I was a boy crazy fiend as a teenager and I have many journals to prove it. I won’t embarrass myself by revealing any of the content here, although I shudder just thinking about what a total psycho I was when it came to boys. I constantly tried to figure out what they were thinking. Does he like me or not? I over analyzed the way a boy looked at me or his tone of voice when he said hi. As I look back at my relationships over my teenage and young adult years, clearly, I did not have a handle on how boys think.
Now that my son is fifteen it’s been quite interesting to watch the other side of the gender. Last week he caught a girl writing his name in hearts. He told me it totally creeped him out. All I could think of was, I wrote guys names in hearts, did I creep guys out?
After reading through my journals, I probably did.
Most YA books are told from the girl’s perspective. What I wonder is do I have an accurate account of how the guy would act in a relationship. I just read through my journal when I started dating my husband and there were many ups and downs. The whole time I kept wondering what he was thinking. Sometimes I still wonder that. I’m hoping that by having a son whose entering those teenage years, I can get a glimpse that will give me a heads up on my male characters, which will come in handy as my next book is told from a male’s POV.
Is your MC male or female and if male what are you doing to make sure you create an accurate depiction of the male psyche?
12 comments:
It's easy to write from the male pov. Just think sex sex sex while you write. :D
Oh, I will never understand guys. My first book is from the POV of a girl and a boy. One of my CPs helped me hone him in so he seemed more like a guy. It was helpful to create guy sub-characters in that book as well as in my second book and WIP.
I don't think accuracy is all that important in YA books because all that matters is that it's accurate and fits with what girls want of their boys (since girls are the ones buying them). People don't want real life. They want the imaginary one. It's so much better.
I have three sons--two grown and one almost seventeen. The best compliment I got was from one of their friends who said he felt I "got them right" in my novels.
Love Stina's advice. I look at my male characters as people instead of guys. I think if we try too hard it comes across forced.
Oh my gosh! I was a total boy-crazed nut-job. It's SO embarrassing. I should just ditch all those stupid journals. :P
I have such admiration for the author who can write convincingly as the opposite sex. Thinking about it I have known several women write as if they were boys but can't think of one male author who wrote as if they were that female character.
I wonder this too. In fact at the last meeting, someone who critiqued my first 2 chapters said they pictured my MC as a girl not a boy for some reason. That threw me a bit, but I think it's good that it will force me to look at the MC a bit more and figure out if I'm doing something that doesn't come off as male, you know?
Well, Let me see here. Six boys, one girl. Yup. Got it all covered in my writing. *wink* That is funny about your son being creeped out. I bet the girl was HORRIFIED that he caught her doing that. Can you imagine? Miss you and love you woman!
I think your son might help you approach things from a young man's point of view. It's a tricky thing looking at feelings from both sides.
Interesting post. Hmm, also a writer of boys names in hearts, in fact I think I took the whole thing to a totally new level.
It seems to me that female authors generally do ok getting into the psyche of male characters, not so successful are male authors writing from a girls point of view.
My main characters always seem to be female. I don't think I could do a boy's pov. Hum. Maybe I should try. ;)
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