The male point of view in romance novels.

I started this blog years ago, in my mind, to correct misinformation about the male POV.

In so many romance novels men were treated as Alpha beasts attracted to large breasts and more simple in their thoughts. Therefore, suggesting that they think less, certainly speak less (true on the average), and let their penis decide issues.

I displayed alternative ways of writing the male character. I suggested renaissance thinking as a possibility for a mindset, that a decent percentage of men preferred an Audrey Hepburn to a Marilyn Monroe.

And now* I recommend men who support the ‘me too’ movement, racial equality, religious freedom, gender issues, and choices, etc. If you are stuck on alpha men, why not nuance them with these?

All humans have flaws, and all the better they show up in a novel as something that will change perhaps with the help of his or her opposite.

And as a suggestion, here's a quote from Writer's Digest: "Because a romance involves a man and a woman, each character participates in the development of the romance and the resolution of the conflicts." Write on.

*I've always felt this way.

Cultural appropriation

Wiki: Cultural appropriation is the adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from minority cultures….

Did I appropriate, which sort of rhymes with propagate, my Filipina wife, lol. I remember some people telling me I shouldn’t mix tribes because that’s what the Bible teaches. Believe me, I was not impressed by that argument. It’s a false read, often used by the KKK.

As authors, do we have a responsibility to not write about other cultures than our own? Of course not. If so all fiction would be auto-biographical. I can’t tell you where that leaves the sci-fi people. Words would be banned because they’re all appropriated.

Seriously though—do write stories with sensitivity, but don’t buy into you were never a dog so how can you write using a dog’s point of view? My first book had a wolf POV and I loved every word I wrote. My first book also went back in time 100,000 so I guess I appropriated Neanderthals and peoples leaving Africa. No one complained.

They call America a melting pot for a reason.

Query letters

Queries are hard to write. The only way to know if you got it right is if an agent asks you to send a full manuscript. This is the email query I sent that made an agent ask for a full and who knows if they'll like it.

Dear xxxxx,

We met at, or I know you from, or we share a common interest in fiction about multi-culturalism.

I often write about beautiful, smart heroines from marginalized communities. My story is like a contemporary version of The Queen's Gambit but more realistic—as a chess master I know if you want to win, drugs or alcohol will stop you. [This reference comes from The Queen's Gambit. If the agent doesn't get it, then to my way of thinking he/she isn't right for this project.]

My publisher The Wild Rose Press doesn’t do coming-of-age stories. The Chess Master, a 66,000-word contemporary is a novel set first in Camden NJ then NYC. A little black girl, Tayshia, from a rundown neighborhood, loses her daddy but keeps him in her heart primarily through memories of playing chess with him.

It is also a story about her two sisters, brother, Mom, the family’s friends, and an ex-spy who all travel the journey with her as she xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. The ex-spy must eliminate his nemesis xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Roadblocks confront them on the journey but it is her growth that is the crux of the story.

Sami Robinson, a woman of color, and author of Broken Toy has collaborated with me on the story. Sami is at: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxgmail.com.

The ms. has been endorsed and edited by Doctor Leroy Dubeck, former United States Chess Federation President, Cy Lakdawala, pre-eminent author of 50 chess books published through Everyman Chess and/or New in Chess, and Ann Robson, a gifted author who belongs to my critique group. I am an RWA member and have held board positions with RWASD (San Diego). Check in with my editor at The Wild Rose Press Judi Mobley at judi@thewildrosepress.com if you like. Leroy and Cy are renowned influencers in chess. I too have a strong chess following.

ABC’s The Bachelorette

Lately ABC seems to think that spicing up the show with late entries is the way to grow market share. I did my master’s thesis on this subject and made formulas to suggest a better approach. I know I can’t match the various full time specialists who tweak things.

But everybody I know who enjoys the Bachelor franchise says the same thing. They’re attracted to true love because true love is what everybody wants in their lives and they don't like the tricks. The number of tricks ABC employs should be inversely proportional to audience share.

I am the man who argues with himself. On the other hand, in a romance novel, there are always roadblocks, that come along and seem to spell disaster for the couple or about to be couple. The ‘couple,’ we all want to see together if the story is written properly. But are the tricks and trops the same thing. I think not. Because fiction is different than reality, right?. Fiction takes us to unlikely heights whereas most people live by their hearts and rather than count the bumps on their journey they recount the joy of loving someone.

This season had a guy in the final four who floored me with his irrationality. He walked off because Katie wouldn’t declare her love, no matter how many assurances she gave. Damn, he’s on a show in which he knows that the bachelorette must keep her feelings close to her vest out of respect for the other three men left.

So did ABC go wrong with its tricks? Actually you decide by turning on or tuning out. If you watch, it is likely you’ll see a train wreck rather than a love story. If you like train wrecks rent the movie The Fugitive. If you love love, well let’s hope for Katie’s sake that it comes together for her tomorrow night.

Stimulus, organism(s), response

One way and a very good way of writing is to always keep SOR in your thoughts and have it show up on the page.

It could be simple things. I’m currently in my third draft of The Chess Master. Here I copy a scene into Natural Reader (the free version is good enough) I listen and read along as it speaks and take notes. You not only catch missing periods, etc. but catch stilted sentences, missing reactions, or ways to enrich the story.

Not everything written need be reacted to by the other person on the receiving end of the remark or question. Sometimes it’s better to leave the obvious to the imagination of the reader. Especially at the end of a scene.

Stimulus: Something physical and/or mental is happening to your character.

Organism: The body and/or the mind reacts, which must be true to human nature and your character(s). If your character is not human, I always say, wow. That is hard, rewarding, and fun.

Response: Use body language to describe the response unless it is the POV character. The POV character can observe the body language, speculate on its meaning (or not), and also have some body language sprinkled in depending on how in depth you want the action of the moment to go. The none-POV character however can carry it further with extended reactions. Perhaps a fight ensues.

So I listen to my story and I note that the littlest girl in the family does not say anything while an older sister teases her. Okay that’s simple, but I forgot. So the mere sticking out of her tongue enriched the story.

The MacGuffin

The MacGuffin is a plot device. Wiki: “The MacGuffin(McGuffin) is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself.

Director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term MacGuffin and the technique with his 1935 film The 39 Steps, an early example of the concept. Hitchcock explained the term MacGuffin in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University in New York City:

It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men on a train. One man says, 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?' And the other answers, 'Oh, that's a MacGuffin'. The first one asks, 'What's a MacGuffin?' 'Well,' the other man says, 'it's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.' The first man says, 'But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands,' and the other one answers, 'Well then, that's no MacGuffin!' So you see that a MacGuffin is actually nothing at all.

Bob: But it is often something. In Pyscho, it’s the money stolen from the bank by a supporting character. In the Maltese Falcon, it’s the bird, which happens to be fake. In a romance, it could be a never-sent love letter, a lost charm, a mythical pearl. It drives the plot. Often it is a good substitute for horrible things happening to the hero or heroine, IMO. Why, because some stories are primarily interior driven. Since we need some action to propel the story and characters forward and something visual other than their pretty faces etc., the McGuffin serves as a focal point for the readers as an important reason to keep reading. There is some contention over whether the audience cares about the fate of the McGuffin. Hitchcock says no. Lucas says yes. I say it depends on how your story is written and what you hope to achieve. I like a novel in which there is a “b” story surrounding the McGuffin. In The Maltese Falcon, the bird represents greed and how far men will compromise their morals. So the “b” story is the corruption of men.

As my grandson informed me, it is important not to confuse the McGuffin with the McMuffin.

It’s a matter of taste.

I'm so tensed up

 

Verb Tenses exerpted from Grammarly

Verbs come in three tenses: past, present, and future. The past is used to describe things that have already happened (e.g., earlier in the day, yesterday, last week, three years ago). The present tense is used to describe things that are happening right now, or things that are continuous. The future tense describes things that have yet to happen (e.g., later, tomorrow, next week, next year, three years from now).

The following table illustrates the proper use of verb tenses:

Simple Present	Simple Past	Simple Future
I read nearly every day.	Last night, I read an entire novel.	I will read as much as I can this year.
Present Continuous	Past Continuous	Future Continuous
I am reading Shakespeare at the moment.	I was reading Edgar Allan Poe last night.	I will be reading Nathaniel Hawthorne soon.
Present Perfect	Past Perfect	Future Perfect
I have read so many books I can’t keep count.	I had read at least 100 books by the time I was twelve.	I will have read at least 500 books by the end of the year.
Present Perfect Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous	Future Perfect Continuous
I have been reading since I was four years old.	I had been reading for at least a year before my sister learned to read.	I will have been reading for at least two hours before dinner tonight.

I’ve been writing for years and never knew there were so many variations on tense. Typical critique group comments go something like get rid of “was” in was drinking and write drank. Something always bothered me about it but I did not protest. The bother was in the feeling that I wanted to show continuous action. Was is alos associated with passive verbs. She was devastated can be mistakenly changed into She devastated. This changes the meaning and should be avoided. Perhaps I’m not saying anything you don’t know but if this helps just one of my friends then this post will have been worth it.