
might
not
be
there
when
it
happens.
He
fears
losing her
before
he’s
had
a
chance
to
love
her.

As
your
own
Book
Therapist,
look
at
your
character’s
flaw
and
ask:
What
is
the
fear
behind
the
flaw?
This
fear
will
help
you
plot
your
book’s
tension
and
eventually,
the
moment
of
.
.
.