Blog: Writing Romance From the Male Point of View by Michael Baron and a Book Give Away!!
I have always been a guy that gets along better with women than men. It’s not that I don’t like hanging out with men; I have always had a number of male friends. I just prefer the company of women. Many people talk about their spouses as being their best friends. In my case, that was literally true. My wife was my best friend for years before we ever became romantically involved. Therefore, when it came time for me to write my first novel, it seemed entirely natural for me to write one that mostly women would read.
Since I was a kid, I’ve always been fascinated with relationships, with the way people interact with each other, and with the emotions behind these interactions. When I was in high school, my closest friend was a guy I could talk to about these things. Since then, though, I’ve found that I rarely have these conversations with men. I’m not saying this to promote the tired clichÈ that most men don’t like to talk about their feelings. That isn’t true; they just like to talk about different feelings. No, not football (well, not just football). I’ve had great conversations with men about what we’re doing with our lives, about the passage of time, about dreams for our kids. About the emotional interplay between human beings? Not so much.
I knew that writing my first novel, When You Went Away, as well as its immediate follow-ups, Crossing the Bridge and The Journey Home, was going to put me in a world where most of my fellows weren’t, well, fellows. Not only is this not an issue for me, it’s actually a tremendous amount of fun. I’ve been to romance conventions where I’ve been the only male in the room. It’s difficult for me to imagine a scenario where that would be a bad thing. At these conventions, and at other places where I’ve talked about my work, I’ve gotten into fascinating conversations with women interested in the perspective I’ve chosen to take. I know other men write romantic novels; few, however, seem willing to write then from the viewpoint of a man.
It was important to me in writing these novels that I not try to present them as the models for how every man thinks. That would have been profoundly silly. What I did instead was try to write with as much honesty as I could about the situations my characters were going through. Since both When You Went Away and Crossing the Bridge are first-person novels with a male narrator, that meant offering a distinctly male point of view. I don’t know how many other men will agree with this perspective, and I doubt that I’ll ever have enough male readers to gain much of a consensus. As to what women think about this, well the jury is still out. Perhaps readers here will offer me some thoughts. Regardless, though, I’m in a place that feels very comfortable to me.
http://www.michaelbaronbooks.com/
To enter to win a copy of Michael Baron’s latest novel WHEN YOU WENT AWAY, simply comment or leave a question for Mr. Baron. A winner will be chosen randomly on November 14. The odds of winning depend on the participants. Void where prohibited.
Terry Odell said:
I’m always impressed when a man can write a woman’s POV well. I know I work to get my male POV “accurate”, and have been told I do it well, but I think I’ve still got the luxury of a primarily female readership, so feeling ‘right’ to them isn’t quite the same as nailing it. (I do have hubby read all my male POV scenes, though).
Men and women are hard-wired differently. Neither is ‘right’ or ‘better’, but we’re still working with hardware designed in the days of the cave man.
Early on in my writing, I started reading male authors who wrote female characters. Some got it. Some were laughable (although they laugh all the way to the bank, I’m sure)
Harlan Coben does an excellent job of tapping into the emotional side of things. I was talking with Barry Eisler at RT and we were discussing whether a reader could do a ‘blind’ read of a sex scene and determine whether it was written by a male or female. I think you can — not with 100% accuracy, but probably well beyond what the 50-50 law of averages would predict.
Beth R said:
Wow I think that is awesome that you feel very comfortable in the place that you are in.
Martha Lawson said:
This was a very interesting post. The book sounds really good and i can’t wait to read it. Maybe I’ll get lucky and win a copy..
Carol Burge said:
Wow, how interesting! I’ve always been interested in the way men think. Fascinating!
MarthaE said:
I appreciate your blog comments and have read good reviews on the book! I’m curious – you said “when it came time for me to write….”. WHAT made you decide to write a book??
Thanks.
Sasha M. said:
Oh, I’d love to read this book. Please put my name in the hat.
Mitz said:
Great post, I think it’s wonderful when a man can express his feelings this way. I bet you and your wife have a very loving and understanding relationship. I don’t see anything wrong with a male writing womens books if he knows what he’s doing and it sounds like you do i think its great. This book sounds wonderful and I’d love to read it so count me in on this contest. When did you start writing this type of books Michael? How many have you wrote so far?
Michael B. said:
Thanks for the comments. I’m glad you found the post interesting. In terms of what made me decide to write this kind of novel, I’d been publishing nonfiction for a while and I felt there were things I wanted to say that I could never say in that forum. When I decided to write fiction, they just started pouring out of me. WHEN YOU WENT AWAY is my first, my second, CROSSING THE BRIDGE comes in January, and my third, THE JOURNEY HOME comes in May. I think I’ve been storing this up for a long time. It’s nice to finally be able to put this out there.
K. Rivers said:
i think it is a great thing when men write in the romance or erotica world. frankly its not done enough nor are there enough male readers of the genre for that matter. for some reason men think that its just fluff or there is nothing in it for them. my hubby says its written mostly by women, there for more womem read what they want. i love reading books by men in the romance/eroitca mostly because it is written by a man and i read with facination seeing how a man sees a woman in the relationship and making love. i also think the the sensual scenes can be more raw, grittier, stripped down to just the basics of human nature mixed in with i love you, and this is my love for you as a man. and so yes i think that more men should write and stand where we can see you. im not into first person, but i am willing to give you a try, just because….congrats to you and i hope to see more from you….
RobynL said:
hi and welcome; I found this very interesting and kudos to you and congrats on being a published author. I’d love to read your work.
Terri W. said:
Hi Michael,
That was a very interesting post!
This is a book I would love to read!
Thanks for the great giveaway!
Donna said:
Yay and congrats to our winner Sasha! Michael will be sending you a copy of WHEN YOU WENT AWAY as soon as you send me your snail mail addy!