GUYS WRITING ROMANCE JUNE 19, 2012
A friend of mine told me I’d have to be gay to be any good at writing romance.
A friend of mine told me I’d have to be gay to be any good at writing romance.
“You’d have to be gay to watch guys in tight clothing
tackling each other for three or four hours straight, very straight [you’d be],”
I said.
So there we were arguing during a moving moment of Project
Runway. You know, I would have liked to hear what Austin Scarlet had to say
about Mondo Guerra.
In previous posts, I talked about renaissance men, artists,
and men who have harnessed both sides of their brain, imagine that.
Hemmingway wrote ‘write what you know’ and if female writers
took his dictum too literally they’d never write male POV.
We ‘know’ through our common experiences and a good dose of
empathy. We become nearly telepathic in understanding the opposite sex and we
make up fantastic creatures that people can identify with.
Yes, we all make mistakes with the opposite sex, but that
too finds its way into our writing.
I thought I had a story to tell when I wrote my first novel
about people who lived 100,000 years ago and their wolf friends. I wasn’t
there, but I nailed it with a ton of the latest scientific research and common
sense. So we write what we know or are about to know.
When I started with RWA San Diego I entered the Spring Into
Romance contest and placed in the middle of a bunch of women (I assume). This year
I tied for fifth. So I write what I know by association with my loving chapter
mates, all the great writers at the chapter, the courses, and talks offered. I
think finishing fifth demonstrates that I can write romance.
Okay, I wasn’t really watching Project Runway with a male
friend. Most guys have a hard time understanding art as it is applied and
showcased in it’s many forms (I love that show). The most beautiful form for me being the human
female followed by my dogs of course.
