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My writing tends to focus on the male characters a lot. Not
sure why that is. Maybe it’s because they’re the ones that I find most
interesting and most different from me. Let’s face it; while my female
characters are not me, I can definitely relate to them. Without coming across
as too sexist or stereotypical, I can use myself as an example of how a woman
would react in certain situations. I can also use myself as the means to figure
out a character who would act in direct opposition to me.
But the male characters are a little trickier, especially
when it comes to how they think. I have no siblings, so I don’t have a brother
I can refer to. I have plenty of male friends, but I don’t think I could face
any of them ever again if I based any of my characters on them. Therefore, I
tend to ask my husband a lot of questions.
Most of the conversations between my husband and I have to
do with what a man would notice first, or how he would talk on the phone
I remember one scene I was writing for A Heart of Little
Faith had to do with a dream sequence that would repeat itself throughout the
book. The hero was the one having the dream. Well, I know how I dream and could
probably come up with a convincing dream for a woman, but I wanted to make sure
the dream worked for a man. Or at least that the reader could potentially think
that a man had this dream. So I ran it by my husband, tweaked it a bit, and
hoped it would work.
Perspective is important because it’s what enables the
writer to bring the characters alive. If all of my characters sound like me,
that’s going to be one boring, one-dimensional story. What methods do you use
to gain perspective?
I have to reply on my imagination! Not having a husband, or any close male friends to ask any questions related to male thinking, I'm thrown back on my own resources. But someone emailed me this afternoon to say that my hero and heroine in Fragrance of Violets were "well-defined and fleshed out", so my imagination must be getting something right somewhere!
ReplyDeletePaula, one of my favorite authors (Lynn Kurland)uses her old boyfriends as inspiration for all her villains. I always thought that was so funny!
ReplyDeleteHmm, I may have based some of my more unpleasant secondary characters on ex-colleagues I didn't much like! My heroes tend to be amalgam of actors I like, not necessarily in looks, but how I'd imagine them playing the part!
ReplyDeleteMy heroes tend to be based on an actor or character from a show that I like--at least, they provide the starting point. Then I shape him until he works.
ReplyDeleteThink I work the other way round - I start off with my own imagination and then fit an actor or character to what I've imagined, and that helps to bring my character alive.
ReplyDeleteOh, I start with the actor because then at least I have a visual. Love the way different people work!
ReplyDeleteYep, we're all different. I can see my characters in my mind right from the start, then I may see someone on TV and think 'That's Jess' or, as happened on one case, when I saw a poster in a shop in Dublin. I immediately knew the two models (advertising Guinness sweatshirts!) were exactly as I'd pictured Jack and Abbey in Fragrance (and that happened several months after the novel had been accepted).
ReplyDeleteOkay, that's really cool!
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteHmn?... I do tend to use movie actors for inspiration for the looks of my heroes, but not the personalities. I never thought of asking my hubby and/or male friends if what my hero is saying and doing makes sense.
I may need to try that at some point!
From a writer's perspective, I do tend to think of my stories overall as either the hero's story or the heroine's. At this point I think I'm split half and half for the stories I've written. Even though they do include both POVs...and even when it's the hero's story I tend to stay in the heroine's POV most often.
I create a profile of my male characters with a horoscope, then the rest is my imagination. I'm like Debra, in that I stay in my heroine's POV most often.
ReplyDeleteHoroscope creation sounds fascinating! I never think about astrology traits! In fact, I don't think I know when my main characters' birthdays actually fall, I've never had a birthday celebation for them in any of my novels!
ReplyDeleteHaving done my early writing at a time when heroine POV was all that was allowed (by M&B/HQN), I'm now getting more used to going into hero POV, but it doesn't come naturally to me. Sometimes I consciously have to think 'Oops, need a bit of hero's POV somewhere' and then have to work out when best to introduce it.
Debra, and just think of what you can do in the name of "research!" ;)
ReplyDeleteAna, the horoscope sounds intriguing. I don't know anything about horoscopes other than what they used to publish in the newspaper. I bet creating a character profile from them would be interesting!
Debra, Ana and Paula, I think I tend to do about 50/50 when it comes to hero/heroine POV. I just read a romance written by a guy and you could definitely tell that it was not written by a woman (not that it was bad, although not one of my favorites--way too much tell and not enough show).