The Alpha male revisited
I have promoted Beta males for romantic leads. A Beta
male is someone who is sensitive and celebrates the needs of other people.
Often described as a renaissance man. The publishers often ask for Alphas,
particularly Harlequin. Why? Using the Alpha formula for story often writes
itself. The stakes are raised scene by scene, the internal war to become a better
man is intense, because he’s in an environment that challenges his beliefs. The
beliefs can be considered strange to most normal human beings. The Alpha lives
in an egocentric universe in which everything he thinks and does is correct and
right. There is no moral right or wrong. It’s his way or the highway.
I have accepted a challenge from myself to write the
ultimate Alpha, since my heroes are typically Betas. I’m enjoying it to no end.
For me, it is so easy to write into every scene a shift or change in how the
hero experiences the world. His heroine is everything he hates and visa-versa.
This is extreme, a baptism of fire for me. But when I’m done, I’ll feel like I
accomplished a great deal. I already feel like I’m saving two (imaginary) souls.
This overboard feeling is warranted when a reader feels uplifted by the story,
when a reader changes his or her life because of a piece of fiction.
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