Guest Post by YA Author Sara Hubbard (In Which She Discusses Boys!)

I’m so excited to be a guest on Writing Belle today. When Summer agreed to hosting me I had no clue what to talk about so I went to her blog for inspiration and voila! Chris Hemsworth was on her main page as her Hero of the Month! How could I not be inspired! So I got to thinking about my idea of a swoon-worthy hero, both inside and out, and came up with a list of traits. Some of them very much resemble the hero in my debut novel, Blood, She Read, but some of them also resemble my villain. What can I say? I love the bad guys—in theory, of course. I’ve found from personal experience, relationships with bad boys aren’t always the healthiest. They can be downright toxic, but by geeze, they make you reconsider your stance when they’re standing right in front of you, or hanging out in your head waiting to have their turn to speak in your novels.
So, in my opinion, what makes a great hero?
Personality: he has to have one! There is nothing worse than a hero without a personality or without motivation and goals. Also, he has to be strong and definitely vulnerable. I like it when heros are only vulnerable or capable of change when the RIGHT girl walks into their life. Let’s face it, as much as we don’t want to admit it, who wouldn’t want to be responsible for an about-turn in a bad boy?
My great hero has to be protective. Now, I’m a military girl so I can fend for myself and fire an automatic weapon, but I like it when guys try to be your knight in shining armor. I will tell them to back off and it’s not necessary, but deep down I’ll be smiling.
He has to have flaws. There MUST be a reason for why the hero is the way he is. If he’s emotionally unavailable then I need to know why. I dig into my characters quite a bit. Sometimes I write scene after scene for my minor characters even though I know those scenes will never be published. Getting into a hero’s tortured head and discovering what makes them tick only helps me to fall deeper in love with them and to root for them to overcome their difficulties. The hero in Blood, She Read has his flaws, and so does the villain, but there are reasons why they are the way they are. Writing about Tommy made me root for him so much in this book, although you might not feel the same way. You’ll get to know him much more in the sequel.
Physical Traits: he has to be beautiful. This doesn’t mean he has to be model-pretty, but he has to be big and strong and capable of fending for himself and the girl he loves, if need be. Also, I have zero tattoos but a hot gay with tats can be seriously jaw dropping in a book or a movie. In Blood, She Read, my hero is tall, dark and handsome and stronger than your average guy. Other than Chris Hemsworth as Thor or the Huntsman, one swoon-worthy guy that meets all of my must-haves for a great hero is Eric Northman. Okay, I just sighed as I typed his name. Yes, he affects me this much! In case you don’t recognize the name, Eric is a character in the Sookie Stackhouse Novels and the True Blood series on television. In real life, he’s Alexander Skarsguard and seriously hot. Check him out and you’ll agree!

So now you’ve read all about what I like in a hero, I’m curious to know about your must haves. Leave a comment and tell me all about him.