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NEW PARIS BOOK IN PROGRESS IN 2024: WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER HERO OR DO WE? – Blog  14

My next book is in progress …

MARTINA NICOLLS

Mar 30

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Heroes, heroes, heroes – heroines, heroines, heroines – blah, blah, blah. Martina, people ask me, “We don’t need another hero, or do we?” Admittedly, the people asking the question are my Mad Max fans from Australia. They are quoting from the 1985 Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome post-apocalyptic movie with Tina Turner’s iconic character Aunty Entity and her theme song “We Don’t Need Another Hero” written by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten. The song topped the music charts in Australia, Canada, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany.

Now that my friends ask, and I remember the lyrics, the song would make a wonderful anthem for my emerging Paris Book – female hero; out of the ruins … living under the fear (of Brexit and the pandemic); looking for something we can rely on; there’s gotta be something better out there; ooh, love and compassion their day is coming … it goes on and on. The song culminates in Tina Turner’s thunderous chorus, We don’t need another hero / We don’t need to know the way home / All we want is life beyond Thunderdome. That’s it – all we want is life beyond Thunderdome.

Brilliant guys – thanks for the memories.

Do I have an answer?

The answer is in the song. Gosh, what a brilliant song. The last verse is the answer. To be exact, it is the question – answer – question – answer:

So, what do we do with our lives?

We leave only a mark

Will our story shine like a light or end in the dark?

Give it all or nothing

The hero, heroine, protagonist, main character etc. is the star of the show. Everything happens around the hero, or heroes – the plot, the action, the dialogue.

The hero doesn’t decide to be a hero. The hero is not necessarily like the heroes in comic books who rescue and save people. The hero lives a life and things happen in that life that make him or her the centre of the story.

The hero is relatable because the hero has a goal, an aim in life (although he or she could begin aimlessly and get a goal after realizing life is meaningless without one – or something like that). The hero has purpose, with obstacles and hurdles, and life lessons, and (hopefully) victories.

Therefore, in some way, the hero lives a normal life until something happens – in her life, in everyone’s life, in society etc. – and she is tested. She has to find courage. She has to find solutions. She has to get out of a mess or a mire or a mistake or a monumental challenge. From that, she learns, she evolves, she changes, she grows, she becomes stronger and wiser.

To evolve, does she need to show resilience, bravery, guts, fortitude? Does she need to face danger, idiots, bureaucracy, or the devil inside? Does she do this through luck, strategy, help, wit, wisdom, or some other means? When things look bleak, does she give up and go home (no shame in that, just saying) or does she keep going until the next hurdle and the next?

I have to keep all this in mind as I write. And thankfully my creative friends ask friendly literary questions. It is not that there is or isn’t a hero in the story, it is about how the hero becomes an interesting story.

Next year, 2025, Aunty Entity from Thunderdome will be 40 years old, and yes, I will remember her because she leaves a mark in my life story, beyond my heroine’s Thunderdome.

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Photographer: Martina Nicolls