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OK, I finally have a story idea after brainstorming–and procrastinating.  Now I am officially in the character development phase of writing.  In “First Draft in 30 Days,” you are supposed to create character sketches for each of the main players in your story.  The protagonist, at least in my case, is often based on the writer–who the wrtier is, was, or hopes to be.  Crazy Italian, Polish, German, French Canadian Woman from Detroit.  Done.  Now the hard part for me is coming up with the love interest.  I don’t exactly have the best track record with men and if you ask my closest friends, they will tell you that I always pick the wrong men. 

But this is a story, a novella (hopefully a novel), fiction, chick-lit.  I can make the love interest my ideal man.  It doesn’t have to be a man from my past or the current man in my life.  It could be a combination of all of the men in my life–the best qualities of course.  There are reasons why I fell for certain men–the love interest could have those qualities I adored. 
Or I could pick the qualities of men in other literary works–men I would fall for, like Joe Morelli in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books or Gilbert Blythe in the Anne of Green Gables books.
Or I could pick men from my favorite movies, like Prince Henry in “Ever After” or a bad boy turned hero like Han Solo.  Ah, hell, I could pick any part played by Johnny Depp–my all time favorite fantasy husband.
Suddenly I feel like I should be answering one of those relationship website questionaires–“What do you look for in a man? Is he the boy next door or is he the bad boy on the motorcycle?”  My answer would probably coincide with Anne Shirley’s “I would like it if he could be wicked but chooses not to be.” 
The perfect man: A mixture of Han Solo, Gilbert Blythe, Johnny Depp and Joshua Jackson.  Meaning a gun-wielding boy next door with dark-hair and of medium height (taller than me) who can be wicked when he wants to be, goofy when he wants to be, melancholy when he wants to be, romantic when he wants to be and loves hockey.
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