The Ugly Truth

I saw The Ugly Truth starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler a couple of nights ago, and I loved it.

Gerard Butler's character, Mike Chadway, was crass and a bit of a pervert, but when Katherine Heigl's character fell in love with him, I wasn't surprised. In fact, despite the presence of a prettier and more, shall we say, polished male lead, I was rooting for Mike Chadway the whole time.

When the movie ended, I sat up and wondered, "How the hell did The Ugly Truth make me start rooting for someone like Mike Chadway?"

I couldn't believe it, especially since his rival (in the movie) looked like this:

Isn't he pretty?

For me, Mike Chadway was a different kind of romantic hero. He's not the kind of guy you'll fall in love with at first sight, but stick around and you'll surely love him.

In a movie where I was already expecting a happy ending, it was a breath of fresh air.

Romance, as a genre, is already a bit predictable. The readers (or audience) already expect a happy ending. The challenge is how to make it new, and to search for that kind of hero who's not too perfect but just right.

Like Mike Chadway, for example.

I've been asking myself the past couple of days how I could make my heroes refreshing. It seems like it's all been done before. There was even an article about the different hero archetypes (the alpha, the bad boy, the lost soul, etc).

What about you? How can you come up with a new kind of romantic hero?