Ask a male author about your male character traits or thoughts.

Amazon links to my stories: The Chess Master, Cinnamon & Sugar, Autumn Breeze, A More Perfect Union, Double Happiness, The Wolves of Sherwood Forest, Neanderthals and the Garden of Eden can be found down the right side of the blog. Another site very useful in categorizing books in their proper order is: https://www.booksradar.com/richard-rw/richard.html


Visit my website at: https://rwrichardnet.wordpress.com/

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Guys writing romance June 19, 2012

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.

“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.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Men say less and think less? June 12, 2012

June 12, 2012
Men say less and think less. What?

In the June 2012 addition of RWR (which also stands for Robert W. Richard) Nancy Gideon wrote an excellent article on POV. At one point she writes, “Men’s dialogue and thoughts are sparse, women’s descriptive and complex.”

Well I don’t know what to say or think.

I get where she’s coming from. Editors expect delivered to them this tradition. I decided to ask Einstein if he didn’t speak much or think. He wasn’t available. In a previous blog of mine I postulated (this is a rebellious blog site FYI) that when a man isn’t talking (much) he’s thinking. To be fair we all think while we talk. So I’ll grant you that women speak more. It’s a well-studied and statistical fact. In my experience, men do a whole lot of thinking. I’d hazard to guess men think as much as women (dare they). Ask me, I might not say much, but I am surely thinking about something, perhaps that Hockey final.

Don’t go changing your manuscripts. Romance is read primarily by women and your editor is the boss. On the other hand, wouldn’t your readers like to get (on) in the head of some hunk? Someday however stand up for your lettered Renaissance man.

If you’d like to see men translating their interior monologue into speech you should catch last night’s episode of The Bachelorette. It’s a classic for this purpose and if you know Emily Maynard and her six-year-old daughter, well, carry a hanky. For those romance authors who don’t like The Bachelorette or Bachelor I humbly recommend it as a treasure trove of dialogue, and interior monologue.

Finishing with a funny: Jennifer Aniston loves the Bachelor/ette but starred in a spoof of it called Burning Love.



Jennifer Aniston Makes Hilarious Appearance In ‘The Bachelor’ Spoof
Created 06/05/2012 - 6:30pm

By Radar Staff
We never thought that we would catch Jennifer Aniston on a dating show!
The former Friend, who has never been bashful about her fascination with The Bachelor, made a surprise guest appearance on the Ben Stiller produced web series Burning Love – a spoof of the popular reality show – dressing up in a bear costume and competing for the ‘final hose’ against The Hangover star Ken Jeong, Kristen Bell and Malin Akerman - and RadarOnline.com has the hilarious video.
PHOTOS: Jennifer Aniston Through The Years