Q&A Friday
What a great week of blogs relating to fathers! Many of us write heroes who are fathers. Many of us write heroes who haven't yet produced any progeny. I think all of us noodlers would agree that we want our male characters to sound like men. So today's question deals with dialogue.
How does dialogue differ for male characters? What do you do as a writer that ensures that your hero speaks in a realistic way? What writers do you think do a good job in creating heroes with dialogue that rings true?
Labels: dialogue and heroes
posted by Mo H @ 7:12 AM
5 Comments:
I've been told I write good male POV characters. Suzanne Brockmann does an excellent job with her 'guys.' I think it's important to remember there's a different hard wiring in the XX and XY sets.
I recently read a book where they guys all had alpha professions, but they talked like women. Poured their emotional hearts out to each other, asked for advice. Not 'manly'. Guys don't do that.
Also, guys probably use 1 word for every 100 a woman says. They don't 'qualify' or 'suggest'. They just 'say'.
Yesterday I was reading the previous day's output, and I realized my protagonist, a police chief, was asking his assistant to send another cop to the scene. I cut out the "Would you send an officer..." and had him say "Send an officer..."
Tracy Montoya did an excellent workshop on he said/she said. I usually glom onto workshops that explore the differences, and I also run my guy POV scenes past XY readers.
I absolutely agree with all you said, Terry!
Men speak in as few words as possible, even my Regency men. That's my guideline!
Terry,
You are so right. I recently cut a "monologue" of a male character and thought "What was I thinking??" Yup, they say what they have to say with fewer words.
Mo - I posted my workshop notes about "his brain/her brain" on my blog last September. Very interesting stuff. Speech and language was part 2 of my series.
Lots of mockery. I grew up with a lot of guys. They don't tend to hold anything sacred.
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