Coffee, Directions, & The Alpha Male

Happy Thursday All,

Tomorrow is the eve before the Conference (sounds like a Christmas book title, huh?) Which is pretty exciting...although nothing penetrates the haze of sleepiness until the caffeine breaks through and takes affect.

Okay, I know not all writers are coffee drinkers, but the majority I've met/know are (on some level). Some of us will admit to not being at our best before that first cup of java hits our system.

Sure, we might have 5 ideas jumping around in our heads from some great dream we had or something that's been bugging us (see the Gnat entry from a few days ago for info on that) but things aren't going to fall into place if we're bleary eyed from lack of caffeine.

The good news is the story gnat is finally starting to stick around long enough for me to get a picture of what's been poking around in my imagination (whether a good idea or not, it's still something I want to play with and see what happens and see if it is a workable story idea).

Can you imagine a decaffeinated author?

The heroine might end up walking into a tree and staying in a coma for the rest of her life.

Or the hero might actually stop for directions, which is very un-alpha male of him--if you go with stereotypes anyway. 

But let's imagine the hero asking for directions whether it's alpha male of him or not:

Would we like Duncan MacLeod from Highlander quite so much if he was asking for directions all the time instead of beating the crap out of the bad guy?

Or what about Mr. Darcy? He never asked for directions. He would've been the one giving directions.

I imagine, however, if we female authors are driving around with our alpha males lost for eternity, we will, in fact, push said alpha males to stop for directions. Either that, or demand he stops the car and go in and ask for a map ourselves.

But I can't see any alpha males in our stories stopping for a map or directions. They're too busy kicking butt and winning the girl. Although, emotionally, some of them might need an atlas--except that wouldn't make the story half so engrossing, would it? 

You tell me :-)

Have A Thoughtful Thursday!