Authentic portrayal of both genders

[Auden James]

You're not going to be able to make a successful erotic story out of a character whose only trait is that he's rich. It's not interesting enough.

That may be so; still, I'd wager that to pull off a successful erotic romance with a beggar as male protagonist would be, at the least, equally as hard to do.

Besides, I did not mean to say that the Christian Grey character had only one trait going for him; but rather that one particular trait of his worked as the "engine" of fantasy, especially for women readers, without which the fantasy would "break down," so to speak. A trait, incidentally, that he shares with quite a few other romantic heroes, from Fitzwilliam Darcy to Rhett Butler, as you mentioned the latter yourself.

 

[yukonnights]

Hi all

There are resources on this board that have helped me structure edit and post my stories so far, it's a treasure trove!

Would anyone mind sharing techniques, websites etc. that have helped them with character development and dialogue, particularly women writing male characters?

I don't feel I'm doing the boys justice at the moment, it feels very much forced. It sounds crazy since obviously I speak to men all the time and I do listen to what they're saying (honest) but I cannot seem to get my head into male characters and let it flow, if you see what I mean?

I figure that we all go about writing in somewhat unique ways towards the goal of a believable outcome. I do not feel that I have difficulty writing the many flavors of gender — but I may also be deluding myself. So take this with an aspirin or a grain of salt; In general I always have an outline of where I'm going and a vague vision of how it should turn out. For me, I'm mostly watching a movie of my story unfolding in my head as I write. It seems I might be more of a scribe than an author

You say it's hard to impossible to get the male characters in your head and let it flow. I think you really do need to temporarily "be that male" in your mind and it seems the only way to do that is to "become him" based on your story & the character framework / outline. To be honest, this seems easy for me so perhaps I'm suggesting an impossible task for others. Basically, try to see the movie in your mind's eye and fill in the details of the characters as they go about their lives.

Remember that you get to create the male characters in you story and you know generally what kind of men they are. If you want kind and caring — or brutish and coarse, you probably have enough first hand real life experience to craft him. And remember that both males and females come in multitudes of flavors and personality. — thus, there is no "male voice" nor "female voice" we are all somewhat unique. Therefore, you have freedom to create the male who is in your movie.

I know this is pretty vague, but hope it helps a bit.

 

[MillieDynamite]

That may be so; still, I'd wager that to pull off a successful erotic romance with a beggar as male protagonist would be, at the least, equally as hard to do.

Besides, I did not mean to say that the Christian Grey character had only one trait going for him; but rather that one particular trait of his worked as the "engine" of fantasy, especially for women readers, without which the fantasy would "break down," so to speak. A trait, incidentally, that he shares with quite a few other romantic heroes, from Fitzwilliam Darcy to Rhett Butler, as you mentioned the latter yourself.

A large population of straight women are attracted to "bad boys." The reality of how bad a "bad boy" can be is often a shock for them. Abused women comes to my mind. And they consistently pick the same kind of man, going from one abusive relationship to another. Always entering into the new dalliance with firm belief "This time will be different." and it is, until the hitting begins, again.

And it pains me to say, a larger number of lesbian women have the same issues with choosing partners.

 

[NotWise]

A large population of straight women are attracted to "bad boys." The reality of how bad a "bad boy" can be is often a shock for them. Abused women comes to my mind. And they consistently pick the same kind of man, going from one abusive relationship to another. Always entering into the new dalliance with firm belief "This time will be different." and it is, until the hitting begins, again.

And it pains me to say, a larger number of lesbian women have the same issues with choosing partners.

Not the same thing, but both my wife and her contemporary friends, and my two older daughters and their contemporary friends entertained fantasies of picking up cute hitch-hikers, cleaning them up (or not), and making their day.

The younger daughter actually went for a bad boy (a street racer), but broke up with him when he torched a rival racer's car, the garage it was in, and several other nearby cars. She came pretty close to becoming an accessory to the crime.

 

[MillieDynamite]

People with bad intentions or actions affect everyone around them. Many times, those closest to them suffer for the bad actors actions. This can make for great stories, but lousy real lives.

 

[Anthonysdaughter]

In my admittedly limited experience gender means less than socioeconomic status; religious background; level of education; ethical, moral and political beliefs; or geographic local. Within my current circle of lovers the five men and eight other women have far more in common than people who are from different places, with different beliefs, educational levels, degrees of economic freedom, or social status.

And among the fourteen of us are fourteen different personalities, fourteen beautiful souls who appreciate being stroked in different ways. Prototypes exist only in Plato and on the design floor.