This blog is for educational purposes (although I feel like I learn just as much from your comments). Dig into the male POV (point of view) for hero and supporting cast, for good guys, bad and inbetween. Find gems or alternate ways of writing male POV.
This blog has changed. I will be writing about what I fancy.
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
In real life and in some of our romances, the man adores the
woman. This man dedicates himself to making her life better moment by moment.
This brings him joy. This is a man who gets the meaning of life. Men and women were made for each other.
Most couples in fiction and real life do not adore each
other. The man considers love (an active verb) hard work. Work he enjoys.
Some men have an edge. They struggle to balance their needs
versus the needs of their partner. Perhaps they are doing important work, some
project or devotion to the greater good of mankind. Can’t blame him. We can
write him.
The edge often shows up in little or big spats, as clashes
over the direction of the partnership. This is inevitable.
It can be unhealthy if anger enters the equation. It is
unhealthy if anger mixes with domination of any kind. We can’t write that, can
we?
Every facet of a man and woman’s relationship is fair game
in romance fiction, but in order to achieve an HEA one has to show change from
bad to good.
What kind of relationship do you have? What kind of relationship do you prefer to write?
Don’t we all want to be loved? A dashing fellow comes along,
tells our heroine everything a woman would want to hear, to make love to her.
He doesn’t mean it, at least partially (he wears a gray hat). She worries if
she’ll ever have the most beautiful feeling a human can have on this planet.
She lingers. She submerges warning signs. She gives him extra chances. Why?
Possibly, she desperately wants a HEA (happily ever after) and no one is
standing in line. Her mom and dad nurtured her, she deserves it all, she’s a
princess and her prince will show up someday, she’s beautiful, smart, funny,
loving…
The hero is also not immune to worrying about finding a mate
and love. A woman could come on to him seeing a meal ticket (not that women can’t
or shouldn’t be self-sufficient), settling for mister-right in front of her, reacting
only to her lust...
This is all good for a
writer’s arc if you choose to write a bad boy story. I would recommend
borrowing from inspirational romances. The lesson should not be: it is okay to
marry a bad person, unless you are a nihilist. If you are, why not write tragedies.
Why
would ripping a song apart help our writing? Most songs don’t have time for much of an
arc, if any. They do have time for pathos or an emotion we can identify with. Better
songs have a clear meaning as veneer, with undercurrents to satisfy the most
intellectual listener. A writer of prose can accomplish this through showing mixed with
dialogue and a pinch of dissonance.
There
are many great examples of songs that just get to the listeners at a gut level,
and they hardly know why. They just know they love the song. One such song,
poorly named, Sukiyaki, was a huge
hit long ago. It’s lyrics and lyrical quality are matched by the vocalist’s efforts. “Let’s look up
as we walk, so that the tears don’t spill.”
Justin
Timberlake’s, Can’t Stop the Feeling
is more complex but just as elemental. In the song, he sings that his dance
partner knows what he’s going through because she is feeling it too. Yet he is
not 100% certain she understands what is happening to them so he asks her to
break it down. It need not be a dance or a trip to the supermarket. It's everyman anywhere. They’re in
love, they know it and they can’t stop their feelings. Why would they want to?
Well, herein lies the intrigue. Is it a case of forbidden love? Or is their
love too soon for a commitment? Or is it just human nature? We the listener decide how to interpret it. One
thing many know of this hit. They can’t stop loving this song. The same applies
to our writing, right?
Layer your writing. If you think Justin doesn't realize he's going deep, it's possible. He may be an unconscious competent. That's creative talent, well practiced.
Before you run for the hills, as I know some of you are not
reality TV fans, listen up. ABC Family,
now called, Freeform is offering Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After? on
Tuesday night at 8PM.
I cannot recommend this, so obviously scripted, show to
anyone who wants to check out reality TV offerings, unless you’re a diehard The Bachelor or The Bachelorette fan. Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell are so
obviously in love, are so gorgeous a couple and have sdo much to offer each
other, that I’ll eat my hat if any of the worries the show’s producers try to
throw our way work out to be remotely “real.” If you are struggling for a
definition of love or how a young couple should act, these two are the real
deal.
Aside from watching fake drama, and knowing it, I can’t not
watch. I never watch happily ever after the after shows or read such books, not
just because they are labeled Chick Flicks or women’s fiction. As an example,
on Hallmark last night, the Good Witch
premiered its latest in the series. My wife and I agreed, it dragged. The plot
was all too familiar, the romantic arc for the witch revolved around one line
of dialogue at the end of the show, “I thought of you, last night.”
Okay, this will be my first bad review. I’m sure the show
was fun for those steeped in the Witch’s lore. Call me a sap, but I like plots
that revolve around happily ever afters (and many men do).
I’m not going to dig deeply into religious faith, but to
say, for most of us, faith is stronger or weaker at any given moment and for
some nonexistent.
When our heroine and hero have faith in each other’s love, it
is a beautiful thing. If only one has this faith, then it is misplaced or
delusional. Most of us have insecurities that prevent us from ever being
absolutely sure we are loved, like we love back. Isn’t it healthy to harbor a
bit of skepticism? The return for allowing yourself to fall head over heels in
love in the knowledge that your hero/heroine feels the same, is a deep sense of
achievement and commitment. We are not meant to be alone so why think that way?
Some say complete faith in the other is a sign of fanaticism/zealotry. Some portray
a lack of complete faith by showing signs of jealousy, fear and pushing away.
It’s sometimes the arc and how the writer uses it to show
growth or it can simply be a character trait. It could be that the hero or
heroine sees faith in the other’s love as a mystical connection, making them
greater than 1+1=2. They’ll believe in soul mates for the same reason. But, you
don’t need these crutches. Yes, human beings thrive on fear. It is what keeps
us alive. But don’t we aspire to more than survival? Can’t we touch the eternal
truths? God blessed you if you (your character) have a love like this. If you
write this type of character, your book might not be labeled inspirational, but
it is damn close.
In the past, we have discussed logic and emotion as they
pertain to making decisions and reached the conclusion that they balanced. NPR has
recently broadcast, and various scientific communities have published, stating
that emotion trumps logic. Humans are social, they contract with each other socially.
They tend not to listen to a third person trying to correct something based on
logic.
And when emotion is amped up, how will it affect your
protagonists? Let’s take the case of exercise or sports (and there many more positive emotional situations). If the hero and
heroine are finishing off a tennis match, dancing or walking out of an aerobics
class, they are because of endorphins, more social, more bonded to each other.
Whatever attraction there was is greater in these situations. If you write this
type of scene, you may want to explore what happens to the wannabe or actual couple
when they are down off their endorphin highs. How they progress, where does
logic help them make decisions to move forward?
It is useful to note that heightened endorphin situations
lead to sex and declarations of love. It’s hardly anything you need explain,
but may want to, because not everybody gets it. I have to stop writing now, so
I won’t be late for Zumba.
Rich and Columbia were lovers. They were engaged. Rich started
exhibiting strange behaviors or red flags. Columbia thought he had put his
prejudices behind him. I know, romances don’t usually start after a promise to
marry, so let’s call this one a possible tragedy.
The trouble started when Rich complained about Columbia, a gorgeous
Hispanic woman, gaining a bit of weight. He professed his love for her was
based on her wit, smarts, heart, and yes, her looks. But she still looked very
good. She felt ashamed and tried to live up to his wishes and was winning the
battle, in spite of being influenced now by a negative image of herself.
Rich’s pat phrase when pressed scared her, “He/she/they
deserve it.” Columbia, a judge, heard this in court all the time when a
physical or mental abuser would try to defend himself. She wondered how she
could have missed the obvious signs that first showed as simple, driven to
succeed, banter. She knew there was a fine line between success at work and
ignoring ethical standards. She had at times struggled herself with knotty
issues. But her faith and common sense always brought her back to the golden
rule. He even suggested she couldn’t be fair because of her heritage. He Apologized,,
but she was rapidly becoming completely disenchanted.
Then he started to complain about minorities of all types in
an unending stream of insults. Talk about fatal flaws. Can Rich reform and
really love Columbia, would anybody care at this point? Yes, Rich had many
friends. They still cared, thought he could be saved. Wished him well. Will he
change? Will he love her? You decide.
