Welcome to the Roboto-tron
You know when they have these futuristic movies, like A.I., and you can hire a robot to keep your house and give you sex on the side? Is that the ideal? Some hunky guy or gal who can fulfill all your needs, never disagree with you, and won't leave the seat up, or, perhaps in a man's case, won't demand to be cuddled after sex.
Being a writer, you can create a love interest in your books that's rather like the Roboto-tron. You can give them any traits you want. Wish fulfillment, fantasy, whatever. Indeed, in the history of the romance genre, very often the man was wealthy and sexy and also a tender guy whose love for kids was there just beneath the surface of a suave gentleman, as one example.
So why are MY Roboto-trons so unbelievably complicated and difficult? I am working on a new book--already bought--in which the hero/main character is a recovering Vicodin addict. He equates addiction with grief--something else he's struggling with. And in an as-yet unsold book that I am playing with, the hero wants to commit suicide. The whole dance is will he or won't he? In TRACE OF DOUBT, Billie's live-in boyfriend is a former convict. And the Jungian soul partner she meets is a Japanese detective who quotes Greek mythology and doesn't talk much.
In real life . . . my God but I would run the other way. However, I can't say my relationships have been a piece of cake either. Maybe in writing, I find these very tortured sorts of characters have proved their worth somehow. They've had the dark night of the soul and then some and are somehow the deeper for it. And, in a rather hilarious bit of confession here . . . I find my heroines quirkily endearing, but I have gotten plenty of fan mail from people who have loved a book but wanted to deck the heroine a few times. And since they sometimes share some traits with me, I guess more than a few people would like to punch my lights out.
How about you? Are your Roboto-trons wish fulfillment of perfection? Really messed up? Somewhere in the middle?
Being a writer, you can create a love interest in your books that's rather like the Roboto-tron. You can give them any traits you want. Wish fulfillment, fantasy, whatever. Indeed, in the history of the romance genre, very often the man was wealthy and sexy and also a tender guy whose love for kids was there just beneath the surface of a suave gentleman, as one example.
So why are MY Roboto-trons so unbelievably complicated and difficult? I am working on a new book--already bought--in which the hero/main character is a recovering Vicodin addict. He equates addiction with grief--something else he's struggling with. And in an as-yet unsold book that I am playing with, the hero wants to commit suicide. The whole dance is will he or won't he? In TRACE OF DOUBT, Billie's live-in boyfriend is a former convict. And the Jungian soul partner she meets is a Japanese detective who quotes Greek mythology and doesn't talk much.
In real life . . . my God but I would run the other way. However, I can't say my relationships have been a piece of cake either. Maybe in writing, I find these very tortured sorts of characters have proved their worth somehow. They've had the dark night of the soul and then some and are somehow the deeper for it. And, in a rather hilarious bit of confession here . . . I find my heroines quirkily endearing, but I have gotten plenty of fan mail from people who have loved a book but wanted to deck the heroine a few times. And since they sometimes share some traits with me, I guess more than a few people would like to punch my lights out.
How about you? Are your Roboto-trons wish fulfillment of perfection? Really messed up? Somewhere in the middle?
posted by Erica Orloff at 7:53 PM
20 Comments:
Somewhere in the middle. I write my fictional men to be real with an added bonus. Their romantic.
First relationship went to hell in a hand basket. Second well we have our good times and bad. But after 14 years we are still together. Did I mention we were high school sweet hearts.
la:
How neat! I don't know whatever happened to my high school sweetheart. He was a very nice first boyfriend. :-)
E
It's funny we have our prom picture on the wall. My daughter looks at it and says. Wow dad had hair. Which always brings a grin to my face.
Top Ten Things I Want My Roboto-tron To Do:
10. Get me a beer
9. Mow the lawn
8. Fix me something to eat
7. Do the laundry
6. Do me
5. Clean the house
4. Massage my feet
3. Type all my manuscripts
2.Get me seven-figure deals on all my manuscripts
And the number one thing I want my Roboto-tron to do...
1. Get me another beer
Hey, a man can dream, can't he?
Jude Hardin:
If I was there, I'd slap you. ;-) Actually, most of those activities are similar to my chores I'd like fulfilled (I'm about to go mulch my garden--UGH!). Except the typing thing . . . I need to type my own so that I can self-edit. Then again, maybe a Roboto-tron would be good at that. Oh . . . and dry martinis with extra green olives--large ones, not the little ones--not beer. Because if I'm no longer doing yardwork, then I won't need a cold beer.
Somewhere in the middle, usually leaning toward troubled. Always had a penchant for 'bad boys' and it carries into my characters. When they don't have a few devious tendencies and a bit of attitude, they make me want to yak!
Here's your beer, Jude, but I aint touchin' your feet!
Here's your martini, Erica, extra large olive and all, but you're on your own for the mulching, my own yard is calling me...I think what it is calling me is negligent, maybe even neglectful and lazy :-0
I don't tend to write really messed up characters. Misguided maybe, but not totally screwed.
One of my crit partners pointed out recently, that I tend to write middle-class characters, who have their issues (doesn't everyone) but they're very different from the sorts of issues others may face. I guess I'm writing what I know. And hopefully there's a market for characters like this, in the same way as we have the books with really rich kids and the ones from other backgrounds....
Oops I'm seemed to have digressed from the Roboto-tron post
Oh, I almost forgot. My Roboto-tron has a remote control with a MUTE button. :)
I'm the exact opposite. My guys are so much in the periphery that when I write about them, I fail to give them interesting characteristics at first. ::sigh:: I wish I had brothers. I can only write about DH's traits so much.
Jude: Good luck. Erica: Why do you need a servant too. Me I'd be happy with a character that I could love and be happy with. Perhaps I'm content. Now as far a writing, I'd want a character that could lead the reader on a merry chase. One that would give a little, but not everything they wanted.
Lainey:
I forgot about Jude's number 4. Yeah, Jude . . . that's not happening.
Bad boys . . . I hear you Lainey, though sometimes I feel--and I don't want romance writers to flog me here--but "bad boys" seem to me, oftentimes (not saying in your writing) like just dark, sexy guys but underneath they're just devoted puppydogs. It sometimes reminds me of when you go on a job interview and you ask someone "What is your worst trait?" and they say something bad that's also a positive, like "I'm a perfectionist."
I know this character of mine, the psychologist who's a Viocdin addict I am writing about . . . I don't think he's bad per se, but he is really far, far from believing in his own redemption. My spiritual beliefs are such that I believe if you want redemption, it's there, waiting for you to come into its light . . . but the really messed up souls, like this new character, can't believe that because life's beaten them down too much. Does that make sense?
E
sara:
Interesting!
I rarely write middle class characters. In THE ROOFER, the father is a murderer--many times over--and in one memorable dinner takes the Thanksgiving carving knife and . . . In another scene, he breaks his own son's nose (so much for peaceful family meals). I really don't know how to write "normal" or what passes as normal--and therein, believe me, I do hear it from readers who sometimes find my family dynamics fascinating but very, very far from their own experiences. As my father--and the character of the Roofer--is fond of saying, "A day without larceny is like a day without sunshine." Not the usual parental platitudes. :-)
E
karm:
I know you're really struggling with that. Maybe read some male fiction . . . see if you can find some complex good male characters to give a sense of where such men can go. Not necessarily alpha men--just complicated men. Peter Straub started out really strong (I like his stuff a lot less now), and I think his book, Koko was brilliantly done.
steve:
Oh, actually, I am content most every day. Even servant-less. :-)
As for a merry chase--I think you raise a very good point. Leaving the reader satisfied but wanting more.
E
I hope you all know that my Roboto-tron wishes were mostly tongue-in-cheek. When I was married, I did more than my share of the chores, including child care. I even enjoy that kind of thing. I would make a great SAAD.
I've only been with one person who loved me enough to massage my feet. It was very sexy, not a subserviant thing at all, and I would have gladly reciprocated. It's not a make-or-break issue for me, though, LOL.
Jude:
I know. You strike me as a rather non-chauvinst male anyway.
And for the record, I think a competent SAHD is very sexy. Though the ones I have encountered are rather like Michael Keaten in Mr. Mom--before his transformation. :-)
E
That's what I meant, SAHD.
Mr. Mom was hilarious. I think you would find me pretty competent. I can cook and do laundry and change diapers with the best of 'em. Plus, I can run a new 110 circuit if you need it. I know when to get professional help, though. Steaming wallpaper off bathroom walls, for example, is out of my league. :)
I also meant *subserviEnt.* Geez. I'm pretty domestic for a guy, but I can't spell for shit some days.
Jude:
In my new house, every room needed the wallpaper removed. My sister's husband did a few, my daughter did her room . . . and then I started feeling madness settling over me. So I hired two people to come in while I was at the beach and finish and paint. Now every room is beautifully painted and the nightmare of the fromerly astoundingly ugly wallpaper is gone.
My cousin, when he saw the old wallpaper in my master bedroom--called it "A CRANK DEN." LOL!!!!!!
Erica,
That reminds me of when I showed my friend some interior pictures of an old house I was thinking about buying. The wallpaper was hideous.
"That looks like Saddam's pad," my friend said.
I didn't buy the house. :)
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