30 Days of Fandom Meme: Day 6

[osprey_archer]

6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

I don't think I have a strong preference either way. My fanfic output was almost evenly matched until I fell down the Captain America rabbit hole, which totally threw the balance toward male POV, while my original fiction is mostly in female POV.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think my original fiction is entirely in female POV. When I was writing the coffee shop books I only belatedly realized that the done thing in romance these days is to switch between the hero and heroine's POV, which I think that sucks some of the tension out of the story. Not only is it immediately obvious who the endgame pairing is, but there's absolutely no mystery about how they feel about each other, either.

Romance novels being romance novels, there's never going to be that much mystery, but I think having at least a whiff of it makes for more compelling reading.

Comments

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'm split about 80/20 female/male, and that's probably being a little generous with what I count as a male POV. I'm not sure why that is. Internalized gender essentialism? I hope not.

I haven't read a lot of romance novels, but I think having two POVs can work, if both characters are believably ambivalent or otherwise have good reasons for not doing x or y. And there's still the challenge of "I know what your plan is, author, but can you make it work?"

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

And I think alternating POVs can definitely work, but I'm a little puzzled as to why it became de rigueur. It's not like Jane Eyre would be improved by Rochester POV, say. (Actually that's probably a particularly poor choice. Rochester POV would probably drastically unimprove the book.)

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Actual Rochester POV would probably be a disaster, but I am finding it very funny to imagine.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

In my head, it looks kind of like the Very Secret Diaries.

Tuesday. Rode out on the moors and looked v. brooding today. Got crick in neck trying to look at Thornfield windows to see if someone was looking out to appreciate spectacle.

Wednesday: Think Jane Miss Eyre suspects my vile secret!

[ladyherenya]

This made me laugh.

Also, have you seen this tumblr: http://mredwardrochester.tumblr.com/ ?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I hadn't, but that's hilarious! I'm envisioning someone doing Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester now. Kind of like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, except instead of zombies there are sudden interjections of Rochester's tumblr-speak thoughts.

[ladyherenya]

I'm not fond of the dual POV in genre-romance at all. In fact, it's just occurred to me that is my main issue with genre-romance.

I've been trying for ages to work out why I love some stories with central romances but generally am disappointed, or even bored, by genre-romance. My previous theory was that I enjoy wondering about if and how a romance will unfold, which isn't possible when a happily-ever-after is demanded by the formula. Yet that doesn't explain why I haven't minded - or sometimes, have even liked - knowing that a HEA ending was pretty much guaranteed when it came to authors like Austen or Ibbotson, or Mary Stewart.

As you said, the dual POV removes a lot of mystery - at least when the narrative divides its time equally between two characters - and I think it's that mystery that I'm looking for. Maybe I can better ascertain if a genre-romance is going to be my sort of thing now!

Also, thank you for writing coffee shop romances that didn't go down that route...

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think this is my main issue with genre romance as well, the fact that the narrative is more or less evenly divided between the two characters in such a way that you can see exactly what they're both thinking at all times. Especially when a lot of what they're thinking is "Will s/he ever love me???", because the reader already knows the answer is yes, s/he loves you RIGHT NOW.

Some Austen novels have occasional interjections of the hero's POV - in Pride and Prejudice and IIRC in Emma as well - but they're much briefer and in P&P, at least, it's for dramatic irony. Darcy is thinking about Elizabeth's beautiful eyes while Elizabeth is thinking "YOU JERK, DARCY." It works better for me than mutual pining.

[konstantya.livejournal.com]

I only belatedly realized that the done thing in romance these days is to switch between the hero and heroine's POV

Either that, or to have the story be told from the heroine's first-person POV, which can often be worse if you don't like her internal voice and/or the way she thinks. :/ (Though this seems to be a bit more predominant in erotica and YA, owing--I suspect--to the popularity of 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight. So basically just the popularity of Twilight then, pfft.)

I do think you bring up a good point about how the dual POV can suck some of the tension out of the story, though. I do think getting inside the hero's head has its place, and I want to say I've seen it pulled off well, but yeah, so often it seems to be done because, "Welp, that's just the way romance is done!"--as opposed to any real storytelling reason.

In hindsight, that was one of the things I really liked about your Coffee Shop Romances--how they were only told from the heroine's POV. HEAs are essentially a requirement of the genre, but only having one character's POV does create a bit more mystery, as far as how they'll get to the HEA. I also think it makes the story read a bit more...neatly?--is the word I'm maybe looking for? Tidier? Something like that, at any rate.

(Maybe most of that was redundant, considering everything that was said above, but eh, I was motivated to comment so I did. XP)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I did it as much to keep the number of characters/word count manageable as anything; after all, if the hero's getting POV, he's going to need his own secondary cast too, and he's going to take up almost as many chapters as the heroine, and before you know if you have a proper novel and not a novella at all.

And I think that the difficulty level rises exponentially as stories get longer. I can knock off a novella in a month (if it's a good month), but even if the novel is only twice as long, it's not going to be ready in two months.