by Patricia Bradley, @PTBradley1
Writing from the male POV is more than slapping a beard or mustache on a character. Trust me, I know. It’s easier for me than a lot of women writers because I’ve been told I think like a man.
For example, I drive like a man on a trip—how far can I go in the shortest amount of time. No time for sight-seeing, barely time enough to go to the restroom. Is it no wonder people don’t want me to drive when we travel? And then there’s the times my friends want to vent about something, and all I want to do is give them advice. They don’t want advice—they want me to agree they have a right to be upset.
But sometimes, even I have my men say things only a woman would say. Like the time I had a male character say, “I won’t risk my heart…believe me, I wish I could.” When my agent commented, ‘Boy I wish my husband would say something like that.’, it hit me that a man would NEVER say that. I knew I had to change it. Instead I let the heroine’s best friend accuse the hero of not risking his heart and it worked!
I think authors sometimes write men the way they wished they were, and some readers actually like it. Most don’t though. They want men to be men and women to be better, er women.
So why don’t men think and talk the same way women do? Oh, let me count the ways…(And remember these are generalities…)
- A man’s resting brain is 30% active.
- A woman’s resting brain is 90% active. (We simply can’t turn ours off)
- The male brain is logical.
- The female brain is emotive.
- A man’s brain is like a waffle—lots of little boxes—there’s a TV box (and heaven help the woman or child who tries to talk to him when he’s in that box), a car box, there’s even a box with nothing in it. Ladies, have you ever asked your man what he’s thinking about and he says, ‘nothing.’ He’s in that box.
- A woman’s brain is like spaghetti—everything is connected.
- Men are hardwired to speak about 7000 words a day.
- Women are hardwired to speak about 20,000 words a day, so authors don’t let your hero make long soliloquies!
I’ll be back next month with a few more examples and tips.
Natchez Trace Ranger and historian Emma Winters hoped never to see Sam Ryker again after she broke off her engagement to him. But when shots are fired at her at a historical landmark just off the Natchez Trace, she’s forced to work alongside Sam as the Natchez Trace law enforcement district ranger in the ensuing investigation. To complicate matters, Emma has acquired a delusional secret admirer who is determined to have her as his own. Sam is merely an obstruction, one which must be removed.
Sam knows that he has failed Emma in the past and he doesn’t intend to let her down again. Especially since her life is on the line. As the threads of the investigation cross and tangle with their own personal history, Sam and Emma have a chance to discover the truth, not only about the victim but about what went wrong in their relationship.
Award-winning author Patricia Bradley will have the hairs standing up on the back of your neck with this nail-biting tale of obsession, misunderstanding, and forgiveness.
Patricia Bradley is a Carol finalist and winner of an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award in Suspense, and three anthologies that included her stories debuted on the USA Today Best Seller List. She and her two cats call Northeast Mississippi home–the South is also where she sets most of her books. Her romantic suspense novels include the Logan Point series and the Memphis Cold Case Novels. Obsession, the second book in the Natchez Trace Park Rangers series, released Februrary 2, 2021. She is now hard at work on the third book, Crosshairs.
Writing workshops include American Christian Fiction Writers online courses, workshops at the Mid-South Christian Writer’s Conference, the KenTen Retreat where she was also the keynote, Memphis American Christian Fiction Writer group, and the Bartlett Christian Writers group. When she has time, she likes to throw mud on a wheel and see what happens.