Okay, Listen Here

Okay, Listen Here

Monday, November 1, 2010

Alpha Males and Owning the Room


I have a little trouble writing an alpha male, though I think Stephanie and I are knee deep right now in the most alpha alpha male we've ever created. He probably still isn't quite alpha enough to suit her but he's about all I can stand. I like a little softness, a little sweetness, a little cuddle.

She likes issues, guns, and barbed wire maces. Nathan Scott is hers. She even made me change his name to something with harder consonants, though I don't remember what it was originally. But I am liking him. Okay. That's a lie. I am loving him. You have to love your hero if anyone else has a prayer of it. This is how I got there. I had to let him break my heart. He had to lose everything in the most unfair way possible for me to accept how he behaves toward the heroine.

And I had to let him quietly own the room. You know what I'm talking about. He's that person who everyone looks at when he walks in. He doesn't take the room; he has it to begin with.

This is what the heroine thought about him—though she really didn't want to think about him at all. She couldn't help it. He owned the room.

Nathan was the kind of man who walked into a room like he knew the world was waiting for him—loose hipped, head high, half smiling with eyes half closed and looking at no one. He made his way toward the microphone in the middle of the gym floor as if he was alone and he had until next Tuesday to get there.

It's the way George Strait walks on a stage and how Peyton Manning walks off a football field.

Do you love an alpha male? How do you get in his head? Can you think of anyone who owns the room?

16 comments:

  1. Peyton Manning! Yes! ;)

    Oh, alpha males are my fav. All my heroes are alpha males. I don't think I can write any other kind. They're heroic, centered on duty, honor, country, and refuse to give up, though there may be times they consider it. When they love, they love with every part of their being. No holding back on anything they undertake. Yes, the alpha... a good thing.

    I can think of a lot of alphas, Gerrard Butler, Johnny Depp, Chris Evans, John Wayne, Sylvester Stalone, Ronald Reagan, Patton, McArthur, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Mitchum, Cameron Newton and last but certainly not least, my hubby.

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  2. I agree with you about the alpha males with the exception of Cam Newton, which is not slam on your team. He's too eager and too pleased with life to be an alpha male. He's also a boy. Of course, I think Peyton Manning was probably not an alpha male at that age either.

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  3. I adore alpha males, especially the ones in Sherrilyn Kenyon's Darkhunter series. Acheron is, to me, the epitomy of the alpha male. I also think they are hard to write - yes hard - because you don't want to go too far with their vulnerability (that which makes you like them). They still must remain strong, aloof and yet tender.

    Sean Connery - I am sure when he walks into a room he owns it. With his height, his voice and his looks every woman will turn her head to watch him. Also, Sylvester Stalone, Johnny Depp and Hugh Jackman...

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  4. I'm with you, Jean. I like a little softness. My hero in The Healer's Apprentice is tough but sweet. He's a warrior but then he's also a musician. He maybe doesn't own a room the way his father (who is all alpha male) but he makes every woman in it melt!

    I'm afraid I may be incapable of coming up with alpha male heroes. One of my heroes, the one in my Beauty and the Beast story, comes across as an alpha male at first. He's harsh and seems uncaring, but then the reader--and the heroine--realize he's really soft-hearted. He's also an artist. Gosh, I really don't write alpha male heroes, I guess!

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  5. I think you know my opinion on this topic. ;) Give me the alpha all day long. They are exactly as Kathy said. It's all those qualities, along with the way the heroine metaphorically brings them to their knees, that make for a yummy read. I love seeing the alpha male fall in love. I love writing it. I'm a sucker for the man who owns the room.

    Seriously, as Kim has said in the past (quoting something I can't remember), there's no challenge in bringing Robin to his knees. Batman, however, is a whole different story.

    And now I must get back to my latest alpha, who is currently turning the heroine's world upside down.....

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  6. Oh yes! I love an alpha! And like Lynn, I love seeing them fall in love. Aaah, there's nothing quite like it. :-D

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  7. Cheryl--I have to agree about Sean, though I am not as enamored with him as most women are. He is definitely in charge--and so is James Bond. I think it was in that old book "Real Men Don't eat Quiche" where a I read something like "A woman doesn't want a man who talks about his feelings. She just says she does. She wants a man who gets up walks toward the door and then says over his shoulder, 'Well, are you coming?'"

    Melanie--I guess I have had trouble making the distinction between alpha male and jerk--but I'm getting there.

    Lynn--Oh, yes. But I think Robin will grow into an alpha male. Boys can't be alpha males--even Boy Wonders.

    Sherry--In the end they go soft, don't they? Even if it is just with "her".

    Now, if we were men, who among us would be alpha males? I'm not sure about myself.

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  8. Just as with Lynn, I think everyone knows how I feel about the Alpha male. I love him!!
    Jean is correct, I love Nathan Scott and all of his alpha male buddies.

    I had to laugh when I read this because I am indeed reading one book with barbed wire and one book with guns right now!

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  9. Jean - I would definitely be an alpha male - I am already an alpha female. LOL In all honesty, I try to appear tough but am a marshmallow inside unless...

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  10. I'd be an alpha male. I'm already a driven, obsessive, controlling alpha female. Not a stretch to be an alpha male then. :) Though, like Cheryl, I'm mushy on the inside too.

    Except when the boy trick or treating said he didn't want the candy he'd gotten, he wanted something else. I'm afraid I wasn't very mushy then. Since when is it okay to tell someone giving you free candy that you want something else instead? I'd have never dreamed of it when I was a kid. Manners have died, I'm afraid.

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  11. I'd be an Alpha Male too. Just because I'd want to be. LOL! Most ambitious, driven, perfectionist personalities are. Or am I crazy?

    But if I was a man, I'd want to be like Gerrard Butler!

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  12. Lynn--Unless that kid was under four, he should be banned from Trick or Treating. The youth today. . . .

    Kathy--I don't know. I barely have this a. male thing.

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  13. Of course, there's always the Alfafa male. ;)

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  14. Lynn--Then he needs to be sent to charm school. I wish the federal government would give me the authority to send to people to charm school. I would take on a few deputies and you would be one.

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