Today we have author Christy McKellen stopping by talk about her heroine and how flaws help us readers relate to them.
Formerly a Video and Radio Producer, Christy now spends her time as either a slave to her children or her muse. When she’s not writing spicy romance, she can be found stomping around the South West of England, glomming her to-be-read pile or escaping from real life with her rather delicious husband.
How do you feel about flawed heroines in romance novels? Can’t stand them, have to have them, on the fence? It’s actually an impossible question to answer because you need a marker. HOW flawed are we talking?
As a writer it’s imperative for me to get the balance of likeability and believability right in a character, but man what a task, because what I might let someone get away with is probably vastly different from what you would. There are, of course, certain lines that cannot be crossed if you’ve got a cat-in-hell’s chance of keeping your reader rooting for your protagonists, but the whole point of writing for me is to see how hard I can push against these lines. How far am I willing to stick my toe over that crumbling cliff?
In Her New Worst Enemy, my heroine Ellie is plenty flawed. She’s spent the last six months ignoring her friends and family and wallowing in solitude. Okay, she has a pretty good reason – after all her partner has just dumped her for another woman and all her hopes and dreams have been flushed down the toilet – but… and it’s a pretty big BUT… she’s given up. Add to that a crazy plan to try and stop her best friend from marrying a gold-digger – someone she’s not even met because of all the time spent wallowing in self-pity – and you’ve got yourself a pretty flawed heroine. She’s selfish. Self absorbed. Stubborn. But… and it’s an even bigger BUT… she genuinely cares about her friend and is desperate to keep her safe and happy – something she’s not felt herself for a very long time. Her intentions are good and pure, it’s her logic that’s the problem 🙂 Luckily for her, her brother’s best friend, Gideon, is smart enough to see why she’s acting in such a crazy manner, and to his surprise, finds he cares about her too much to see her crash and burn.
Ellie’s journey back to herself had to be a tough one, because she started out so blinkered to everyone around her. It was always going to take something significant to wake her up to herself. Cruel, moi? I could have been nicer to her I guess, but where’s the fun in that?
Her New Worst Enemy
By: Christy McKellen
Genre: RomanceGoodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Six months ago Ellie Holdsworthy’s life was all planned out – kids, wedding, happy ever after – until her boyfriend dumped her for another woman. Now her best friend, Penny – an heiress to a small fortune – looks set to run off with a gold-digger, and Ellie is determined to save her from certain doom . Unfortunately, the only person who can help is the one person she’d rather not ask…
Little does Ellie know, persuading her brother’s best friend – commitment phobic, playboy businessman, Gideon DeLancy – to hold an intervention at his beautiful Georgian manor would be the easy part. Keeping her hands off him is a whole other matter.
Gideon doesn’t intend to fall for his friend’s snarky sister, and he sure as hell doesn’t expect their weekend to develop into a full-on sex-fest. When passion takes a strangle-hold, their differences don’t seem to matter. After all, a torrid weekend affair should be the easiest thing in the world to walk away from, so why are they finding it so difficult…?
Great post Christy, and one I’ve been wondering about — how many flaws are too many? Where do you draw the line! You handled it brilliantly in Her New Worst Enemy, and kept us rooting for Ellie all the way…nice one, I really enjoyed the read!
Thanks Cait! Glad you think so. I guess there’s probably a cut-off for the number of flaws you can give a character before they become unreadable, but who knows what that is. I think the most flawed characters are often the most interesting and it certainly gives us a lot of scope as writers to be able give them the full redemption treatment. Thanks for stopping by!
My fatal flaw is becoming consumed by whatever is occupying me at the moment. I’m not sure how I can be so easily distracted, yet so single-minded at the same time! It’s curious. I’m an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, wallowing in a paradox.
This was a great post! It really made me want to read “Her New Worst Enemy.” Thanks for sharing!
I know what you mean M.J. My husband gets really frustrated with me when my head’s in a story, I tend to give him that blank look that we writers get when he’s talking 😉 Mind you, I get it back from him when he’s in work mode so I guess we’re even.
My fatal flaw is my pride. It stops me from doing things I should do — like apologizing.
Ah, yes Arely, I know just what you mean. It’s the hardest thing in the world sometimes isn’t it? At least we recognise our flaws – half the battle!
I’m quick to be angered abd it sometimes makes me look like a fool. I try and control it and I’m getting better at it! I have another….I get bored super easy….except with reading. I’ll have “calling” for something and then pour my soul into it then get bored.
eh, well.
Her New Worst Enemy sounds super good! I enjoyed the Q&A, thanks!
Hi Jovon, thanks for commenting. My dad has always done the same as you, he gets intensely interested in something and does it without coming up for air for a while, only to become bored later. My parents’ house is full of half finished things – it drives my mum insane! 🙂 Really pleased you like the sound of HNWE.
Well, I have tons of flaws, but perhaps my biggest is I can’t take being bested by others. It’s not something I show, and it mostly applies to things I’m very passionate about. It irks me to no end, which drives me to work harder, but I don’t like it the fact that I feel that way. I really can’t help it, but that’s the way I’ve always been, since kindergarten. The good thing is that even though I feel that way at first, I usually get over it pretty quickly 🙂
Thanks for the awesome giveaway (books sounds awesome)!
Hi Deborah, well your flaw sound like a pretty useful one, even though it must be frustrating at times for you! It sounds like you’ve found a way to channel it for good 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and saying lovely things about HNWE.
Probably that I speak before I think sometimes and put my foot in my mouth. It sucks!
Thanks for the giveaway!
mestith@gmail.com
Ah yes, I’ve done a bit of that in my time too 🙂 Thanks for commenting Meghan!