S.G. Browne

Flawed Heroes and the Quest for Purpose

CJZma5oUEAIDqQWIn my Author’s Note for Less Than Hero, I mention how the story, at its heart, is about figuring out what you’re supposed to be doing with your life.

That’s a common theme in my novels. Finding your role. Your purpose. Your reason for existence. While my stories deal with issues such as discrimination, the consumer culture, celebrity worship, and the over-medication of our society, they’re really quests by the main protagonists to find meaning in their lives.

With Breathers, Andy Warner is trying to find his purpose in a society in which he has no purpose. In Fated, Fabio is looking for meaning in his monotonous and unfulfilling immortality. In Big Egos, my identity-challenged hero is searching for the role he’s supposed to play. And in Less Than Hero, my main protagonist, Lloyd Prescott, is searching for something more than the life he’s fallen into. Call it happiness. Call it ambition. Call it passion. Whatever it is, Lloyd can’t seem to find it. He’s not exactly broken, but he’s most definitely lost.

I’m a fan of flawed heroes: protagonists who don’t have it all together or who don’t know what the hell they’re doing. As Lloyd says:

“Not everyone has their shit figured out. Sure some people do. They’re the ones who actually stick to a plan and make all the right choices and end up with the life they imagined. For others, we discover that trying to win the lottery isn’t a viable plan for living happily ever after.”

When it comes to writing fiction, I think it’s important to create characters who  struggle with their choices and their failures because we can relate to them. They’re like us: victims of inertia, lacking direction, filled with self-doubt.

Main protagonists who are perfect and who always say and do the right things are unrealistic and boring. If you want a knight in shining armor, go read a romance novel. Prince Charming isn’t wanted here.

I think part of the reason my characters are constantly looking for meaning and answers is because that’s what humans do: we search for meaning and answers in our lives. But more than that, the existential angst and motivations for my characters come from the realization that, as blossoming humans, we were sold a false bill of goods about what it would be like when we were adults.

When you’re in your teens, you look at adults and think you know more than they do about life and how to succeed at it because hey, it doesn’t look that difficult. In your early twenties you discover that you didn’t know as much as you thought you did but now that you’re an adult you’ll figure it out soon enough.

In your thirties you discover that the expectations you had of what your life would be like haven’t lived up to all of the beer commercials and romantic comedies you’ve been fed over the years.

When you get to your forties, it finally dawns on you that no one knows what the hell they’re doing. Not even your parents. Everyone’s just doing their best impersonation of Indiana Jones and making it up as they go.

So I guess in a way, my characters are trying to figure out what the hell they’re supposed to be doing because so am I. Maybe one day I’ll come up with an answer. Until then, I’ll just have to let my characters keep doing the work for me.

 

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Filed under: Less Than Hero,The Writing Life — Tags: , , , — S.G. Browne @ 8:21 pm

SDCC Less Than Hero Signings

CEfnAERUEAAwVU_You can catch me at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con signing my new superhero novel, Less Than Hero, on the following days and at the following locations:

Thursday, July 9
11:00am-11:50am
Geekscape Booth #3919

Saturday, July 11
11:00am-11:45am
Mysterious Galaxy Booth #1119

Hope to see you in San Diego!

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Filed under: Comic-Con,Conventions,Less Than Hero — Tags: , , , — S.G. Browne @ 6:43 am

San Diego Comic-Con 2015

comic-con_logoIt’s July again, which means it’s time to make my annual pilgrimage from San Francisco down to southern California for the one and only San Diego Comic-Con.

While I’m not scheduled for any panels this year, you can catch me at the Geekscape booth (#3919) on Thursday, July 9, from 11:00am to 11:50am. I’ll also be signing my new novel, Less Than Hero, at the Mysterious Galaxy booth (#1119) on Saturday, July 11, from 11:00am to 11:45am.

Every year at Comic-Con is different, with each year bringing its own unique experience. Some of my favorite memories of SDCC include: my first signing in 2009 for Breathers; the Vampires and Others panel in 2011 in front of a huge audience that turned out were all there for the Adventure Time panel that followed ours; and the Lucky Bastard signing before grabbing dinner with my editor in 2012.

But my most memorable year, hands-down, was for Big Egos in 2013. In addition to the signing at Mysterious Galaxy and a couple of fun panels (Apocalyptic Zombies, Geeks Get Published – And Paid), I was interviewed for the documentary film Doc of the Dead (now streaming on Netflix) and spent an afternoon out on the bay in a speedboat with a group of people that included close friends and people I’d just met—including one guy who did an uncanny impersonation of Christopher Walken and another who could contort his face to look like Robert De Niro.

That’s probably my favorite thing about Comic-Con: the people. Not only do I get to hang out with friends and colleagues who I haven’t seen in a year, but I get to meet new people and have the pleasure of enjoying their company.

As usual, I’m looking forward to seeing my fellow writers and friends, visiting the Simon & Schuster and Mysterious Galaxy booths, spending time on the convention floor people watching, and enjoying the energy of over 130,000 other pilgrims who will make the journey to downtown San Diego to revel in their favorite superheroes, celebrities, and TV and movie characters.

I’m even looking forward to the religious proselytizers who stand across the street from the Convention Center and tell us that we’re all going to hell for worshiping false gods. I’ve even scored a couple of Get Out of Hell Free cards from them.

Get Out of Hell

Hope to see you there!
(And by “there” I mean in San Diego, not in Hell.)

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Filed under: Comic-Con,Conventions,Less Than Hero — S.G. Browne @ 3:56 pm