Who weighs more? Your hero or your heroine?
Whose story do you emphasize?
In my humble opinion, a story is almost always weighted one way or another. Either the bulk of screen time (and inner conflict) falls upon the slender shoulders of the heroine or upon the broad shoulders of the hero. Some authors attempt to give all protagonists equal billing, but the prevalence of first person narrative increasingly dictates the weight of the story.
Let’s talk examples. I admit that in Pushing Her Boundaries, Maggie gets top billing. Mace is a perfect springboard for her journey of self-discovery, yet he’s not a cipher, far from it. That’s the trick when weighting a story one way or the other - to write your secondary character/s as a man or woman who would win best actor or actress in a supporting role.
Another example: In My Everything, my two protagonists, Grace and Ben, share screen time. Both are wounded and in need of emotional healing. I follow their journeys, separately and together, giving each journey equal weight. I even throw in an epilogue so the reader can experience first hand the sense of oneness these two create when their conflict is resolved.
Examples that aren’t my books…I’ll volunteer several of my favorite romance authors.
J.R. Ward - Her stories are heavily weighted in favor of the heroes, with the exception of Zsadist’s and Bella’s story in Lover Awakened. For me, the other female leads in most of the books have little substance, literally in one case.
Karen Marie Moning - Her Highlander series, with a couple of exceptions, is weighted in favor of the smokin’ hot Scots. Specifically, in Kiss of the Highlander and The Dark Highlander, I find that the heroines, after starting out strong, turn into cornmeal mush. By the time The Immortal Highlander and Spell of the Highlander roll around, one could perhaps argue that Gwen and Chloe have morphed into blithering idiots.
On the other hand, K.M.M.’s Fever series is very heavily weighted in favor of the heroine of the piece, MacKayla Lane. The journey through all the books is hers. Yes, there is a significant supporting cast, but still, from beginning to end, the story belongs to Mac.
Linda Howard - Perhaps one of the reasons I like Linda Howard so much, despite her few stinkers, is that she does, more or less, give equal weight to both her hero and heroine. If there is any imbalance, it’s usually in favor of the heroine - an imbalance I happen to prefer. I like to fantasize about a big, strong, assertive, hot alpha male as much as the next gal, but give me a heroine who can stand on her own two feet and take him on. Bring it, is my motto.
How do you weight your stories?
