It’s Mischief Night, and it got me to thinking about making mischief and taking risks. In my personal life, I am the dullest person imaginable: never caused my parents any stress (at least, I don’t think so–they were usually causing me stress), never pulled an all-nighter, never had a wild period. And no, the purple hair does not count as a wild period.
Which, I guess, is why I write fiction. In fiction, I get to create all kinds of mischief, from heroines disguising their true motives to heroes going determinedly after what they want, to villains not playing fair. After all, how much fun would it be to read about characters who do exactly what they’re supposed to? Not much fun at all. Boring, in fact.
So I like my characters, whether I’m writing or reading them, to be a little bit wild. Mischievous. Risky. If I could be a character from Regency fiction, I’d probably pick Jessica Trent from Lord Of Scoundrels. Actually, I’d probably be happy being any one of Loretta Chase’s heroines: tough, no-nonsense women who are uncharacteristically flummoxed by the hero. Yum.
Who would you like to make mischief as?
I’d make mischief as Emma Woodhouse — because no matter what she did, everything still thought she was perfect. Talk about getting away with murder! 🙂
Cara
A good topic, Megan. I think writers are often brave in their imaginations but kinda timid in the physical world — though the romance field is so chockful of women from military, cop, jet-pilot etc backgrounds, that I have to scream that yes I know it’s a generalization.
In any case I am brave in my imagination and timid in the physical world. And when I wrote an erotic, non-romance novel 12 years ago, I wrote about myself — just as nerdy, but younger and much thinner, who entered a secret sexual demimonde, armed only with her booksmarts and sense of humor. It was sort of a paean to the sexual imagination and its freedoms (and a sendoff of people who don’t believe that such freedoms should exist).
Very true–I’m a bit shy in real life, so I like writing (and reading) about intrepid heroines. I gave some thought to which “risky” heroine I might like to be for a while, and found that it was harder than I imagined it would be. (Plus, Megan already took Jessica Trent!). I think I’d like to be Madeleine in Adele Ashworth’s Winter Garden. She was a spy, not a shrinking virgin, plus the yummy hero was totally in love with her. 🙂
If I could be an Austen heroine, I’d like to be Elizabeth Bennett. She was smart and witty and self-confident, plus she ends up with Mr. Darcy and Pemberley. How can you beat that??? (Though a funny quiz I took once said I was most like Marianne Dashwood. That wouldn’t be too bad, either, if I could take a break from spouting poetry once in a while and Brandon was always played by Alan Rickman)
This is a very good question for me, Megan, because I don’t know!
It’s making me think about kick-butt heroines, though. I enjoy horseback riding, skiing and scuba diving, so you’d think I would write more active heroines. But so far my heroines enjoy walking and riding but aren’t especially physically brave.
My problem with some Regency era kick-butt heroines is that I can’t believe someone who fences occasionally with her brother will have the skills necessary to best master-swordsmen, for instance. Maybe it’s because I’ve actually tried some of these things that I find it hard to believe it’s that easy?
But maybe it would be fun to try a kick-butt Regency heroine sometime…
Elena