The Evolution of a Hero, Part Four (the Reveal)

Filed in: Writing
Tags: Barbara Machin | Beryl Markham | Denys Finch Hatton | Heat of the Sun | heroes | The Matrix | Trevor Eve | Waking the Dead

So…we’ve come full circle, from the childhood admiration of hero types, through my writer’s journey, back to the beginning – searching for the heroes to admire, know about, dream about.

Only now, I’m the one doing the creating, based on all that has come before, all that God has placed before me in this buffet of creativity. And what touched my 8-year-old heart with Robin, what inspired me in Jonathan Harker and Denys Finch Hatton, what revived me in the aftermath of The Matrix still stirs my soul and makes my eyes glisten with wonder.

A sense of humor. Integrity. Determination. Eyes filled with dreams and emotion and drive. Respect for those around them, especially those they love. Layer in a bit of temper and passion, a painful past, and enough “scars” of maturity, and you began to sigh when they come around.

If a writer does her job well, from the first appearance of the hero, you want to know more. You immediately take on his cause, his journey, his goal. You want the hero to win the heroine in the same way he has won you.

Jonathan and Denys made one more odd swoop through my life in the late 1990s, before the actor passed out of my attention for a long while, in a short-lived show that aired on the PBS Mystery! series. I only managed to catch one episode of Heat of the Sun, mostly because the local PBS station appeared on my tv intermittently (I haven’t had cable since 1996).

I watched because it was set in Africa (see all Denys references above) and featured a character more or less based on Beryl Markham. I squinted a bit (“Why does he look so familiar?”), then moved on.

Fortunately for me, there was a writer in Britain, Barbara Machin, who was about to launch a hero that would do just what a good hero should. In about five minutes, he stirred my interest and would send me spinning in a whole new direction.

It also didn’t hurt that he looked like an older version of Jonathan, and Denys, and…

What goes around…

So note how much you learn about the characters in Waking the Dead from this clip. In terms of a script, it’s the equivalent of two pages.

TWO PAGES, folks.

This is why editors and agents beg for snappy openings, rapid development, and attention grabbing dialogue. Don’t just tell us what you love. Show us what your characters love. Show us who they are.

And what my new detective loves – and who he is as a man – is how I got from the inspiration of Waking the Dead, Barbara Machin, and Trevor Eve to Nashville and The Bones of Gregory Miller.

Stay tuned…

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